GATESOL News www.gatesol.org
Spring 2010
From the President
The 2010 Beverly Benson Travel Grant Report
Dr. Ayanna Cooper, GATESOL President 2009-2010 Greetings Georgia TESOL members, This is a wonderful time to share news with each other as another school year quickly comes to an end. As the current president of Georgia TESOL, my initiatives have been to encourage collaboration among members, strengthen our contacts throughout the state and, most importantly, be a personal example of reaching beyond our current borders. I had the opportunity in March to visit the ELLIS Preparatory Academy in the Bronx, NY. -which is a high school for newcomers and those with interrupted formal education. I got a chance to meet so many students and observe several classes. I was amazed by the students’ attention and sense of pride instilled in them by their teachers. The students were working in collaborative groups, speaking multiple languages and fully engaged in their assignments. That visit continued on page 2
INSIDE THIS ISSUE 1
President's Letter Beyond Borders
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Beverly Benson Grant Report Karen Harris shares her insights from Boston TESOL
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GATESOL Welcomes New Members Andrea Chavez and Rena Gill talk about why they became new members
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Karen P. Harris, Ph.D. CCC-SLP
As the 2010 recipient of the Beverly Benson Travel Grant, I was privileged to attend the 44th Annual TESOL Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. The primary purpose of this trip was to receive professional development on best practices and cutting edge information gained from the scheduled 2010 seminars and presentations and use the knowledge to further enhance my grant initiative, Project Servicing English Language Learners (SELL). Project SELL focuses on the assessment and intervention practices of school-based speechlanguage pathologists when working with English language learners in the K-12 setting in the following ways: •
The Trip of a Lifetime Janis Rone highlights her experience with students in DC
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Workshops and Conferences
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Well Done!
Further develop “think tank” agenda and training opportunities based on best practices and cutting edge information
Members share news of accomplishments 8
GATESOL Interest Sections continued on page 2 Newsletter 1
President's Letter continued from page 1
Benson Travel Grant Report continued from page 1
gained from International TESOL’s scheduled 2010 seminars and presentations.
rejuvenated me beyond belief to continue advocating
for English learners. There is no doubt in my mind that what they can do provided the right environment, teachers and internal motivation. Pictures of my visit are provided below. By increasing our Regional Liaisons, restructuring our Interest Sections and inviting a TESOL affiliate leader to present at our conference in October, these areas have been addressed. Now is the time to take full advantage of these exciting opportunities.
•
Establish networking/collaboration opportunities for obtaining grant funds, mentorship, and potential “think tank” keynote speakers.
There is a call for culturally competent practice in response to the rapidly changing U.S. population. According to TESOL’s Position Statement on identifying English language learners with special needs, “Identifying English learners with special needs is a complex and difficult process, for when the differences between disabilities and second language acquisition are not clearly understood, one could be mistaken for the other. As a result, English language learners could incorrectly be identified with disabilities. Conversely, disabilities can sometimes not be recognized in English learners. In either case, these students will suffer from not receiving appropriate services.” (2007 p. 1)
Pictured above are Ellis students in science class.
Pictured left to right are Tuka N., ELLIS student and Ayanna Cooper.
Regional Liaisons In November, the board approved a motion to increase the number of Regional Liaisons. Prior to the vote there were 5 liaisons; now there are 8, and two of the regions remain vacant at this time. The Regional Liaisons are such a vital part of the board that we wanted to assure we had a wide range of representatives across the state. Regional Liaisons are appointed for 2 years by the current president. I am honored to have 6 dedicated professionals serving as Regional Liasons.
In addition to teachers, a current challenge for school-based speech-language pathologists is to meet the needs of a diverse student population. There is a call for culturally competent practice in response to the rapidly changing U.S. population. As the director of Project SELL, I plan to aid colleagues, fellow speech-language pathologists in meeting this challenge by providing technical assistance via “think tank” workshops and coaching. By attending the 2010 TESOL Convention, I have gained knowledge in the following areas: (1) Response to Intervention (RTI) and ELLs; (2) Progress monitoring and assessment, specifically; (3) Enhancing collaboration between Title I and Title III administrators, as well among professionals at the school level; and
Continued on page 3 Newsletter 2
Continued on page 3
President's Letter continued from page 2
Benson Travel Grant Report continued from page 2
Join me in welcoming new Regional Liaisons Meg Baker, Maria Montalvo, Jackie Rose, Tammy Love and Karen Harris. Rosetta Coyne is serving her 2nd year as a Regional Liaison. I encourage you to contact your Regional Liaison if you have ideas for supporting your area. More detailed information about Regional Liaisons and the map used to define the regions can be found on our website. Interest Sections In February, the executive board approved a motion to eliminate the interest sections with a low number of members. We now have 13 vibrant Interest Sections to choose from. We are preparing for a networking “lunch & learn” at the conference for Interest Section members to meet and begin discussing needs for their particular area. If you haven’t joined an Interest Section yet, email the contact person listed beside the IS you are interested in joining and you will be contacted prior to the conference. We at Georgia TESOL are dedicated to supporting our new IS and are anxious to receive news, highlights and information about topics pertinent to various aspects of ESL teaching and learning. Sponsoring a TESOL Affiliate At the International TESOL conference in Boston, I had the pleasure of meeting Jean Francois Vilmenay, Haiti TESOL Affiliate Leader, at the Leadership Mentoring Award breakfast for recipients. He will be joining us at our annual conference as a featured speaker. Francois is already looking forward to his visit to Atlanta, Georgia. He will provide insight to us about the state of ESL teaching and learning in his country. We are so grateful for his ability to join us in October and represent leaders in the field of TESOL who are resilient and courageous. . Beyond Borders Like my visit to ELLIS Preparatory Academy, I hope you find ways to revitalize your interest in ESL teaching and learning. I have for sure! By visiting a classroom or two, attending conferences, or reading and writing publications related to our field, you could find or confirm what interests you and then share it with others.
(4) Characteristics of effective professional development. Additionally, I have established partnerships with individuals willing to serve as grant consultants and think tank presenters. I am grateful to the Beverly Benson Travel Grant award committee, President Cooper, and the GATESOL board for this incredible opportunity. I look forward to presenting information on Project SELL at future GATESOL conferences and writing journal articles once it receives funding for implementation.
GATESOL Welcomes New Members
Pictured left to right are: Andrea Chavez and Rena Gill, who are both teachers at Eastside Elementary School in Douglasville and recently joined Georgia TESOL.
Chavez joined Georgia TESOL because she thought it was a good way for connecting with other ESOL teachers to exchange ideas and offer support with her ELL students. Chavez, a 25year-old mother from Newnan, has a degree in the Holistic Child from Mercer University. She taught kindergarten for two years at Eastside and is currently teaching first grade there. Gill, who teaches kindergarten, recently completed ESOL endorsement courses because she knew it would help her ESOL students. According to Gill, she joined Georgia TESOL because she “wanted to be a part of the positive change that is taking place in the teaching of ESOL students.”
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Member Snapshots AROUND TOWN
Pictured left to right are State Superintendent Kathy Cox and GATESOL President Ayanna Cooper.
BOSTON TESOL 2010
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Pictured left to right are: Celeste Hentz-Gilmore, ESOL School Improvement Specialist and Alecia Leake, Lead ESOL teacher who provides intensive instruction to K-5 students through the use of the multi-media resource lab at Lake Ridge Elementary School in Clayton County.
Pictured left to right are: Sadraque Vincente, 2010 TESOL Leadership Mentoring Program Award Recipient, Ayanna Cooper, GATESOL President and 2008 LMP Recipient, TESOL Immediate Past President Mark S. Algren, and Current TESOL President Brock Brady.
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The Trip of a Lifetime for Three ESOL Students
Smithsonian to visit the other museums. That evening we went to the WWII Memorial for a tour and then to the top of the Arts Center to experience a night view of DC which was absolutely gorgeous.
Janis Rone, Fifth Grade EIP Teacher On April 28, 2010, Powders Springs Elementary School fifth grade students embarked on a field trip like no other. We left for Washington DC escorted by the PSE police! Because of the support of Georgia TESOL, three ESOL children got to experience this once in a lifetime trip.
Pictured above is Mariana (second from the left).
The group-plus one very excited to be in DC.
We hit the ground running on the first day, unloaded the buses and headed straight for the Newseum. There we browsed through thousands of paper headlines from our past and saw everything from parts of the Berlin Wall to a piece of 9/11. Next, we were off to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, and the Iwo Jima Memorial.
The last day of touring took us to the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and of course the White House! All of the students toured the White House and thought it was the best thing they had done. We then visited the Korean and Vietnam Memorial and then the Holocaust Memorial and toured Daniel's Story which brought to life what I had taught them in school. We left Saturday evening, to return to GA, with the children wanting to stay longer!
Pictured above is Monica at the Vietnam Memorial.
Pictured above are the students in front of Iwo Jima.
The next day was packed with more to see....the Jefferson Memorial, FDR and back to the
I can only tell you we had the BEST time! The children that Georgia TESOL supported said they will remember this trip all of their lives, and wanted to express their gratefulness for supporting them and giving them the opportunity to go on this trip. The generosity of Georgia TESOL brought tears of joy to the parents as well for being able to see their children experience such a wonderful trip.
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Workshops 2010 Adult ESL Teacher Training Workshops These workshops are for new or volunteer teachers who teach ESL to adult immigrants, professional adult ESL teachers who are new to the field and experienced adult ESL teachers looking for additional training.
their own positions on them. Questions such as: whether pronunciation need to be deliberately taught or not; what accent of the target language should serve as a model, or whether it is permissible to present mixed accents; can/should the non-native teacher serve as a model for target language and others will be discussed. Saturday, October 23: Managing a Multi-Level Class Because few adult ESL programs have the resources to offer several classes for students at different proficiency levels, teachers often find that they are asked to teach English to beginning, intermediate and advanced learners at the same time in the same class. In this workshop, participants will look at the factors that make up the multi-level class, the issues it creates for the teachers and strategies for effectively teaching a multi-level class.
Location: Latin American Association, 2750 Buford Hwy.(on Buford Hwy between Lenox Rd. and N. Druid Hills Rd.) New Time: 9:30 am to 12:30 pm Cost: Free Workshop Descriptions: Saturday, June 26: Adult ESL Teaching 101: The Basics
Conferences
Are you new to ESL teaching and don’t know where to begin? This workshop will present the basic concepts, approaches and methods related to teaching ESL to adults. Specific types of lesson plans and activities will be presented. Saturday, July 24: Materials Development and Adaptation This workshop will look at the factors to consider when creating materials for an ESL class, as well as criteria for evaluating published materials. Examples of created materials will be examined. And because no materials are perfect, participants will also look at ways to adapt existing materials to best meet their goals. Saturday, Aug. 21: Presentations, explanations and practice activities in the Adult ESL classroom The process of teaching a foreign language is a complex one as with many other subjects. It has to be broken down into three components: (1) presenting and explaining new material; (2) providing practice; and (3) testing. In fact, the teaching processes of presenting, practicing and testing correspond to strategies used by many good learners trying to acquire a foreign language on their own. However, in the classroom, it is the teacher’s responsibility to promote these three learning processes by the use of appropriate teaching techniques. In this workshop we will look at how effective presentation, explanation and organized language practice can contribute to successful language learning. Saturday, Sept. 25: Teaching Pronunciation In this workshop we will look at some controversial issues connected with the teaching of pronunciation. Participants will have the opportunity to examine various tasks and state
June 11-12 The Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL at Georgia State University is sponsoring the 6th Annual Conference on Intercultural Rhetoric and Discourse on June 11 and 12. The speakers include Suresh Canagarajah, Ulla Connor, Paul Matsuda, Dwight Atkinson, Guillaume Gentil, and Eric Friginal. Individual papers and colloquium will be presented on topics such as Cross-cultural pragmatics, Cross-cultural spoken and written discourse, Language- and culture-specific studies, Teaching and classroom practices, Theoretical and empirical investigations and Writing in school, college, and the professions. Please visit: http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/alesl/conference/index.html or contact Gayle Nelson at gaylenelson@gsu.edu for more information.
21st Century Leaders is a non-profit organization with the mission to inspire the next generation of Georgia leaders by empowering high school students with essential business and community leadership skills through programs connecting a diverse group of enthusiastic peers and passionate professionals. Through several intense, one-week summer programs on college campuses, two national service day events, and two major leadership events during the year, 21st Century Leaders’ students gain the leadership skills needed to succeed in the college and professional world. Please visit our website, www.21stcenturyleaders.org, to find out more about the programs we offer!
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Well Done! Congratulations to Dr. Dell Perry Giles for successfully defending her dissertation entitled, “Unchartered” Territory: An Autoethnographic Perspective on Establishing Georgia’s First Public Two-Way Immersion School—Spring 2010. Her dissertation focuses on the study of opening a public bilingual school. She received a PH.D in Language and Literacy Education from the University of Georgia.
This year's winners of the Georgia TESOL PreK 12 Grants are: Janis Rone, Bridget Bach and Annette Sayles. Rone, a 5th grade teacher at Powder Springs Elementary, Cobb County Schools used the funds to support ESOL students to go on a 5th grade field trip to Washington, D.C. Please see her article on page five entitled "The Trip of a Lifetime for Three ESOL Students". Bach and Sayles, ESOL teachers at Bethlehem Elementary, Barrow County Schools, will use funds to purchase bilingual resources for students and their families to use at home.
The winner of the 2010 Peru TESOL Conference Travel Grant is Sharon Cavusgil, ESL Director and Senior Lecturer, ESL Program in the Department of Applied Linguistics & ESL at Georgia State University. Cavusgil will have the opportunity to promote cross-cultural understanding and the sharing of resources between Georgia TESOL and Peru TESOL.
EDITOR'S NOTES Dear GATESOL Members, It is a pleasure to serve as the new GATESOL newsletter editor. It has been an exciting year so far. I would like to tell you a little about myself. I have taught ESL in higher education for several years, with part of that experience was at colleges and universities overseas. One of my current interests is focusing on strategies for teaching vocabulary and the use of role plays. In my "pre-ESL" years, I worked in public relations for non-profit organizations and assisted with, and edited newsletters, quarterly journals and committee reports. I really enjoy writing class materials, editing and working on newsletters, so this seems like the perfect way for me to become more involved in Georgia TESOL and to do something that really interests me. I look forward to receiving your contributions to the newsletter. We welcome submissions including the following: articles, photos, news of accomplishments, and workshop/conference information.
Congratulations to all our winners! Have a great summer! Send news of your TESOL-related accomplishments, awards, publications, presentations and success stories to gatesol@yahoo.com. Please place GATESOL Newsletter in the subject line of your email.
Karen Shock, Editor
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Georgia TESOL Interest Sections
English as a Foreign Language (EFL)—facilitates exchanges on global and specific EFL/ESL issues and brings together professionals who have had or intend to have EFL/ESL experiences in different countries. Contact person: Paula Mellom at pjmellom@uga.edu
The Georgia TESOL interest sections have been revised, reimaged and revamped to offer our members collaboration
Intensive English Programs (IEP)-- focuses on language
at its best. We now have thirteen Interest Sections to choose
issues of primary nonnative speakers who need or want to
from along with the name and email addresses of Interest
acquire English in a relatively brief but intensive period.
Section leaders. If you would like to become more involved
Contact Person: vacant
with Georgia TESOL through an Interest Section or two, feel free to send an email to the contact person or to gatesol@yahoo.com. We have exciting events planned to
Intercultural Communication (IC)-- promotes
allow you to meet and share news and ideas with
intercultural awareness and respect for all cultures and
colleagues. Become involved with a Georgia TESOL
provides a clearly defined forum to bring together educators
interest section today!
and scholars whose interests lie in intercultural communication, particularly in the context of Englishlanguage classes. Contact Person: Chang Pu at
Adult Education (AE)-- brings together the knowledge,
pu.chang@gmail.com
precepts, and skills of two distinct but compatible areas: Adult Education and English as a Second Language. ESL in Higher Education (HE)-- promotes recognition of
Contact Person: vacant
ESL as an established academic discipline, professional standards and practices, and professional employment Applied Linguistics (AL)-- applies research and theory to
conditions and provides a forum to exchange views and
real-world contexts and explores implications for
research as well as expertise to TESOL and other
enhancement of language learning and communication.
associations, institutions, and agencies. Contact Person:
Contact Person: Chang Pu at pu.chang@gmail.com
Karen Shock at kshock1@yahoo.com
Bilingual Education (BE)-- supports and promotes primary
Program Administration (PA)-- addresses special needs of
(native) language literacy as fundamental to acquisition of
ESL program administrators at all levels and provides a
English as a second or foreign language. Contact Person:
forum for strengthening managerial and leadership skills.
Dell Giles at dellperry@gmail.com
Contact Person: vacant
Elementary Education (EE)-- fosters recognition of ESOL
Second Language Writing (SLW)-- provides a forum for
as an academic discipline in elementary education,
researchers and educators to discuss and exchange
advocates for elementary ESOL and teacher training, and
information in the area of second language writing. Contact
encourages development of useful materials.
Person: vacant
Contact Persons: Ayanna Cooper at rarb4@msn.com or Cherrilyn Woods-Washington at clwoods72@hotmail.com continued on page 9
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Interest Sections continued from page 8
Secondary Schools (SS)-- facilitates exchange of information and expertise among secondary teachers and administrators. Contact Person: Kelly Lamb at KLamb@forsyth.k12.ga.us
Grants/Awards Still Available ¾ Lindy Lopez-Butner Memorial Grant (up to $1,000)
SocioPolitical Concerns (SPC)-- provides a forum for
Deadline: September 1, 2010
researchers and educators to discuss and disseminate information on matters socially and/or politically related to TESOL. For a recent article in our newsletter regarding the 287(g) program and racial profiling, please see the Winter 2009 GATESOL News. Contact Person: Tonna Harris-
¾ Beverly Benson Travel Grant (up to $1,500) Deadline: December 30, 2010
Bosselmann at thbosselmann@gsc.edu
¾ John Stowe Memorial Grant (up to $2,000) Teacher Education (TE)--provides a forum for those interested in ESOL teacher education and fosters policies to
Deadline: TBA
improve employment and learning conditions for teachers
¾ GATESOL Professional Service Award and the Youth Service Award. If you would like to nominate someone to receive one of these awards, email gatesol@yahoo.com with the subject line: GATESOL Awards
and students. Contact Person: Karen Kuhel at kkuhel@comcast.net
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
Are you interested in serving on the Executive Board of Georgia TESOL? Now is the time to submit your name and bio for consideration. The following executive board positions will be available for 2010:
1st Vice President (Conference Chair) 1yr. Term 2nd Vice President (Membership) 1yr. Term Secretary 1yr. Term Treasurer 1yr. Term Member-at-large (4 positions) 2yr. Terms
If you have questions or would like further information, e-mail: gatesol@yahoo.com with the subject line: GATESOL Executive Board Positions
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¾ GATESOL Member Project/Professional Development Grant II: Adult/Higher Education (up to $1,000) Deadline: September 1, 2010 For application details, including the link to submit applications, see the attachments on the website. Two winners will be selected.
Visit the Grants & Awards page of our website for submission details..
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