Session: Engaging Learners Through Team Field Work Projects
I loved Carol L. Romett’s session about projects. I can take the same approach she used with university level students and apply it to public school-age children or their parents, both ESOL and not, and will maybe even have students and parents work on it together.

Professor Romett picked out specific destinations in her and her students’ geographic area that would be of interest or meaning to her students, and then gave them some specific but open-ended tasks to do. The main objective was for them to communicate with the people at their specific destinations in order to learn more about the place and then give a class presentation about it. Just think of all the forms of communication and technology the students would utilize to do this! The students' presentations of their projects would not only be interesting for anyone in the area, but the experience for the students would be highly meaningful and empowering.

Linary Kingdon
AchieveGreaterSuccess.org

Session: Now Presenting: Academic Readiness Projects to Engage Adult Learners
This session, presented by Jennifer E. Bell, Elizabeth Minicz, Kathryn Powell, and Lydia Omori really stood out to me. The presentation was interesting and useful, and the presenters showed videos of their students as examples of students making presentations.  The most valuable part of the session was the Toolkit which contained the presentation templates, Tips for Great Presentations, and sample rubrics for evaluating.

The presenters showed us how to use the presentation templates in an ESL class from beginning level students doing basic presentations to advanced level students doing researched presentations with clip art and PowerPoint. The handout included a step-by-step procedure, from the teacher’s role (including guided practice), to the expectations of the student, to evaluation and feedback. 

I feel this presentation idea is an effective method of teaching all four language skills, particularly for the open-enrollment classes which I teach.  New students, as they join the class, can watch presentations by current students and can begin to create their own presentation for a later time. Presentations increase students’ self-confidence and help prepare them for transitioning to academic and employment situations. After returning to my adult ESOL program, I shared the information that I learned from this session. Thank you to the presenters!

Barbara Wookey
Delaware Area Career Center
Delaware, Ohio USA

Session: Effective Academic Intervention With Arabic Speaking English Language Learners
I attended this session and found it extremely helpful for our IEP. The studies they did in their own learning centers concluded that Saudi students needed help with learning and gaining basic study skills, visual tracking practice for quick and effective reading and comprehension and for us to emphasize meta-cognition. They suggested that we:

• have a special workshop covering the study skills and expectations we have for the students;
• encourage students to work on handwriting and visual tracking, which could really help their learning because many of our Saudi students don't begin studying English until middle or even high school, so they never learn to properly form the letters and that causes reading and writing problems; and
• try using “exit tickets” or “minute papers” encouraging the students to self-reflect about what they learned in class that day, and “exam wrappers” have the students acknowledge where they did well and where they could use further improvement after an exam.

Mindy B. Young
Southern Utah University
Cedar City, Utah, USA
eslartsadvantage.com

Peer Observation Procedures
The most interesting idea was related to peer observation processes and the pros and cons of such procedures. It was interesting to me that such a scenario that normally is viewed as positive for professional development and growth could also be experienced negatively. The fact that without careful planning and organization such an important process can bring negative feelings made me consider and analyze how we are developing it at our University in Honduras and it made me interested in researching more about the perspectives of our own staff related to the process.

Grazzia María Mendoza
Zamorano University
Honduras

Session: Initiatives to Promote Student Success at University-Based IEPs
I enrolled in the Leadership curriculum and learned many helpful things across the series of workshops.  But the single most helpful event was "Initiatives to Promote Student Success at University-Based IEPs."  The role of retention models within an IEP, while not foreign, had never been so clearly or forcefully presented.  It will change the way we operate our English Language Programs.

William G. Trudeau
Ohio Northern University
Ada, Ohio, USA

Session: Picturing Writing: An Innovative Approach to Teaching English Language Learners
There were only a couple of sessions that applied to preschool at the conference this year, but I attended one session about a teaching strategy that really impressed me. Although the presenter specializes in K–5, I know this would make a great contribution to preschool programs that include children who speak a variety of languages. The session was presented by Beth Olshansky based on her work using art to teach writing to diverse learners. 

What impressed me most about the presentation was that Olshansky engaged the audience in the same process she uses with young students by asking us to react to a piece of art and then talk about the vocabulary that unfolded from that free flowing experience. It was a simple activity, but the difference was in how she managed it. There was time to think and experience our feelings about what was happening in the art rather than a quick demand for a sentence or a vocabulary word. Taking this time resulted in a more thoughtful experience for the audience and a better understanding of how this process could work with the children. The presenter also showed a video of the young students engaging in this process and the whole session came together with clear focus, great information, and real impact. You can learn more about her approach at her website. 

Karen Nemeth
Language Castle LLC
Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA

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