Dear SLWIS Community,

I hope this message finds you well and looking forward to the TESOL 2017 International Convention in Seattle! This year’s convention promises to be one full of informative, interesting, and varied sessions, and it offers a chance to reconnect with friends and meet new people with similar interests. If you will be attending the convention, I encourage you to take part in anything and everything you can, especially our SLWIS activities and sessions. Active participation by IS members is what strengthens our community year after year.

In this letter, I would like to draw your attention to some of the SLWIS activities at the convention, as well as give some updates on other IS activities and the IS leadership.

2017 Convention in Seattle

At this year’s convention, our IS will continue to have a strong presence. We had a record number of SLW submissions this year, and we also have a number of special sessions. Our chair-elect, Nigel Caplan, has organized our IS’s special sessions this year. The following sessions take place in the Washington State Convention Center (WSCC):

• Academic Session: “5 Myths of the Five-Paragraph Essay,” featuring notable SLW scholars Deborah Crusan, Luciana de Oliveira, Dana Ferris, Ann Johns, and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper (23 March, 1 pm–2:45pm, Room 3B)

• InterSection with Elementary Education IS: “Writing Across Content Areas in Elementary Education” (23 March, 9:30 am–11:15 am, Room 211)

• InterSection with Video and Digital Media IS and Materials Writers IS: “Fostering Digital Responsibility by Understanding Fair Use” (23 March, 1 pm–2:45 pm)

• InterSection with Teacher Education IS: “Teaching Teachers to Write: Assignments and Approaches in Preservice Programs” (24 March, 9:30 am–11:15 am, Room 304)

In addition to our special sessions, there will be nearly 100 more sessions on second language writing at the convention! You can search TESOL’s online convention planner (you may need to log in to your TESOL account) for all sessions about writing, both those in SLWIS and other interest sections.

Our IS will have its annual open meeting on Wednesday, 22 March, 5 pm–6:30 pm, in Room 619 in the WSCC. I would strongly encourage any SLWIS members who are at the convention to attend this meeting. Immediately following the open meeting will be a social event, organized by Friends of Second Language Writing at the Tap House Grill, conveniently located a couple blocks from the convention center. The social is a great way to reconnect with old SLW friends and to meet new ones.

Something new that our IS steering committee is organizing this year is a series of roundtable discussions, one on each day of the convention, which are open for anyone to attend. The three sessions are:

• Wednesday: We will have a roundtable discussion with established SLW scholars focusing on advice for developing yourself as an SLW researcher and teacher.

• Thursday: We will have a roundtable discussion for graduate students interested in SLW research and teaching. The discussion will feature recent graduates who will share their experiences searching, applying, and interviewing for jobs, as well as establishing their research agendas.

• Friday: We will have a roundtable discussion for brainstorming ideas for presentations at next year’s convention. While this will be an extension of the brainstorming we will start at the open meeting, it will also be an opportunity to forge collaborations with SLWIS members interested in similar topics.

The times and locations of these sessions are still being worked out, and we will send information to the SLWIS e-list as soon as these are known.

As in previous years, our IS has chosen to maintain a booth in the Exhibit Hall. This year, in order to make staffing the booth easier, we will be sharing a booth with NNEST-IS. We have chosen to maintain a presence throughout the convention (rather than only a couple hours at a central, shared IS booth) because it allows us to recruit new SLWIS members and to distribute pertinent SLW information (e.g., calls for proposals, information about presentations), and it also serves as a central meeting point for SLWIS members throughout the convention. In exchange for this space, we are required to staff the booth throughout the convention (8:30 am–5:30 pm on Wednesday and Thursday, and 8:30 am–3:30 pm on Friday). Staffing the booth is a great way to network, collaborate, or just support the IS! You can click here to sign up to staff the booth. Although we are only required to have one SLWIS member at the booth at a time, please feel free to stop by the booth at any time during the convention.

Beyond the Convention

Although the convention is one way to remain connected with SLWIS colleagues and friends, it is not the only way. Over the last few years, our IS has been making efforts to create ways to connect with the IS and IS colleagues beyond the convention. One of the major ways we have done this is through our Online Discussion series:

• Recently, Charlene Polio facilitated a discussion on finding a balance between language and content in writing classes. Last fall, Ann Johns led a discussion on teaching varied summary writing, and Betsy Gilliland led a discussion on conducting action research in second language writing.

• In April, we will have an online discussion with Christine Tardy. Watch your inbox for information about this session soon!

Recordings of all of the SLWIS Online Discussions are archived as Teaching Tips in the TESOL Resource Center and also available as a playlist on TESOL’s YouTube page.

Of course, our newsletter is another way to be involved in the IS. The newsletter is currently published twice a year and accepts articles on SLW research and teaching, as well as reviews of SLW books and materials. Contact our managing editor, Ilka Kostka, for more information. Fellow SLWIS colleagues are also a great resource for anything related to SLW teaching or research. To contact IS members, you can send a message to the e-list via myTESOL (again, you will need to log in to your TESOL account). Lastly, if you are not following it already, our Facebook page is a great resource for news and articles relating to SLW.

Leadership Updates

I would like to close this letter by recognizing the service of our IS leaders. I would like to thank our outgoing chair, Silvia Pessoa, for her work and leadership over the last few years. I would also like to recognize our incoming chair, Nigel Caplan, and our recently elected chair-elect, Tanita Saenkhum, who will provide strong leadership in the coming years. I also welcome two new members of the IS steering committee, Sarah Henderson Lee, recently elected as member-at-large, and Veronika Maliborska, recently elected as secretary. As always, we thank Ilka Kostka and other members of the SLW News editorial team for their dedication to providing such a valuable resource to our community. Lastly, I would like to congratulate SLWIS member Luciana de Oliveira on her election as incoming president-elect of TESOL. Congratulations!

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Seattle!

Sincerely,

Ryan Miller

2016–2017 SLWIS Chair