Idiom

Idiom

Conversations

Contents

Collaborative ConversationsConversation in supportActingResources for the common coreTalking is learningSmall talkConversation table

Regular Features/ Special Announcements

Promising PracticeBook reviewSIGs and RegionsMembers only websiteEditorial NotesUpcoming Idiom ThemesCalendar and AnnoumcementsNew Membership Form

Fall 2011 Vol. 4, No. 3http://www.nystesol.org

This issue’s theme:

4679121518

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From the President’s Deskby Nanette Dougherty, NYS TESOL President

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you have been enjoying a happy, healthy and restorative summer. I would like to update you on some changes and challenges facing educators.

On July 13, I attended the bilingual/ESL COP (Committee of Practitioners) meeting at Teachers college, Columbia University. The most major changes include the New Evaluation Law for K-12 teachers andprincipals:

Annual evaluations for all teachers and principals Clear, rigorous expectations for instructional excellence, prioritizing student learning Multiple measures of performance Multiple ratings: Four performance levels to describe differences in teacher effectiveness The new system should encourage regular, costructive feedback and ongoing development Significance: results are a major factor in employment decisions

You can view all documents discussed at the COP Meeting at the following link: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/biling/bilinged/BilingualESLCOP.html. For more informa-tion about the Common Core Standards, please consult the website at: http://www.corestandards.org/ and see the article in this issue.

Though it was not considered at this meeting, the 14 Bilingual/ESL Technical As-sistance Centers (BETACs) across New York State closed permanently on June 30, 2011. This puts both our schools and our LEP/ELL populations at risk of not having the appropriate resources to meet their educational and programmatic needs over the next five years.

Our new Commissioner of Education, Dr. John B. King, Jr., may not be familiar with the importance of the resources offered by the BETACs. You may e-mail him directly at: [email protected]. In addition, you may email the NYS Board of Regents on this issue at: RegentsOffi [email protected].

At the Melville Marriott October 28-29th, I will be passing the gavel to our incoming President, Rebekah Johnson. I would like to thank the many wonderful members of my Executive Board and the many SIG and Region Leaders for their service to the organization. Special thanks to Cornelia Randolph, a constant support and inspiration, and Fran Olmos, for her guidance.

You will be receiving ballots for the Executive Board slate in the mail shortly. Thanks to our Nominating Committee, led by Cornelia Randolph and Terri Brady-Mendez, for their time and efforts. Members, please do not forget to vote for your new leadership in our organization by returning your ballots. As always, please continue to keep in touch with issues, concerns, and ideas on how our organization can best serve you. Best wishes for a great school year to all.

Peace and blessings to you,Nanette Dougherty, President, NYS TESOL

P.S. We’re so very excited to be launching our new Members Only website - please read more about it in this issue and log in soon to check it out. Please contact us with ideas!

New York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

Offi cers and Executive Board 2010-2011

President, Nanette DoughertyNYC Public Schools

First Vice President, Rebekah Johnson LAGCC, CUNY

Second Vice President, Christy Baralis South Hun-tington School District

Second Vice President Elect, Olivia LimbuPace University

Past President/TESOL Liaison, Constance Dziom-bak Mount Vernon City Schools

SIG Coordinator, Laura Van TassellSouth Huntington School Dtistrict

SIG Assistant Coordinator, Jennifer ScullyConsultant

Regions Coordinator, Tina VillalobosHicksville Public Schools

Assistant Regions Coordinator, Lynn Ellingwood Brighton Central School District

Membership & Marketing Chair, Patricia JuzaBaruch College, CUNY

Assistant Membership Chair, Drew Fagan Teachers College, Columbia University

Curriculum and Standards Chair, Maria DoveMolloy College

Assistant Curriculum and Standards ChairPosition Open

Professional Concerns Chair Porfi rio Rodriguez, East Ramapo CSD

Professional Concerns Assistant Chair Position Open

Publications/Technology Chair, Fran OlmosYonkers Public Schools

Idiom Editor, Cara Tuzzolino WerbenNassau Community College

Dialogue Editor, Sue PetersonSt. John’s University

Webmaster, David HirschNew York City

Business Manager/TreasurerL. Jeanie Faulkner, Cornell University

Certifi ed Public AccountantJim Stotz

NYS TESOL Executive Board Meetings and General Information

Members are welcome to attend Board meetings. For information, contact:

NYS TESOLBox 185Teachers College, Columbia University525 W. 120th StreetNew York, NY 10027Tel./Fax: (212) 678-3074E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.nystesol.org

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Collaborative Conversation*by Andrea Honigsfeld

That effective collaboration benefi ts students (and teachers alike) is affirmed by the well-de-served attention it has received most recently in the professional literature (see, for example, Del-liCarpini, 2008, 2009; Honigsfeld & Dove, 2010; NACTAF, 2009; NEA, 2009; Pawan & Ortloff, 2011) and in the TESOL educational commu-nity (e.g., themes of 2011 New York State and Kentucky TESOL conferences). Acknowledging the importance of collaborative exchanges among teachers is not a completely novel idea, though. Close to three decades ago, Judith Warren Little (1982) examined the differences between more and less effective schools and found that the more effective ones had a greater degree of col-legiality. She noted four unique characteristics of collegiality (or collaboration) in successful schools, where teachers participate in the follow-ing activities:

Teachers engage in frequent, continuous, and increasingly concrete and precise talk about teaching practice.

Teachers are frequently observed and provided with useful critiques of their teaching.

Teachers plan, design, evaluate, and prepare teaching materials to-gether.

Teachers teach each other the practice of teaching (pp. 331–332).

Consider what Warren Little’s (1982) frequently quoted four key ideas could mean for ELLs in today’s schools. What if we translated her seminal fi ndings into a contempo-rary framework of four Cs, in which “collaborative” serves as a defi ning adjective, followed by a key activity or desired teacher behavior necessary for improved student learning?

Collaborative Conversations: Through enhanced communication, all teachers have the opportunity to

develop ownership and shared responsibility for ELLs’ learning.

Collaborative Coaching:Through an encouraging school climate and supportive framework, teachers offer and receive feedback on their teaching practices.

Collaborative Curriculum Development: Through curriculum mapping and alignment and collaborative materials development, teach-ers match both their longterm and day-to-day instructional goals and activities.

Collaborative Craftsmanship: Through con-scious efforts for continuous improvement of the craft of teaching, teachers explore ways to en-hance instructional time, language development, and content area resources, and offer support for each other.

Table 1 shows how the concept of collegiality and collaboration may offer a system of support in a linguistically and culturally diverse school context by including the four Cs with ample examples.

Collaboration may start out as a small, grassroots effort, involving only two or three teachers who share the respon-sibility for some of the same ELLs and are concerned about their students’ progress. It may involve an entire grade level. Some examples include grade clusters working together to develop or enhance curri-cula in elementary schools; an interdisciplinary team of math, science, social studies, Eng-lish, and ESL teachers (sharing responsibility for a cluster of classes in middle schools); or a discipline-specifi c depart-ment (focusing on preparing all students to meet graduation requirements of high schools). Regardless of the local con-text, all these collaborative efforts start with professional conversations, through which teachers collaboratively ex-plore their students’ needs and responsive practices.

4 Table 1: The Four Cs of Collaboration

Use peer coaching to improve Lesson planning Lesson delivery Unit design Use of supplementary materials Adapted content Modifi ed instruction Assessment practices

Collaborative CraftsmanshipExplore ELLs’ background knowledge ELLs’ prior learning Peer coaching Planning instruction collaboratively or in the context of co-teaching Effective methods for aligning curriculum and objectives Using time more effectively Making the most of collaborative efforts

Collaborative Curriculum DevelopmentAlign Lesson objectives (language objectives and content objectives) Unit goals Curriculum maps Primary and supplementary instructional materials Adapted texts and materials Resources

Collaborative Conversations Talk about Students’ needs Students’ lives Students in and out of school work Curriculum and instruction Teachers’ own struggles Teachers’ own successes What matters to you, the teacher

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Conversations in Support of High School ELLsby Victoria Pilotti

Adolescent ELLs are second language learners who are still developing their profi ciency in academic English. Moreover, they are learning English at the same time they are study-ing core content areas through English. Thus, English language learn-ers must perform double the work of native English speakers in the country’s middle and high schools. At the same time, they are being held to the same accountability standards as their na-tive English-speaking peers (Short & Fitzsimmons, 2007, p. 1).

Conversations with ELLs and col-leagues are viable ways for ESL teach-ers to help their students navigate academic challenges. My short time at Jamaica High School has been fi lled with conversations that have driven my instruction to best support the ELLs in my charge.

Curriculum Experiments Based on Conversations with ELLsAt Jamaica High School, an ESL sup-port class is offered zero period, 7:22 to 8:06 a.m., to provide intermediate ELLs with additional targeted interventions. September 2011 will be the third year I am teaching zero period, and each year

is an ongoing curriculum development action research experiment. I conduct the course as a combined resource room and advisory class model. Based on daily conversations with my students about their challenges, I provide home-work help; teach problematic topics in mathematics, science, and social stud-ies; and assess and teach diverse skills necessary for academic success. The first year of the experiment, my curricu-lum included mathematics symbols and word problems; the living environment topics of scientifi c method, evolution, and organ systems; social studies topics of feudalism, estates, and analysis of political cartoons; English language arts topics of idioms, formal versus informal language, and dictionary/glos-sary skills; and academic readiness in test-taking strategies, study skills, time management, notebook organization, public speaking skills, and computer skills. I also taught graph skills across the disciplines. This class was one of a select few Jamaica High School English and ESL classes that benefi ted from TeenBiz3000 (Empower3000), a Web-based individualized reading program by Achieve3000.

Conversations with ELLs form part of the data collection that drives my curriculum changes. Several fi rst-year students (participants in Experiment I) reported the lessons and activities helped them pass content-area fi nals and New York State Regents examina-tions. When asked how the support class could be improved for the following year, ELLs suggested that I allot more time to science, continue teaching math and social studies, and retain computer instruction on TeenBiz3000. One student, who was particularly resistant to my teaching anything but ESL all year, later admit-ted he benefi tted from content-area instruction by his ESL teacher. All students expressed a deep appreciation for the bilingual content area glossaries I provided.

In the second year (Experiment II), I

spent less time on dictionary/glos-sary skills; did not teach idioms; and, upon careful review of recent livingenvironment Regents exams, added an ecosystem unit, a lesson on pH, and group activities on bar and line graphs. I replaced the formal versus informal English lesson with daily academic English and every-day English explanations and defi nitions. Students assessed their mul-tiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983; Gardner, 1993, 2996; McKenzie, 1999), and learning styles (Dunn & Dunn, 1993; Dunn & Griggs, 2003, 2004, 2007; Missere & Dunn, 2005). I added native-language translations of key content vocabulary to my student notebook grading rubric. Groups researched continents and explorers and presented their Pow-erPoint slide shows to ELLs in other classes. TeenBiz3000 was replaced by Study Island, Web-based in-struction built on New York State standards, that provided all Jamaica High School students practice for English, mathematics, science, and social studies Regents exams; and for national Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) and Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Based on requests from Experiment I participants for Inter-net resources for speaking practice, I created lists of Web sites and links with podcasts and speaking exer-cises.

As I gear up for Experiment III in the 2011-2012 school year, I plan to devote more time to dictionary skills, such as alphabetizing, and contentarea textbook structure, with special attention to textbook glossaries and indices; the par-ticipants in Experiment II were lacking in dictionary/textbook research skills and did not make optimum use of these resources. I provided a list of Web sites and links for Regents practice and bi-lingual glossaries, and will again provide copies of bilingual glos-

saries in Experiment III. I have decided to step up test-taking strategies and content writing practice in the zero period support class beginning in September.

Conversations with FamiliesIndividual writing conferences often involve reinforcing the student’s strengths and discussing specific areas in need of improvement (Fountas & Pinnell, 2001). I had conversations with each student about his/her multiple intelligences and learning style profi les generated from the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model high school assessment Learning in Vogue: Ele-ments of Style (LIVES) (Missere & Dunn, 2005) and suggested individual study and homework strategies. My students had critical conversations with their families about their personal preferences, strengths, and areas for improvement. Some students discussed their need for a quiet, cool, and brightly lit place to study and complete homework assignments. One student, who was not a morning person, discussed her need for an alarm clock to wake her so she could arrive to class on time. Sadly, her family did not want to be disturbed by the sound of an alarm clock so early in the morning and the student’s guidance counselor suggested dropping her from this support class.

Conversations with ColleaguesMy fellow ESL teachers, bilingual guidance counselor, and department supervisor met regularly to discuss parent outreach, truant students, misplaced students, overcrowded classes, credit accumulation, and NYSESLAT scheduling, among the numerous challenges facing our ELLs. These conversations led to solutions and consensus on major decisions and new initiatives. Colleagues who shared students would (a) discuss division of language skill focus—one would emphasize the writing process, vocabu-lary, and grammar, while the other

would provide readings of a broad range of literary genres, teach literary terms and vocabulary, and emphasize listening and speaking, (b) collaborate and

share data for each student before mak-ing arrangements to call parents on each other’s behalf—each teacher relayed messages of both teachers, and (c) preview and review each other’s lessons so we could reinforce what was learned in each other’s classes. Much to our dismay, we discovered that students often did not transfer learning between ESL classes and teachers—somehow, the learning remained in the classroom environment and was forgotten in a new setting.

Conversations with mainstream English colleagues centered on imple-mentation of TESOL strategies to meet the needs of transitional and post ELLs. Conversations with mathematics, science, and social studies assistant principals and teachers helped me focus on topics that they found were the most problematic for ELLs.

As the ESL teacher component in a collaborative team teaching mathemat-ics class, daily co-teaching experiences and collaborative conferences led to differentiated tutoring and small-group instruction. I reinforced basic math skills to the students who did not know simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, while my math colleague reinforced higher-level math skills and concepts.

ConclusionThese conversations take time and energy. High school teachers of ELLs may fi nd they, too, are performing double the work to support adolescent ELLs in meeting the challenges of second language acquisition in an academic en-vironment. This increased responsibility, however, may prove worthwhile when the resulting conversations lead to targeted instruction and interventions as teachers collaborate in assessing ELLs and planning instruction for their students.

Dunn, R., & Dunn, K. (1993). Teaching second-ary students through their individual learning styles: Practical approaches for grades 7-12. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Dunn, R., & Griggs, S. A. (Eds.). (2003, 2004, 2007). Synthesis of the Dunn and Dunn learning-style model research: Who, what, when, where, and so what? Jamaica, NY: St. John’s University’s Center for the Study of Learning and Teaching Styles.

Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2001). Guiding read-ers and writers grades 3-6: Teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy.Portsmouth, NH: Heine-mann.

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.

Gardner, H. (1993, 2006). Multiple intelligences: New Horizons. New York: Basic Books.

McKenzie, W. (1999). Multiple Intelligences Inventory. Retrieved from http://surfaquarium.com/MI/inventory.htm

Missere, N., & Dunn, R. (2005). Learning in vogue: Elements of style (LIVES). Retrieved from www.learningstyles.net

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Reference

Short, D., & Fitzsimmons, S. (2007). Double the work: Challenges and solutions to acquiring language and aca-demic literacy for adolescent English language learn-ers—A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

Victoria Pilotti, Ed.D., is an ESL teacher at Jamaica High School. A former Region 3 secondary schools mentor, NYC Department of Educa-tion, she has taught TESOL methodology graduate courses at St. John’s University and Hunter Col-lege. <[email protected]>

DelliCarpini, M. (2008). Teacher collaboration for ESL/EFL academic success. The Internet TESL Jour-nal, 14(8). Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/DelliCarpini-TeacherCollab-oration.html

DelliCarpini, M. (2009, May). Dialogues across dis-ciplines: Preparing English-as-a-second-language teachers for interdisciplinary collaboration. Current Issues in Education (Online), 11(2). Retrieved from http://cie.ed.asu.edu/volume11/number2/

Honigsfeld, A., & Dove, M. (2010). Collaboration and co-teaching: Strategies for

English learners.Thousand Oaks, CA: Cor-win Press.

National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NACTAF). (2009). Learning teams: Creating what’s next. Retrieved from http://www.nctaf.org/documents/NC-TAFLearningTeams-408REG2–09_000.pdf

NEA (2009). NEA reiterates collaboration as key to keep-ing teachers. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/31477.htm

Pawan, F., & Ortloff, J. H. (2011). Sustaining collabo-ration: English-asa-second-language and content-area teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 463-471.

Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld is associate dean and professor in the Division of Education at Molloy Col-lege, Rockville Centre. She is the co-author with Maria Dove of a recently published book, Collabora-tion and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners (Corwin Press, 2010).<[email protected]>

*Sections of this manuscript have grown out of the au-thor’s collaborative conversations with Dr. Ma-ria Dove and are featured in their coauthored book, cited above.

CollaborativeConversation*

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The field of ESOL has lost one of its most revered mem-bers, Jeanette D. Macero, who died May 9, 2011. Jeanette was passionate in her dedication to non-native speakers of English as exemplifi ed by her teaching, mentoring and participation in professional organizations.

Jeanette, one of the founders of NYS ESOL BEA (now NYS TESOL—see note below), was a leader in that organization nonstop until her retirement from Syracuse University in 1998, as associate professor of English and TESOL coordinator of languages, literatures and linguis-tics. She moved to Medfi eld, MA to be near her family.

Many NYS TESOL members will testify to the mentoring they received from Jeanette, who held leadership posi-tions in the organization for her entire career. Jeanette graduated with a BA in English from Barnard College, an MA in linguistics from Columbia University, and did doctoral study in linguistics at the University of Michi-gan. She was president, second vice president twice, and chair of various TESOL committees: publications, paper selection, awards and nominations. Twice, she received the NYS TESOL Distinguished Service Award.

In addition to Jeanette’s full-time teaching at Syracuse University, she published skill books for beginners of English through Laubach Literacy (now known as Pro-Literacy), as well as a number of scholarly papers and ad-dresses, edited books of readings, and acted as consultant to many groups.

All those who knew Jeanette are aware of her many accomplishments in professional organizations and her skillful teaching, but those closest to her will remember most her kind and compassionate manner to all she met and worked with, her hearty laugh, and her engaging personality. Jeanette’s friends and colleagues have lost a treasure.

Vel Chesser, retired from Syracuse University, can be reached at <[email protected]>

Editor’s note: With thanks to NYS TESOL historian George Morris: The very first organization was called NY TESOL (No “S” for State), then NYSESOL BEA. The founding date is 1970 (hence our 40th anniversary in 2010). The split into NYS TESOL and NYSABE was in the early 1980s.

NYS TESOL Remembers Jeanette D. Macero

by Vel Chesser

All the World’s a Stage: Ways in Which Teaching Is Like Actingby Elizabeth Fonseca

If “acting is energy,” teaching is many things: a combination of knowledge, ex-perience, awareness, expertise, and care. It is also the energy we, as language instructors, bring into the classroom that absolutely affects the order of the day. As a theater lover and past occasional performer, I have oftenthought about the parallels between teaching and acting. Here are a few that come to mind.

You’re on stage. All eyes are on you. You’re the initial focal point of atten-tion. Your presence shifts the energy in the room. Sometimes, you literally have a podium, with desks arrayed in rows before you like patrons at a theater. There is noise, chatter,laughter, shuffl ing in the room until the lights dim. Curtain up! Enter stage left, the professor. Cell phones get put away, or at least discreetly placed to the side. Chitchat dies down. The room is hushed a moment, the pause of anticipation before the fi rst words of dialogue are spoken.

All eyes are on you. An actor uses her body to convey information about her character before she even speaks. So do you. How are you dressed? Does what you wear convey some message about your position in this play, your role, your persona as teacher, leader, or facilita-

tor of the energy in the room? How do you walk in? Are your eyes downcast, reflecting your students’ spent energy at the end of a long week, or do they sparkle? Do you walk in the room with pizzazz, transmitting vital energy to them, to create the cycle of give-and-take necessary for effective language learning? Do you use gestures, winks, and nods to convey information, emo-tion, even comedy? These are things worth thinking about, because one of the most important ways you are like an ac-tor is in this all-important function. Yourenergy and presence set the tone.

Just as audiences must have faith in ac-tors and suspend their disbelief to fully enter into the world the actors are creat-ing, your students must agree to the un-spoken contract of trust that bonds them to you in a vulnerable learning situation. Your ability to create that atmosphere of trust is important;your dynamism helps your class gener-ate energy that in turn feeds you and helps the learning environment be dy-namic. This is important for learning as well as for the teacher’s ability to sustain energy and passion both within a class and over her entire run.

Actors use their voices as tools, relying on not just word choice but inflection, intonation, varying volume, and the judi-cious use of pauses to capture the audi-ence’s attention, rivet them, spellbind them, drawthem forward in their seats wondering“What’s next?” You too can use your voice itself as a tool that weaves the be-witching spell of energy, dynamism, and trust that makes for a lively and effective learning environment.

The show must go on. There are days when you can’t imagine generating that energy at all. On those days, you have to “act as if”: put on your teaching persona as an actor dons a mask or stage make-

up, preparing herself to go before the lights. If you don’t show up, or show up without energy, you might flop.

This leads us to the all-important teaching persona. As an actor slips into a role through prepa-ration, curiosity, and the desire to share emotion and informa-tion with an audience, you can slip into your teaching persona, comprised of your sincere and genuine self with a soupçon of public-role poise, strategic sass, and teacher’s tools you’ve learned throughout your teaching days that help you on the way.

Is your persona the classic scholar? Do you have a little playful clown thrown in? Are you the compassionate guide, leading students to the knowledge they already possess? Can you switch hats to that of the taskmaster, pushing for and demanding the very best? It can be useful to think of the teacher role as com-posed of these different personae that serve useful functions in the various processes of learning, including enabling you to reach students of different backgrounds, needs, and learning styles. Even if you are not like that, your alter ego, “Professor Picky”, can be. Although youare more lenient, “Scholar Strict” can be called upon as necessary to whip anunderachieving class into shape. Beinga teacher is a public role that requiresdaily public speaking; why not train for it and fi nd useful tools and approaches that may aid in maintaining your interest, creat-ing a positive learning environ-ment, and aiding in efficient classroom management?

If you think some training might help you focus your body as instrument and help you chan-nel energy more effi ciently and effectively in the classroom, here are some suggestions to get you

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Acting is a sport. On stage youmust be ready to move like a tennis

player on his toes. Your concentrationmust be keen, your refl exes sharp;

your body and mind are in top gear;the chase is on. Acting is energy. In the

theatre people pay to see energy.—Clive Swift

started: Take an acting class. Learn howto use body language, breath, andvoice to create energy and atmosphere. Take a public speaking class.Learn relaxation techniques, visualizationtechniques, and tips for effectively con-veying a message. Join a group such as ToastmastersInternational, where you’ll learntips for public speaking. Listen to and read poetry aloud.Learn about cadence, rhythm, andvolume to use your voice moreeffectively—and to save it fromtoo many of those hoarse, raggedy,“I’ve-spoken-too-much” days! Similarly, take a vocal or voicetraining class. Learn specifi cbreathing exercises to strengthenyour voice and to become expertin effectively and effi ciently usingand saving your voice. Here is a website to get you thinking about your own parallels betweenacting and teach-ing: http://www/jbactors.com/actingphi-losophy/actingquotations.html.

ReferencesGodwin, G. (1974). The Odd Woman. New York: Ballantine Books.

http://www/jbactors.com/act-ingphilosophy/ actingquotations.html

Elizabeth Fonseca is an avid traveler who has taught ESL/EFL in such countries as Italy, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Her work has been published in the Arabia Review and the Traveler’s Tales series, among others. Her interest in acting stems from highschool and community theater days, as well as more recent poetry readings. She currently teaches at Nassau Community College in New York.<[email protected]>

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Good teaching is one-fourth preparationand three-fourths theater.

—Gail Godwin

The manner in which language and writing are understood and misunder-stood promotes success or failure. Understanding what is said is the key to communicative competence.

Explicit communication is dialogue that is clear, sure, and restated when necessary. Crawford (1993) states that the processes of literacy and language learning require learners to be im-mersed in meaningful, relevant, and functional situations. In this way, stu-dents can learn to handle themselves in various situations.

Let’s begin with a kindergartener meeting an instructor for the first time. If the child is asked to describe some-thing, perhaps drawing it is a much better way of communicating what happened. Description may not simply be done by talking. The explicit com-munication would require that the teacher talk and demonstrate so that this student knows what to do.

Middle school students who do not speak English can benefi t from ex-plicit communication as well. Class-mates might offer to translate for this student, but that means that every utterance requires assistance. When I write the aim and other particulars on the board (I verbally explain to the rest of the class), I open a newcomer’s notebook and write a few of the words from the board in his or her notebook, giving the student explicit communi-cation for instruction by demonstra-tion. The student copies what is on the board. Then I say “Copy.” From that time on, this student knows what the word “copy” means and can copy.

Explicit communication with parents is one of the most important types of communica-tion. After all, the parent(s) or caretaker is the first teacher and the one who can do the most to facilitate a student’s academic success. In parent meetings, I combine simple words with academic language and have the requisite bilingual dictionaries. By explaining and demonstrating slowly and carefully, explicit communication and a good dia-logue can be created.

When one speaks with humility and caring, the communication is explicit. Explicit communica-tion is the key to all forms of dialogue; if one method does not work, just keep on trying.

References

Crawford, L. W. (1993). Language and literacy learning in multicul-tural classrooms. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Ellen Terry Vandrew-Wald was born in the Bronx into a multicultural, religious background. Barry Wald, her husband, encouraged her to become a teacher. She got her B.A. from Marymount Manhattan College in 1999 and M.A. in TESOL from Hunter College in 2004. She is a NYC public school K-12 teacher, and also an adjunct. <[email protected]>

Explicit Communication

by Ellen Terry Vandrew-Wald

Resources for Implementing theCommon Core for ELLs

by Diane Garafalo

The Common Core Learning Standards(CCLS) have been adopted bydozens of states. The NYS Board ofRegents adopted the new P-12 CCLSfor ELA, Literacy, and Mathematics inJanuary 2011; it will be phased in overthe next year. Beginning in school year2012-13, NYS assessments for EnglishLanguage Arts and Mathematics willmeasure student achievement of theP-12 CCLS. Find New York State’scomplete CCLS timeline at www.usny.nysed.gov/rttt/docs/ccsstimeline.pdf.

The initiative began in the springof 2009 and was coordinated by theNational Governors Association(NGA) Center for Best Practices andthe Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSO). The advisory group forthe initiative comprises Achieve, Inc.,ACT, the College Board, the NationalAssociation of State Boards of Educa-tion (NASBE), and the State HigherEducation Executive Offi cers (SHEO).

The Common Core State StandardsInitiative released a draft of the mathand language arts content standards forpublic comment in September 2009,and the individual K-12 grade-levelcontent standards in these subjectswere released for public comment inMarch 2010. Both sets of content stan-dardswere finalized in 2010.

Criteria for DevelopmentThis process differed from paststandards initiatives because it wasstate led and had the support of educa-tors across the country as well asprominent education, business and

state leaders’ organizations.

The standards were developed by thefollowing criteria:

Aligned with expectations for collegeand career success; Clear, so that educators and parentsknow what they need to do to help stu-dents learn; Consistent across all states, so thatstudents are not taught to a lowerstandard just because of wherethey live; Inclusive of both content and theapplication of knowledge throughhigh-order skills; Built upon strengths and lessons of current state standards and standardsof top-performing nations; Realistic, for effective use in theclassroom; Informed by other top-performingcountries, so that all students areprepared to succeed in our globaleconomy and society; Evidence and research based(Quay, 2010);

Application of the Standards forEnglish Language Learners.

Common standards can potentiallyprovide a greater opportunity for statesto share experiences and best practices

within and across states that couldlead to an improved ability to serveELLs. The K-12 English-language arts and mathematics standards do include information on the Appli-cation of the Standards for English Language Learners, located at http://www.corestandards.org/as-sets/application-forenglish-learners.pdf.

One segment of the Applicationof ELA Core Standards recom-mends that to help ELLs meet high academic standards in language arts it is essential that they have access to:

Teachers and personnel at theschool and district levels who arewell prepared and qualifi ed to sup-port ELLs while taking advantageof the many strengths and skillsthey bring to the classroom;

Literacy-rich school environmentswhere students are immersed in avariety of language experiences;

Instruction that develops founda-tional skills in English and enablesELLs to participate fully in grade-level coursework;

Coursework that prepares ELLsfor post secondary educationor the workplace, yet is madecomprehensible for studentslearning content in a secondlanguage (through specifi c peda-gogical techniques and additionalresources);

10

Opportunities for classroomdiscourse and interaction thatare designed to enable ELLs todevelop communicative strengthsin language arts;

Ongoing assessment and feedback to guide learning;

Speakers of English who know the lan-guage well enough to provideELLs with models and support;

Need for English Language Profi -ciency Standards.

The Common Core did not spellout how the standards applied to specific levels of English profi ciency. Itwas left up to states to create EnglishLanguage Profi ciency Standards thatalign with the Core Standards or toexplain how specifi c standards canbest be taught to students dependingon their level of English profi ciency.In her July 12 blog at Education Week,“Learning the Language,” Mary AnnZehr recognized this need by reportingthat Stanford University has received a $1 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to create Eng-lish Language Profi ciency Standards for the states’ Common Core Academic Standards. Dr. Kenji Hakuta, a professor of education at Stanford University, a member of the Common Core Validation Committee, and a long-time expert on ELLs; and Maria Santos, the former di-rector of programs for ELLs for the New York City school system, are co-chairs of this national effort to write standardsfor ELLs to parallel the Language Artsand Mathematics Standards of theCommon Core, as well as the ScienceStandards that are expected to bedeveloped. This grant award fills thegap in the process of implementing theCommon Core for ELLs (Zehr, 2011).The grant, which lasts for two years,is called “Building on Common-CoreStandards to Improve Learning forEnglish-Language Learners.”

“The effort is to think about the

content areas in the common core thatoffer strategically fertile areas aroundwhich language instruction can takeplace,” Dr. Hakuta explained. “Thestandards will elaborate on what ELLsshould know and be able to do in thecontent areas at different Englishproficiency levels,” he added. (Zehr, 2011).

Preparing ELLs for the CommonCore—A WebinarOn May 5, 2011, Dr. Hakuta presenteda webinar at www.teachscape. com called “Research to Practice: Prepar-ing ELLs for the Common Core.” He offered his thoughts and ideas during the webinar under the topic of planning for the Common Core, including:

Recognize that language is necessaryto teach, learn, and demonstrateunderstanding in school subjects, and that this is true for all students, but espe-cially for ELLs;

Engage in the idea that excellencein instruction and assessmentaround content revolves aroundthe idea of rich language use;

Build the professional developmentaround the idea that languageinstruction is the domain of all teachers, not just English Language Arts and ESL teachers;

Identify your objectives, assessments,and best practices in classrooms and en-sure that you’re making progress toward those objectives;

Use the Common Core to recognizeand amplify the opportunity for rich language development for ELLs and for all students (Hakuta, 2011).

According to Dr. Hakuta, there aresome key elements for ELLs regardingthe Common Core, including:

The Common Core provides a strong incentive to examine the role of lan-guage in content instruction and in as-sessment; there is a role for leadership to

Some Helpful Resources

Common Core Curriculum Maps:www.commoncore.org/free/

Common Core Standards andEnglish Language Learners:www.colorincolorado.org/educators/common_core

Common Core State StandardsInitiative Website: www.corestandards.org

Common Core Standards Workfor ELLs: The Importance ofLinking English Language Profi -ciency Standards to the CommonCore Standardswww.colorincolorado.org/powerpoint/ELLELPStandard-sPPT%20Slide.pdf

K-6 Units in ELA Aligned withCommon Core Standards:www.elementarytests.com/blog/k-6-ela-common-core/

P21 Common Core Toolkitwww.p21.org/images/p21_toolkit_fi nal.pdf

www.thejournal.com/articles/2011/08/02/common-core-toolkit-aligns-standards-with-21stcentury-skills-framework.aspxWebsites of the members of theadvisory board to the Common CoreInitiative:

Achieve, Inc.: www.achieve.org

ACT: www.act.org

The College Board:www.collegeboard.com

National Association of StateBoards of Education:www.nasbe.org

State Higher Education ExecutiveOffi cers: www.sheeo.org

11

take advantage of this opportunity;

Even though the Common Coresays nothing about the EnglishLanguage profi ciency expectationsof ELLs, there is a requirementthat English language profi ciencybe aligned to the Common Core;

There will be more commonalityacross states in the identifi cationof students because there will bemore common profi ciency tests;

The Common Core has the potentialto move ELL performance/profi ciency both across schoolsand across the country (Hakuta, 2011).

Criteria for Writing Common CoreCurriculum MaterialsLast summer, the nonprofi t groupCommon Core issued a set of free cur-riculum maps. The maps are designedto give an understandable sequence ofthematic curriculum units that connectthe skills provided in the ELA standards with recommended student objectives, texts, and activities.

Examples of these thematic curriculum

units include: Grade 1: The Amazing Animal World; Grade 3: The People, the Preamble, and the Presidents; Grade 6: Folklore: A Blast from the Past; Grade 9: Literary Elements of a Short Story; and Grade 12: European Literature: Renais-sance and Reformation. Common Core is working with schools and districts in different states to implement the maps. Arizona and North Carolina are using them statewide to help districts put the standards in place (Gewitz & Robelen, 2011).

Two writers have recently crafteddocuments outlining Common Corecurriculum criteria. Working under acontract with the Bill & Melinda GatesFoundation, a strong supporter of thestandards, David Coleman and SusanPimentel, co-authors of the CommonCore Standards for ELA/Literacy,wrote two documents highlighting thekey ideas of the standards and describingthe qualities of instructionalmaterials they consider an accuraterefl ection of them (Gewertz, 2011).

Common Core Assessments andPARCCAccording to the National Governor’s

Association/CCSSO, the Com-mon Core State Standards will also ultimately be the basis for a system of high-quality as-sessments. New York State is a governing member of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which was awarded Race to the Top Assess-ment funds in 2010. The PARCC Web site can be viewed at http://parcconline.org/. Over thenext few years, New York and 25 other states will develop a set of English Language Arts and Mathematics assessments, which will be fi nalized in 2014-15 (NYSED, 2011). Common Core Standards Assessment Resourcesare located at http://educationnorthwest.org/resource/1331.

Idiom will work to keep readersaware of all the upcoming

changes.

12

NYS TESOL Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and Regions Leadership Directory 2010-2011

SIG Leaders /SIG CoordinatorLaura Van Tassell <[email protected]>

Assistant SIG CoordinatorJennifer Scully <[email protected]>Applied LinguisticsAndrew MillerLindsay Wells <[email protected]>

ESL in Adult EducationTamara Kirson <[email protected]>ESL in Bilingual Education Co-ChairLydia Gutierrez <[email protected]>

ESL in Elementary Education Co-ChairsSusan GoldsteinDiane Howitt <[email protected]>ESL in Higher Education Co-ChairsDafna Ben AnathLisa Kraft <[email protected]>

ESL in Secondary Education

Lan Ngo <[email protected]>

ESL in Special Education Co-ChairPatty Barry <[email protected]>

Teacher Education Co-ChairsSoonhyang KimJoanna Labov <[email protected]>

Teaching English InternationallyCo-ChairsClaudette OliverasMelissa Duquette<[email protected]>

Regions LeadersRegions CoordinatorTina Villalobos <[email protected]>

Assistant Regions CoordinatorLynn Ellingwood <[email protected]>

BuffaloElena Dokshansky-Zelfond <[email protected]>

Capital Region Co-ChairsLiz AllenRoma Kumar <[email protected]>

Hudson Valley Co-ChairsKatie Werner Rebecca Horwitz<[email protected]

Long IslandVicky Giouroukakis<[email protected]>

New York City Co-ChairsJoe TillmanElaine Roberts <[email protected]>

Rochester/Syracuse Co-ChairsGloria DancauseElaine Ferlicca <[email protected]>

References

August, D., Cortese, A., La Fonde,S.,Leos, K. (2010). Making CommonCore Standards work for ELLs:The importance of linking EnglishLanguage Profi ciency Standardsto the Common Core Standards.October 21, 2010. AFT Educational Policy Forum. http://www.colorincolorado.org/powerpoint/ELL-ELPStandardsPPT%20Slide. pdf

Colorin Colorado (2011). CommonCore Standards and English Lan-guageLearners. Reading Rockets.WETA Learning Media. http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/common_core/

Gewertz, C. (2011). Common CoreWriters Craft curriculum criteria,July 22, 2011. Education Weekly.http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/07/21/37curriculum.h30.html?tkn=UPSFLpcFv4ebJmsg2qZx2C7B8rKm7AL%2FiacG&cmp=clp-sb-ascd

Gewertz, C., & Robelen, E. (2011).Curriculum maps aim to bringELA Standards to life. July 25,2011. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2011/07/the_nonprofi t_group_common _cor.html

Hakuta, K. (2011). Webinar: Re-searchto practice: Preparing ELLs for theCommon Core, Teachscape, May5, 2011. http://marketing.teachscape.com/K12KenjiELLMay2011WebinarAccess.html

Lopez, E. (2010). ELA Standards:Shifting the focus to the CommonCore comments, standards andcurriculum, NYS TESOL, October2010. http://www.nystesol.org/curriculum-standards/standards. html

Nagel, D. (2010). Feds award $330million to fund alternatives tohigh-stake bubble tests. The Journal,September 2, 2010. http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/09/02/feds-award-330-million-to-fi nd-alternatives-tohigh-stakes-bubble-tests.aspx?sc_lang-en

NYSED (2011). FAQs—CommonCore learning standards. http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/common_core_standards/faq.html

NYSUT (2011). Educational Re-sourcesfor English Language Learners.http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/k12_13765.htm

Quay, L. (2010). Higher standards forall: Implications of the CommonCore for equity in education. CivilRights Research Roundtable onEducation, Berkeley Law, April2010. http://www.law.berkeley.edu/fi les/Education_Roundable_Standards_Brief_ 4_10.pdf

Washington State School Board(2010). Common Core Standards—Process FAQs. http://www.sbe.wa.gov/documents/FAQ%20Common%20Core%Standards%20Process.pdf

Zehr, M. A. (2011). Conference:Implementing Common CoreStandards for ELLs, Learning theLanguage Blog, August 11, 2010.Education Weekly. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-thelan-guage/2010/08/conference_implementing_common.html

Zehr, M. A. (2011). Stanford to leadcreation of ELL standards for“Common Core” Learning theLanguage Blog, July 12, 2011,Education Weekly. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-thelan-guage/2011/07/stanford_to_lead_creation_of_e.html

Diane Garafalo is a former ESL teacherat Oswego City School District. She was also a secondary English teacher, with a total of fi fteen years of public school teaching experience. Diane’s previous posi-tions include working as an adjunct professor of written communications for ITT Technical Institute and a hu-man resources and training manager for a variety of Fortune 500 compa-nies. Currently, Diane is an HR and workforce literacy consultant forDRG Associates.<[email protected]>

Come to theAnnual Conference

October 28-29, 2011

New York State Teachers ofEnglish to Speakers of

Other Languages

41st Annual Conference

“Enhancing EnglishLearning: ConnectingCommunities Through

Collaboration”

Marriott HotelMelville, NY

For further information, go towww.nystesol.org

and check your e-mailon the

NYS TESOL ListservIf you are interested in

volunteeringor have questions,

contact

Conference ChairChristy Baralis [email protected]

13

ESL teachers employ a variety of instructional tools in the classroom. Conversation can be used to help students practice pronunciation, to prepare and develop a well-thought-out paragraph, and to enhance listening skills. Most important, conversational activities tap into students’ schema to help them fully develop critical thinking skills in English. Below are several activities I have used with my students.

To introduce the concept of students’ origins, I show students how to use the Reporter’s Questions (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How) to gather information. Students partner with one another to ask these questions and record the answers. When the class comes to-gether again, I ask the group, “Who has a partner coming from a country whose name begins with the letter A?” Students might answer Argentina. The class then identifi es which continent Argentina is on. Students check the map in the class-room to know more about their partner’s home country. This is repeated until the end of the alphabet. Students work with their partners to see what they already know about these countries. This prior knowledge helps students realize that they know more than they think about geography and other topics.

Next, the class discusses the variety of languages spoken by the students. After obtaining this information, students put the names of these languages on the board. This fi rst conversation in class provides information needed for the fi rst writing assignment, which is the biogra-phy of a class member. The fi rst draft be-

gins in class and is peer reviewed for con-tent by the student’s conversation partners. Their homework is to review the draft and to rewrite it at home on the computer. The next day, I review the homework with students and focus my comments on a grammatical topic, such as verb tense us-age. I choose to focus my feedback on one or two aspects of the writing assignment so that a completely marked-up paper does not increase students’ writing anxiety.

The next assignment involves reading a biography about a famous American. It might be a commonly known American like George Washington or someone from a particular fi eld. After forming groups and prior to reading, students discuss what they already know about the person and what they expect to see in the article. I introduce the concepts of topic and main idea as well as vocabulary specific to the story. After reading the biography, students individually answer the Reporter’s Ques-tions from the article, and then share their answers with their conversation group.

In groups, students generate their own questions using the Reporter’s Questions. When the class comes together, one stu-dent from each conversation group writes one question on the board—the questions should not be duplicates of other groups’ questions. Students read each question aloud. I ask the whole class for gram-matical corrections to the questions. After completing the exercise, students write a summary of the biography—they can use these questions or the ones from the con-versation group—and show this to their conversation partner for feedback. Their homework is to create a revised version of the in-class written summary that incorpo-rates their partners’ feedback. They staple the draft to the top of the rewrite.

Using conversation sheets, such as those available at www.bogglesworldesl.com, also provides opportunities for interac-tion. Each conversation sheet centers on a theme such as seasons, media, habits, and customs. These can be used to talk about the topic in conversation groups, to learn vocabulary specifi c to a topic, and to prac-tice pronunciation. I ask students to look up defi nitions of highlighted words on the sheets. As an instructor, using these sheets is a way to determine

students’ familiarity with American culture and to plan class trips. Students can also conduct research to enhance their knowledge about media.

I used these conversation activities with levels 3 to 7 students (as measured by the Best Plus) enrolled in non-credit ESL CUNY courses for a semester or more. Students ranged from 18 to 60 years, were from all over the world, and spoke a wide variety of languages. Some were recent-ly arrived professionals who had university degrees; others had a basic education in their native country.

Students developed a sense of community because of the shared conversation exercises. Many good friendships began in class and continued after graduation. These friend-ships made it more enjoyable for many to attend class on a regular basis and did lead to fewer absences. By the end, students learned how to express their ideas more clearly in English and how to formulate questions for future educational use. Their critical thinking skills were used to evaluate the new information and to compare it to what they already knew.

Elaine Caputo Ferrara re-ceived a Master’s degree from N.Y.U. in educational psychology, with a specialty in reading and special educa-tion. At the College of Staten Island, she teaches reading and writing to college students in ESL classes. Recently, she developed a citizenship class for students.

<[email protected]>

For ELLs, Talking Is Learningby Elaine Caputo Ferrara

14

CALL FOR AWARDS

Exceptional Professionals

To honor contributions made within our field, NYS TESOL pres-ents several awards annually, including:

James A. Lydon Distinguished Service Award Outstanding Teacher Award Recognition AwardLifetime Achievement AwardJames E. Weaver Memorial AwardSpecial Award

Year Award Honoree2010

Recognition Award Dr. Anita BatistiOutstanding Teacher Dr. Maria Dove

2009 Lifetime Achievement Award Estee Lopez

Recognition Award Dr. Walter Sullivan & Saul Cohen

Outstanding Teacher Barbara Suter

2008 James E. Weaver Memorial Award Alison O’Neil

Recognition Award Sam HoytOutstanding Teacher Donna Bove

2007 James A. Lydon Distinguished Service George Morris

Recognition Award Maria NeiraOutstanding Teacher Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld & Caryn Bachar

2006 James A. Lydon Distinguished Service Dr. Frank Tang

Outstanding Teacher Patricia C. La Rose

2005 James A. Lydon Distinguished Service Diana Segovia Praus

2011 Award Winners will be presented at the41st Annual Conference October 28th & 29th, 2011Please review our available awards and criteria for submission atwww.nystesol.org.

Submit all nominations and supporting documentation as attach-ments via e-mail to: Meredith Van Schuyler, [email protected] submissions due September 23, 2011.

ELLs respond well to lessons in the form of con-versations as another way to incorporate some of the same strategies and scaffolds used for writing. As an example, I often give students a prompt of 5-10 words. For all grades I have used “My greatest surprise.” Fourth graders write about justice.

The students use the prompt as a starter and begin writing, eventually producing a well-developed para-graph. These same prompts can be used to maintain intelligent discourse among students. The difference with making conversations the major goal in a lesson is that the discussion will not be based on previous reading and/or writing, but strictly on the pres-ent conversation. Self-expression, thoughts, ideas, and opinions will begin and end with clarifi cation through conversation only. Making this an integral part of lessons will address the challenges faced by our ELL population in verbal communication, and can enhance the student’s listening and speaking skills.

Another value with conversations as a major focus is that the vocabulary challenges faced by many of our ELLs will be considered. Our students may have divided language skills. They are comfortable with a specifi c lexicon from the home language, but use a different second language lexicon. A stronger emphasis on classroom conversations will allow for a balance and exchange of word comprehension of similar vocabulary in both languages. Conversations will be a major theme in my ESL classrooms this school year in support of enhancing my students’ oral language skills. Further Reading

Beck, I., McKeown, M., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bring-ing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York: Guilford. Gordon, T. (2007). Teaching young children a second language. Westport, CT: Praeger. Yanick Chery-Frederic is an elementary school ESL teacher for grades 2-4 in Central Islip, as well as an adjunct professor of ESL at Suffolk County Community College. She has also taught a Methods undergraduate course in TESOL at St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue. <[email protected]>

Let’s Talk about It!by Yanick Chery-Frederic

15

Engaging English Language Learners (ELLs) in a few minutes of small talk prior to the start of ESL class can be a very useful strategy. The purpose of small talk is not about gauging how grammatically correct my students can speak in English -- although I do make mental notes of students’ grammatical diffi culties for subsequent lessons. It provides the opportunity for my students to be heard in a very relaxed setting, while allowing their English to emerge. It certainly can be a challenge to insert those few minutes during the fast-paced schedule of a typical school day, but I have found it to be a source of valuable information.

I often begin the small talk session with an informational “wh” question such as “How was your appointment at the den-tist?” or “What did you do after school yesterday?” The responses are quite re-vealing. Some students, especially those in middle school, are initially guarded, while others seem surprised that I want to know more about them. Gradually as they learn to trust me as well as their classmates, the students slowly open up. It is gratifying to see a once painfully shy kindergarten student now coming to class with daily announcements such as, “You know what? Yesterday, I lose (sic) a tooth”.

There are other times when students express more sensitive issues, which we discuss further in private. One example of this occurred when an ELL in third grade told me during our small talk ses-sion that one of the other students in the mainstream class made fun of his speech and called him “stupid.” Neither his

classroom teacher nor I had noticed any tension between these two students. The fact that the ELL who mentioned this incident had always felt self-conscious about his ability to speak English prompted my immediate arrangement of a meeting with his teacher and the other student. Fortunately, we were able to resolve the situation, but it taught me to become more vigilant when working with ELLs in the mainstream class-room.

It is impressive to listen to a student retell a story or incident, but the most gratifying part is when he or she is able to connect it to a new concept. When studying the concept of cause and effect during a reading lesson, I sensed that only a few students under-stood this concept, while many did not. Suddenly, one student announced, “Do you remember when I told you the story about how I accidentally spilled water on the kitchen fl oor?” He proudly continued, “That was an example of cause and effect. The cause was when I spilled water on the floor. The effect was when my mom became angry.” His classmates nodded their heads in agreement. It was as if a light bulb had been turned on! I could not have provided a better example of cause and effect!

As ELLs become more confi dent in speaking English, more of their per-sonalities emerge. During one of our small talk sessions, I asked a beginning ELL in the fi rst grade, “Where does your brother go to school?” Without hesitation, she stated, “My brother go (sic) to Sleepy Hollow School. Zzzzzzzz. Sleepy School. I am soooo sleepy!” as she put her head on the desk and pretended to sleep. Prior to that comment, I had not seen that humorous side of her. I noticed how thrilled she was that she had made me laugh. I then decided to follow her quip with another “wh” question. I tapped her on the shoulder as her eyes snapped open and her head bobbed up from the table. “What does your brother like to do at school?” I asked. She smiled and impishly replied, “He like (sic) to sleep.” How clever this little girl was! I realized several things

during our small talk exchange. This student demonstrated that she understood the word “sleepy”, she connected that understanding to a different context, and she found a way to make it humorous. None of these is easy to do, especially at the beginning of the language acqui-sition process. Later in the day, I had this student retell the joke to her teacher and some of her classmates. This small talk ses-sion was a pivotal moment for this student because she was clearly pleased to see that she could be funny in English. I have noticed that ELLs have the capacity to dissect words in interesting ways, especially when these words are spoken. When native English speakers think about words, we tend to focus on the sum and not the parts. When a student was beginning ELL in second grade, I recall his reading a passage out loud. After encountering the two-syllable word, “awesome”, he pro-nounced it as if were a threesyl-lable words, “a – we—some”. Prior to that day, I had never re-alized that the word “awesome” is comprised of three smaller words: “a”, “we” and “some”. That was a revelation for me. How awesome!

I am sure that many ESL teachers utilize small talk or some variant of it in their classrooms. It is not a novel concept, but I fi nd that it is valuable during a limited amount of time. Conversations, which on the surface may appear superfl uous, are in actuality a gold mine of enriching and relevant information. Joy Scan-tlebury is a graduate of Smith College. She received her M.A.

in TESOL from Teachers Col-lege, Columbia University. Joy currently teaches ESL at Pocanti-co Hills Central School in Sleepy Hollow, NY. <[email protected]>

Small Talk: A Meaningful Conversation Toolby Joy Scantlebury

16

Below: Everyone listens as Ufualè Afola Amey talks about learning English from her teacher Dave, a Peace Corps volunteer

Right: Sonia Portugal, Peru, performs Floating Words, a dance she choreographed to portray the spirit of English language learning.

Left: Ahmed El-Habashi, Egypt; Tomoko Kihira, Japan; Ufualè Afola Amey, Togo; Osiris Romero, Dominican Republic and Elena Lyumanova, Russia, come together in anticipation of their panel presentation.

17

IntroductionDuring Timed Conversations, learners primarily practice listening/ speaking skills and a host of other conversational skills, including but not limited to: turn taking; the language of encouragement and praise; the language of expressing unfamiliarity with topics; comprehension checking; and agreeing and disagreeing. Although generally referred to as Timed Conversations, some specify the time lim-it in the title, for example: Four Minute Conversations. Timed Conversations are typically fl uency-based and opportu-nities for learners to personalize and converse about a topic, for a specifi ed period of time.

For the instructor, Timed Conversations can function as: a warm-up activity to ac-tivate learners’ schemata, to focus learn-ers on the lesson topic or to connect the previous and current lessons; a follow-up activity to allow learners to expand on and personalize lesson content; a fi ller activity to purposefully utilize ‘extra time’ at the end of a lesson; a stress-re-liever activity to infuse a sense of fun into a lesson; a review activity for content courses; and a speech-sampling activity to gauge learners’ conversational skills.

MaterialsIn order to conduct Timed Conversa-tions you essentially need two things- a timer and topic cards. Conveniently, wrist watches, cell phones, iPads, computers, stop-watches, kitchen timers and class-room clocks can all function as timers.

Ideally, the topics refl ected on the cards should complement your lesson topic. For example, if you were planning a lesson on ‘classic baked goods,’

each topic card could refl ect the name of a classic baked good. Format topic cards on a computer, print in color and laminate them (if these are resources available to you and if you will add this activity to your repertoire). Of course, you can also prepare a slide show of ‘topic cards’ to display on a computer or iPad. Topic cards can be word-based (pie, quiche, tart); question-based (“How would you prepare icing?”); statement-based (“Tell me about your favorite baked childhood dessert.”); and picture-based (image of a six-tiered wed-ding cake).

PreparationConsider your learners’ profi le, lesson topic and objectives when deciding if this is an appropriate activity to do with your learners.

Consider how much time you want to allot to the activity. Multiply the number of topic cards by the duration of each conversation- 10 topic cards X 2 minutes per conversation = 20 minutes total.

Decide which version of the activity you are going to do. You can choose to keep:

Conversation pairs static and have learners switch topic cards. With static pairs, learners get to ‘bond’ with one conversational

partner over various topics while focusing on sharing their ideas

and personalizing the topic.

Topic cards static and have learners switch partners. With dynamic

pairs, learners get to interact with

diverse speakers while refi ning their ideas about one topic and

polishing their delivery.

Both topic cards and conversa-tion pairs static while reducing

the duration of the conversations in set increments. This version lends itself to learners who are

preparing for timed oral presentations and assessments, by allowing learners to refi ne their ideas about one topic and

polish their timed delivery.

Decide how you will pair off your learners and if pairs are go-ing to sit in two rows or stand in

two concentric circles facing their partners.

Decide what an odd-numbered learner would be responsible for- time keeper or ‘English only’ enforcer. If you choose to have all learners participate (and have them change partners instead of topic cards), an extra chair can allow the odd-numbered learner to ‘rest’ for one turn. Of course, you can always choose to participate in the activity with your learners.

Plan to model activity and de-liver clear instructions specifi c to the version of Timed Conver-sations you are going to do.

Plan what you will observe while monitoring learners during the activity. This will conse-quently direct the feedback you will give learners.

Timed ConversationsBy Phillipa Arthur

18

Plan the questions you will use to elicit feedback from learners after the activity about their performance during activity.

ProcedureUse teacher talk appropriate to the profi ciency level of your learners to deliver clear instructions and to confirm your learners’ comprehension of your instructions.

Deliver global instructions to your learners which include: the activity title, sequencing/format, purpose and duration, and, if necessary, responsibility of odd-numbered learner or use of ‘rest’ chair.

Pair off learners and arrange pairs so that they are either seated in two rows or standing in two concentric circles facing their partners. Model activity for class and demon-strate how:

you will start the activity by saying “begin”

pairs will take turns to converse about the topic indicated on the

topic card for X minutes

pairs will converse only in English

every X minutes, a time keeper will say “switch” indicating that pairs need to switch topic cards

by passing them to the pair to the right (or to the left)

you will end activity by saying “the end.”

Model that learners can remind their partner to stay on-task by simply pointing to the topic card

Model some of the conversational language you expect learners to use- the language of urging and praise; of agreeing and disagreeing and so on.

Begin activity and cycle through the number of topics you have planned. Circulate and monitor learners throughout activity.

Follow-upElicit feedback from learners about their performance.

Give learners feedback based on how successfully they completed the activity. Remember, this is a fl uency-based activity. However, if you modify it to include specifi c ver-bal strategies or a focus on form, you could document the inaccuracies of your learners’ English as you circulate, and do a whole-class correction on the whiteboard follow-ing the activity.

Elicit specifi c feedback from learners about how they felt about having to:

sustain a conversation in English for X minutes at a time

switch topics every X minutes

include conversational language

have a classmate time them or sit in the ‘rest’ chair

Stand or sit during activity; pass along topic cards; change

partners

Give learners specifi c feedback about:

how well they sustained their conversations in English for X

minutes at a time

how well they stayed on task

their use of conversationallanguage

how effi ciently they followed instructions

Promise to do variations of activity throughout the semes-ter. These fluency-based activities may generate future conversations in your classroom, providing rich opportuni-ties for students to interact and practice English-speaking skills.

Phillipa Arthur has taught ESL/EFL in the United States, China and Korea. She is currently a Language Lecturer at Yeungnam University in South Korea. <[email protected]>

19

20

Idioms pop up everywhere in English media, often met with confused looks by our students. Even more ad-vanced students have diffi culty using them with any degree of competence, especially if the idioms are culturally different from their own (Irujo,1986). Given their importance, more attention should be paid to teaching idioms in ESL settings (Cooper, 1998). It is up to teachers to help students not only learn idioms, but also to encourage their usage in an intelligible manner. How can we incorporate idioms into classroom settings in a relaxed, com-municative, and student-centered way? More important, how can we teach the intonation of idioms to achieve stu-dents’ maximum intelligibility? I have found the following three activities to be helpful for my students.

BYOI—Bring Your Own Idiom Each student chooses one idiom to “teach” the class. They may choose from any source, and learn it well enough to be able to explain it in front of their classmates. This is a great warm-up; it’s student-centered and exciting, since they have chosen these idioms themselves based on their own interests. Don’t be surprised if a num-ber of idioms come from Gossip Girl or Glee, American television programs centering around high-school stu-dents, so idioms relating to dating and shopping tend to surface quite often (i.e., It’s on me; She’s into him; Those

shoes are totally you). During the students’ explanations, I stay off to the side and will assist only if the situation calls for it; I have even done

this activity remotely via Skype when I was home sick in bed. Having the students in charge of this activity made it quite manageable. It can also act as a springboard for all kinds of culturerelated discussions.

Where Is the CHAnge?A major obstacle facing our students is intelligibility, especially when using idioms. While pronunciation may be a factor, an equally important factor is proper intonation. As the pitch in our voices rises and falls, these changes in intonation are processed by the listener (Cruttenden, 1986). If you have ever studied Chinese, Thai, or Vietnamese, you may be familiar with the inextri-cable link between the proper tone and communication. In English as well, when language is given the correct intonation, communication can be greatly enhanced. To emphasize this point with my students, I imitate the “wa wa” teacher from Charlie Brown. I walk around the class, lock eyes with a student, raise my hand, and slowly say “Wa, wa wa Wa?” What I am actually saying is “Hi, how are You?” Students inevitably guess correctly and are quite surprised that they can understand what I am saying. Once they have caught on, we can then cre-

ate contextual situations and apply the proper intonation. A mini-dialogue I might have with a student in front of the class, in which my role would be B, is as follows:

A: What are you doing this weekend?

B: This weekend? Nothing special. I’ll probably just hang OUt.

A: OK. Give me a call.

B: Alright.

After the classmates have heard the dialogue, I will ask them, “Where is the change?” Hopefully, they will hear “OUt” on the fi rst try. I will then mark it on the board. The rise in pitch at the beginning of “OUt” rather than on the word “hang” is essential to the intelligibility of the idiom as well as to the rest of the dialogue. Teachers play a vital role here. Once an idiom is presented, either the students or the teacher should provide/elicit the prop-er intonation and then mark it. This marking system is especially impor-tant for non-native-English-speaking teachers who may be unfamiliar with the proper intonation of idioms.

The good news regarding idiomatic phrases is that there are general intonation patterns. In an emphasized two-syllable word, such as “brainer” in the expression “no-brainer,” the word tends to receive a higher tone or pitch on the fi rst syllable. It’s a no-BRAIner. In the case of a one-syllable word, such as “cake” in the expres-sion “piece of cake,” there is a higher tone on the fi rst half of the word: It’s a piece of CAke. In either case, the rising intonation at the beginning is then followed by a falling intonation. Saying the idiom in front of your stu-dents in slow motion can really help to clarify this, and it is also good for a laugh. When students know the proper intonation, communication can be achieved even with less-than-perfect pronunciation. This is good news for our students, as it is generally much easier to change the pitch of a word than to pronounce the word properly.

Mini Dialogues

Promising Practices

Piece of cake! Idiom activities and the importance of proper intonationby Andrew Edison Schneider

This is an ongoing column, featuringadvice for effective teaching. Please sendarticle submissions to the column editor, AnnC. Wintergerst (contact information on page 23 of this issue).

21

The mini dialogues written by the stu-dents, followed by an in-class role play, are not only a lot of fun but practical and effective exercises for ESL students (Nunan, 2003; Scott & Ytreberg, 2000). They could be done as homework or in class individu-ally, in pairs, or in groups. These dia-logues supply the context necessary to achieve natural usage and effective com-munication (Nippold & Martin, 1989). The task is to write mini dialogues, where each dialogue contains at least one idiom from class, either from our text or from one of the students’ BYOI. There should be just enough context (4-6 lines) for the exchange to be mean-ingful (Nippold & Martin, 1989).

Make sure the students understand that even though these dialogues are being written down, they should be striving for spoken and not written English. I also ask them to consider the roles of the speakers as in the fol-lowing student dialogue (the professor is putting on her coat as her student enters the office):

A: Excuse me. Professor? Are you busy?

B: I’m running LAte, actually. I’ll be here tomorrow.

A: Ok, thank you.

B: Alright.

This exchange meets the criteria in that it is a spoken dialogue, the roles are defi ned, at least one idiom is used, and the idiom is marked with the proper intonation. Once their dialogues are done, I collect, correct, and return them. Afterward, I circulate, taking student questions on my corrections. Then, I have each pair practice and perform at least one of their dialogues in front of the class. Eye contact, body language (students must sit facing each other), and voice management should be empha-sized during practice time. Be sure to circulate, as some students will simply read the dialogue together. I walk around with a blank sheet of 8½ x 11 paper, which I use to cover up the dialogue they are working on. This forces them

to look up and, hopefully, at each other. The students then perform at the front of the class. I act as the director, yelling “Action!” and opening/closing my cell phone like a director’s slate. The class listens for the idiom used in the dia-logue. This is always fun, as students en-joy watching their classmates perform. I like to supply props/wigs to spice it up. Be prepared for the cameras to come out! I also quiz them on the idiom and the intonation right after each dialogue.

ConclusionEnglish continues to be a global language. Proper knowledge and usage of idioms are powerful tools for anyone requiring English in daily com-munication. By focusing on the proper intonation for our students to achieve maximum intelligibility, we are better equipping them for the English-speaking world. It is important for us as teachers to go the extra mile.

ReferencesCooper, T. C. (1998). Teaching idioms. For-eign Language Annals, 31(2), 255-266.

Cruttenden, M. (1986). Intonation.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Irujo, S. (1986). Don’t put your leg in your mouth: Transfer in the acquisition of idioms in a second language. TESOL Quarterly, 20, 287-304.Nippold, M. A., & Martin, S. T. (1989).

Idiom interpretation in isolation versus con-text: A developmental study with adolescents. Journal Speech & Hearing Research, 32,59-66.Nunan, D. (2003). Practical English teach-ing. New York: McGraw Hill.Scott, W. A., & Ytreberg, L. H. (2000).

Teaching English to children. New York: Longman.Andrew Schneider has been teaching ESL/EFL for 20 years, hav-ing taught in Japan, Spain, and the United States. He currently teaches medical students in Kanazawa, Japan. <[email protected]>

I am delighted to combine mybackground in publishing with my love of TESOL as the new editor of Idiom. Thank you to my predecessor, Julie Dziewisz, for her great work and help with a smooth transition. I also thank the column editors, copy editor, NYS TESOL leadership andmembers for the warm wel-come.

My career began with a B.A. in journalism from NYU. After Iswitched to marketing, and laterfundraising, I volunteered in anESOL classroom and loved it. I enrolled in Teachers College, Columbia University, graduated with an Ed.M. in TESOL, and began working as an adjunct at Pace, CUNY, and Columbia.

Presently, I work in an intensiveEnglish program at Nassau Community College. We focus on improving students’ skills through an integrated, holistic approach, so that they canexit our program and be pre-pared for college-level work. I also instruct and mentor aspiring TESOL teachers at the Literacy Assistance Center. I welcome the chance to meet with inter-ested writers during the Annualconference in October. See you there! -Cara <[email protected]>

Introduction fromthe new Idiom Editor,Cara Tuzzolino Werben

Greetings Idiom readers,

22

Mario Rinvolucri and Paul Davis’More Grammar Games: Cognitive,Affective and Movement Activities forEFL Students provides a revamping oftheir earlier work Grammar Games,which was originally published in1984. The authors designed the textto provide EFL/ESL teachers witha framework for games that can bemodifi ed to be appropriate for differ-ent age groups and varied Englishprofi ciency levels. Therefore, whilethe usefulness of the book as a supple-mental text in the adult ESL classroomis the main purpose of this review, itsutility can be applied to various teach-ing scenarios.

The text is divided into nine sectionsincluding “Competitive Games,”“Cognitive Games,” “Feelings andGrammar,” “Listening to People,”“Movement and Grammar,” “Meaningand Translation,” “Problem Solving,”“Correction” and “Presentation,” fora total of 81 games, or mini-lessons.As the titles suggest, many lessons arerooted in the principles of well-knownEnglish language learning methodolo-gies including the Silent Way, as wellas Counseling-Learning/CommunityLanguage Learning (CLL). The bookbegins with a table of contents notingthe games and page numbers. Thisis followed by a detailed map of thebook with the game titles, grammar

topics covered, and levels and timeneeded. The introduction also includescommentary from the authors on howthe book can be used and their ratio-nale for the methodologies utilized bysection.

Each game begins with the titleof the game and a box restating thedetails from the map of the book. Ifthe game can be adapted for otherstructures and levels, a sub-box statesthis. To start the main portion of themini-lesson, the authors note anypreparation required before class. Thisis followed by a breakdown of thein-class procedures of the game. Theauthors also include examples, varia-tions, a rationale overview, and notesor acknowledgements when necessary.Lastly, any required handouts are pro-vided. On a minor note, the examplesand handouts are written using BritishEnglish vocabulary. In the case ofclasses in the United States, instructorswill need to rewrite these in StandardAmerican English.

The fi rst section includes competitivegames, which are designed toincrease motivation by fostering col-laboration within groups while creat-ing a safe, spirited environment. Manyof the games in this section focus onthe correction of material provided bythe teacher. This, of course, means that

the instructor must devote time to thepreparation of the game. For some thiscould be less than ideal. The cogni-tive games in section two are unique in their structure as, according to the authors, the exercises are mostly open-ended ones: this differs from many grammar exercises that require one correct response. The fl exibility of the activities allows students to dis-cover various aspects of the language without the direct infl uence of the instructor. While these types of ac-tivities can be very creative and have their place in certain contexts, giving students unlimited control overthe types of sentences produced cancause the direction of the lesson to bediverted. For this reason, although this section follows the Silent Way method in its purest form (Larsen-Freeman, 2000), the lack of fi nal language destination does not follow the integrated and pragmatic way that the Silent Way is often practiced in the classroom.

Sections three and four, which dealwith feelings and listening to others,respectively, are arguably the stron-gest chapters. Here, games are designed to promote healthy inter-personal discussions, which require speakers to make use of a specifi c grammar structure. Many teachers can attest to the positive infl uence that mutual understanding, respect and personal investment in the classroom can have on productiv-ity (e.g., Counseling Learning and Community Language Learning—see Larsen-Freeman, 2000). Section fi ve is made up of games that incorporate grammar and movement. While there is a modicum of Desuggestopedia inherent in games throughout the text, this section explicitly focuses on the usage of movement to instill lan-guage concepts. The rationale seems to be that students are more open to language learning when the precon-ceived mental and emotional barriers to learning are “desuggested” through lighthearted activity (Larsen- Free-man, 2000).

In the meaning and translation

Book ReviewThis is an ongoing column, featuring reviews of booksand other materials for ESOL teachers and students. Please send article submissions to the column editor,Nanette Dougherty (contact information is on page 22)

More Grammar Games: Cognitive, Affective and Move-ment Activities for EFL Students. By Mario Rinvolucriand Paul Davis. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. UK. (2010). 176 pp. ISBN: 978-0-521-46630-1

Reviewed by Kathryn North

23

games found in section six, the miniles-sons focus on having studentsdevelop a deeper grasp of the nuancesand root meaning of language by linking English with their mother tongue.While the debate over the use of transla-tion in the ESL classroom continues, us-ing native languages as a resource in the foreign/second language classroom can help to build linguistic abilities in both languages, bridge existing knowledge to the acquisition of the new language, and give validity to the fi rst language (Baker, 2006; Gibbons, 2009). Therefore, if instructors use these mini-lessons, they may fi nd that when properly adminis-tered, deep learning can take place dur-ing games that use translation.

The last three sections are lesssubstantial. Section seven deals withproblem solving. Section eight offerstechniques for self, peer and teachercorrections. Finally, section nine recom-mends alternatives for the presentation of new grammar topics to a class.

Both students and teacher havemuch to gain from More GrammarGames. The authors offer ideas forgames that appeal to many differentlearning styles. With the exception ofmusical and natural intelligences, thisbook contains games that promoteall the multiple intelligences (Gardner, 2006). The book also lists gamesspecifi cally designed to strengthen receptive skills to help students be-come more active listeners and readers. Furthermore, utilizing grammar games, an instructor can adeptly introduce grammar topics without the use of overt grammatical language. Although the discussion of teaching grammatical form vs. focusing on communicative interactions is still very predominant in the ESL teaching fi eld, research has shown that the integration of grammar with contextualized language creates the most effi cient mode of learning (Larsen-Freeman 2001).

To offer some criticism, the organiza-tional structure of the text can bechallenging. For those who normallyorganize lessons in a progression ofscaffolded topics, the division byunderlying pedagogical approaches

may be less intuitive. In addition, theorganization within the sections is un-clearand fi nding a game for a specifi cgrammar topic or level requires somehunting within the map of the text.Further, many of the games, especially in sections one and two, require a fair amount of setup. While an instructor may hope to use a book of games as a quick reference for lesson ideas, the time required for fi nding an appropri-ate lesson and setup prevent the book from being used in that manner. Finally, while one would assume that all of the games are related explicitly to grammar, some have a more semantic focus. This does not deter the student from gaining knowledge but should benoted.

ReferencesBaker, C. (2006). Foundations ofbilingual education and bilingualism(4th ed.). Toronto: MultilingualMatters.

Gardner, H. (2006). Multiple intelligences:New Horizons. New York:Basic Books.

Gibbons, P. (2009). English LearnersAcademic Literacy and Thinking:Learning in the Challenge Zone.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Teachingand Principles in Language Teaching (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2001). Teachinggrammar. In M. Celce-Murcia(Ed.), Teaching English as a Secondor Foreign Language (3rd ed.)(pp. 251-266). Boston: Heinkle &Heinkle Thomson Learning.

Rinvolucri, M., & Davis, P. (1995).More Grammar Games: Cognitive,Affective and MovementActivities for EFL Students. NewYork: Cambridge University Press.

Kathryn N. North is a recent graduateof New York University’s Master’sProgram in TESOL. An ESOL instructorwith the New York Public Library,Kathryn also tutors writing and developmen-tal reading at the Borough ofManhattan Community College.<[email protected]>

In coordination with the 2011 NYS TESOL annual conference, “Enhancing English Learn-ing: Connecting Communities through Collaboration,” the topic for this year’s student essay contest, “How has your commu-nity helped you learn English?,” revolved around communities and the role that living, working, and interacting in them plays in the English language learners’ (ELLs) acquisition of English.

The essay contest was held forstudents who are current or for-mer ELLs within three categories: students in grades four through eight; students in grades nine through twelve; and students enrolled in a university or an adult education program, includ-ing students enrolled in Intensive English programs, community colleges, degree-based programs, and ESOL programs.The student essay contest was very successful, with 113 essays received from throughout New York State. A winner and an hon-orary mention were chosen from each of the three categories. The names of the winners and honor-ary mentions will be announced during the Friday luncheon at the annual conference and their essays will be printed in the conference booklet. The winning essays will also be included in the winter edition of Idiom as well as be posted on the NYS TESOL Special Interest Group (SIG) Student Essay Contest page.

Please join me in thanking all of the students who submitted essays to the sixth annual student essay contest! Watch for news about the 2012 contest in an upcoming issue of Idiom, as well as on our website.

2011 NYS TESOL Student Essay Contest

by Laura Van TassellNYS TESOL SIG Coordinator

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Idiom is a quarterly publication formembers of NYS TESOL. The editorswelcome articles as well as reactionsto articles. All copy (maximum 1000words, typed, double-spaced, with word count provided ) should follow APA guidelines and be submitted via e-mail (MS Word). Please include your name and address (including telephone number and e-mail address), as well as a brief (3-4 sentences) biographical statement. Please visit idiom.nystesol.org for links regarding APA guidelines and to view a sample article.

Idiom’s editorial goals are to be accu-rate, to maintain the writer’s message,content, and style, and to fi t the work in the space allotted.

Idiom reserves the right to edit allmanuscripts for clarity, brevity, andstyle; the editors will consult with contributors on substantive revisions. Articles from Idiom may be reprinted with proper acknowledgment of the source.

Editor:Cara Tuzzolino WerbenLINCC-Nassau Community CollegeOne Education Dr.Garden City, NY 11530(516) 573-0165E-mail: [email protected]

Editorial Consultant:Ceil GoldmanPrinting and Mailing:The Coughlin Printing Group, Watertown

Column Editors:Book ReviewNanette DoughertyEmail: [email protected]

Culture NotesElisabeth Gareis257 Crest DriveTarrytown, NY 10591Tel.: (914) 524-7915E-mail: [email protected]

Promising PracticesAnn C. WintergerstDept. of Languages and LiteraturesSt. John’s UniversityQueens, NY 11439E-mail: [email protected]

Editorial Notes

October 28-29, 2011 NYS TESOL 41st Annual Conference“Enhancing English Learning: Connecting Communities Through Collaboration” Melville Marriott in Melville, Long Island. See http://www.nystesol.org

February 11, 2012 33rd Annual Applied Linguistics Winter Conference“Connections: TESOL and Applied Linguistics in a Global Context”We’ll continue to keep you posted! Questions? Contact us at: [email protected]

March 28-31, 2012 TESOL International Convention and English Language Expo “A Declaration of Excellance” Philadelphia For more information: www.tesol.org/s_tesol/convention2012/index.html

Calendar and Announcements

Upcoming IdiomThemes

Annual Conference

Please submit articles based onpresentations at the NYS TESOL conference(Oct. 28-29, 2011)“Enhancing English Learning:Connecting Communities ThroughCollaboration”at Melville Marriott

TBD

Deadlines and themes for 2012will be published inthe Winter 2011 issue of Idiom.

Submission Deadline: December 1

25

Check out the new Members Only website!

We’re very excited to announce the launch of the new Members Only website for NYS TESOL. We are just gearing up, but hope this will become a ma-jor resource and networking site for our members.

Current members were sent an email alert in early September containing their username and pass-word. Of course, your email system may have fi ltered our message into a spam folder —if you are a current member and did not receive a notice with your login information, pleasecontact us at [email protected].

With annual conference registration already under way, please act quickly to login and verify your profi le data and networking preferences.

Your PRIVACY

This site is viewable only by active members. And, because this is new, we have also blocked your contact information from members. So, unlike Facebook, where you decide what to set as ‘private,’ we’ve already done this. The only information visible to other members is: your Name, Member Type, Region and SIG preferences. You can privatize these, too, if you wish, by updating your profile.

However, for those of you who want to network with other members, there are 2 optional fields – an “email to share” and a “website/blog address” both set up as viewable by all members. And you can upload a photo. You control the privacy settings for these fi elds and can edit them at any time.

What’s Next?

We’d like you to tell us! Please look around the site, update your profi le, join a discussion board, and send us ideas for additions and improvements.

NYS TESOL is committed to providing members with the most up-to-date resources, news and educational tools. To enable access by all members of our fi eld, NYS TESOL offers discounted memberships. Recently, we revised the documentation policy for discounts to align with other non-profi t organizations as well as to create greater consistency and transparency. Please check the new requirements when you prepare to renew. For questions regarding membership status and discounts, please contact us at [email protected].

Discounted Membership Update

What’s There Your profi le page Membership renewal Discounted event registration Members Only online publication, Dialogue Discussion boards

Coming Soon Networking options SIG/Region E-lists Job Coach/Career Mentoring Service opportunities and awards

26

A. ESL in Adult Education B. ESL in Bilingual Education E. ESL in Elementary EducationS. ESL in Secondary Education H. ESL in Higher Education SE. ESL in Special EducationTE. ESL Teacher Education L .Applied Linguistics T. Teaching English Internationally

New York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

27

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Upcoming Idiom Themes The theme of the Winter 2011-12 issue of Idiom is “Annual Conference.” The deadline is December 1.Interested in writing for Idiom? Review article submission guidelines at http://idiom.nystesol.org/guidelines.html

Applied Linguistics Winter ConferenceConnections: Tesol and Applied Linguistics in a Global Context

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Presentations throughout the day

Poster Sessions

Publisher Exhibitions

Teachers College, Columbia University525 W. 120th Street, New York, NY

Call for Proposals & Registration Information Coming Soon!Organized by NYS TESOL Applied Linguistics SIG & Teacher College, Columbia University

Contact us at: [email protected]

NYS TESOL 33rd Annual

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