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2025 CCSF ESL
The 18th Annual CCSF ESL Colloquium
The 18th Annual CCSF ESL Colloquium
An Online Teachers Conference
An Online Teachers Conference
Friday, April 18th and Saturday, April 19th on Zoom
Day 1: Friday, April 18th
___________________________________________________________________________________________
1:00-1:50 pm: Presentation A
Who You Gonna Call? ESL Resources and Connections You Need Now!
Susan Schall, Elisa Shore, Anna-Lisa Helmy, Nuala Sheetz, Rob Yung, Kelley O’Neil, Tom Kennedy, Angelika Kasten
sschall@ccsf.edu, eshore@ccsf.edu, ahelmy@ccsf.edu, nsheetz@ccsf.edu, ryung@ccsf.edu, koneilannis@ccsf.edu, tkennedy@ccsf.edu, angelika.kasten@mail.ccsf.edu
Have you ever wondered who to contact for help with your classes, teaching resources, and general questions about City College? It can sometimes be overwhelming to find answers quickly. In this panel discussion, we will share resources for our department and college and identify key players with various areas of expertise. We will have time for Q&A throughout. If you have an area of expertise you would like to share, please let us know at the end of the panel, so it can be added to our resources!
1:00-1:50 pm: Presentation B
How Students Use AI: A Student Panel Discussion
A panel of students from Robert Griffiths’ VOTP class.
rgriffit@ccsf.edu
In this Zoom workshop, a panel of 5 high intermediate ESL level students from Robert Griffiths’ Vocational Office Training Program (VOTP) will discuss how they use AI, including ChatGPT, for their classes at CCSF, as well as in their jobs or daily lives. Attendees will also have the opportunity to ask the panel questions.
Recording of Slideshow
Summary of Presentation
2:00-2:50 pm: Presentation A
Strategies for Teaching and Learning Pronunciation
Danny Halford
dhalford@ccsf.edu
Longtime ESL teacher Danny Halford will present various ways to help our students learn pronunciation, including: syllables & word rhythm; fixing wrong stress; the lowdown on long vowels; smile vowels; the two-color strategy; regular past tense; four sounds each for A and Y; fun examples (various); intonation; tips for Spanish speakers; and more (if time allows!).
2:00-2:50 pm: Presentation B
“Crack the Code”: Top 10 Ways to Teach Idioms & Slang in Your Classroom
David “Slangman” Burke
david@mail.slangman.com
Join “Slangman” David Burke, author of over 60 books on idioms & slang, for an engaging, laugh-out-loud presentation that will transform the way you teach idioms and slang! Discover the top 10 strategies to help your students crack the code of everyday language, unlocking the doors to fluency, cultural understanding, and confidence. Idioms and slang are the secret sauce of language—the words and phrases that make your students feel like insiders instead of outsiders. But without the right tools, these expressions can leave learners feeling frustrated, confused, and disconnected. In this session, you’ll learn how to turn these challenges into opportunities for fun, meaningful learning. Slangman will also reveal the newest slang your students are using (and why you need to know it!). From avoiding embarrassing misunderstandings to mastering the nuances of American culture, this presentation is packed with practical tips, hilarious examples, and actionable insights. Using Slangman’s proven methods and materials, you’ll walk away with:
Creative techniques to make idioms and slang stick.
Engaging activities that bring language to life.
Essential tools to help students avoid costly mistakes in business and social settings.
A deeper understanding of the cultural context behind the words.
3:00-3:50 pm
ESL Meets AI: Empowering Language Educators
Marc Santamaria
msantamaria@ccsf.edu
Explore practical AI tools for language teaching. Learn effective prompting techniques, lesson planning strategies, and how to integrate artificial intelligence into adult ESL classrooms to enhance learning experiences and teaching efficiency.
Recording of Presentation Passcode: Jn7!NeC&
PDF of Slideshow
4:00-4:50 pm: Presentation A
Trauma-Sensitive Practices in English Language Teaching
Jenny Lemper
jlemper@ccsf.edu
Using OER materials provided by Janine Darragh & Luis Javier Pentón Herrera (U.S. State Department English Language Specialists), we will discuss and reflect on how traumatic experiences can affect learning and how we might re-imagine, revise and adjust classroom materials and teaching methods to be more sensitive.
Link to presentation Slideshow Video
Summary on Master Class in Trauma-Sensitive Practices
4:00-4:50 pm: Presentation B
The NEW ESL Student Resources Site
Dan O’Connell
doconnel@ccsf.edu
This presentation will demonstrate our new student resource site, which is really a reboot of the old ESL Student Wiki. The new site has three pages, The ESL Grammar Index, Reading, Writing, Listening, and Vocabulary Resources, and a Free List of Books We Love. Students can find these free resources without logging into Canvas, so anyone with the link can use the resources. Teachers can supplement their own lessons and students can use them to speed up their English learning.
Click Here for the ESL Student Resource Site
Day 2: Saturday, April 19th _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
9:00-9:50 am: Presentation A
How Embedded Tutors Can Enhance Student Learning
Rob Yung
ryung@ccsf.edu
This interactive Q and A panel will teach faculty how embedded tutors can help their students learn more quickly and deeply. BACKGROUND: Our department and college has set a goal of establishing equitable student services at all campuses. Traditionally, Ocean Campus credit courses and CLAD provided students with significant tutoring, leaving students at outside campuses less equitably supported. But currently, resources may be available for a major expansion of embedded tutors, and faculty should hear how they can help.
Recording of panel presentation
What Embedded Tutors Can Do PDF
Link to Request Form for an Embedded Tutor for Fall 2025
9:00-9:50 am: Presentation B
Noncredit ESL-Serving Academic Librarians: What Do We Teach?
Chad Stephenson
cstephen@ccsf.edu
Community college librarians serving noncredit ESL learners are a rare breed. Often trained to serve traditional students in academic libraries, CCSF librarians serve noncredit ESL learners through a critical theory lens—critical andragogy and critical information literacy—to support the informational literacy needs of this group of nontraditional learners. What is different for librarians doing this work? What makes them unique in their profession? How can noncredit ESL-serving librarians work with ESL faculty to build a culturally responsive information literacy program? This session will investigate these issues to lay a foundation for an information literacy framework to support noncredit ESL learners’ information literacy needs using instructional experience, expertise, research, and resources.
10:00-10:50 pm: Presentation A
Structured Literacy in ESL Literacy classes
Clare Corcoran
ccorcoran@ccsf.edu
Clare will describe Structured Literacy, answer your questions, and address topics such as the definition and history of the term Structured Literacy (SL), phonemic awareness, 6 syllable-spelling patterns, why SL matters and why got more media attention during and after the pandemic, SL compared to other approaches to literacy, such as Phonics, Whole Language, and ESL Literacy textbooks, definitions of Literacy in ESL, and applying SL in Adult Literacy and ESL Literacy classes Clare has training and certification in Structured Literacy and has used it since 2016 as a dyslexia therapist for children. her certification is Structured Literacy Dyslexia Specialist (C-SLDS), certified by the Center for Effective Reading Instruction (CERI).
10:00-10:50 pm: Presentation B
Ventures Canvas Integration: Coming This Summer!
Annette Acosta, Barbara Knox
annette.acosta@cambridge.org, bknox@ccsf.edu
Did you know that Ventures digital materials can now be integrated into Canvas? We will share videos demonstrating how students access Ventures and complete practice activities through the Canvas app on their mobile phones. Whether it is an online class or in-person, students will be able to access the Ventures digital workbook, the Ventures CASAS practice tests, an eBook, and even do Ventures Unit tests to get instant feedback on their progress.
11:00-11:50am: Presentation A
Immigration KYR with an ESL Twist
Marc Santamaria
msantamaria@ccsf.edu
We will provide you with "know your rights" ESL activities that you can use in the classroom. Additionally, we'll share valuable "know your rights" resources that you can pass on to your students, ensuring they are well-informed and prepared to navigate this new immigration environment.
Recording of Presentation Passcode: 5@RM^9=^
11:00-11:50am: Presentation B
Every Student’s Voice Matters: Bring Poems to Your Classroom
Vennette Cook
venccsf@gmail.com
American poet, Amanda Gorman, reminds us that quiet isn’t always peace. My poems help your students move from quiet into meaningful conversation and storytelling. Having shared my poems with students from the Tenderloin to Tanzania, I’ll share poems students love with ideas for language building and deeper human conversations.
More poems and books available at BeautifulEnglish.net
About Us
The ESL Colloquium is a small conference where the CCSF ESL faculty comes together to share their research and findings of the field of study of English as a Second/Foreign Language. It is also an academic exchange of pedagogies, theoretical practices, policy, and all things related to English language acquisition.
This event is open to ESL professionals.
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