2021

Presenters: David Hellman & Sam Seifnourian, CUNY, and Kareema Hussein, Dave Rowley, & Marissa Wikes, Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs

It can be difficult to find level-appropriate materials that engage students in meaningful content and give students practice in both controlled and more open-ended speaking activities. The We Speak NYC ESOL drama series does this through stories that showcase immigrants as heroines and heroes working together to solve common challenges. In this session, the presenters model the use of We Speak NYC images, storyboards, scripts, and visual-thinking questions for generating role play, dialogue and discussion. Topics and themes include education, health care, work and worker rights, money, relationships, teamwork and leadership, among others.

Workshop participants will receive a packet of digital materials and assignments they can use in online classes.

Category: ESOL (Low Intermediate and above), Civics

Presenters: Fatma Ghailan & Sarah Siddiq, Queens Public Library Adult Learning Program

This workshop covers strategies, challenges, and highlights of using mobile apps with micro-lessons used to teach adult English Language Learners (ELLs) at Queens Public Library. Participants will learn tips from firsthand experiences on how to utilize mobile apps in the classroom with adult learners through the sharing of implementation strategies, challenges and highlights. Specifically, this presentation will be looking at two apps, Voxy and Cell-Ed, used with adult ESL students. If time allows, a demonstration on a sample Voxy lesson can also be presented for viewers. Participants can view this sample lesson and answer questions through screen sharing. Finally, participants can also share any experiences or success stories they have had with mobile apps.

Participants will receive electronic resources to implement in their classes.

Category: ESOL, Instructional Technology

Presenter: William Linn, Literacy Assistance Center

Students and teachers alike are often fascinated and befuddled by English grammar. There seem to be endless exceptions, and teachers are often left with little to say besides, “English is crazy!” However, many of the more challenging and common grammar points of English do follow intuitive and easy-to-remember patterns. This interactive workshop will introduce these very learnable systems and fun activities for helping ESOL students to discover them. Grammar topics covered will include: articles, gerunds, the verb tense system, prepositions, conditionals, and phrasal verbs.

Category: ESOL

Presenter: Mary Carpenter, NYU and CCNY

The insights and diverse perspectives of our students always deserve and need to be heard but even more so in the challenging times of 2021. How ideas are communicated vocally is as important as what is communicated. This has become even more important when we have to communicate virtually. Too often, listeners fail to understand what is being communicated due to the speaker’s ineffective control of intonation, word stress, and rhythmic phrasing and variation. This workshop will focus on the specific importance of word stress, intonation and phrasing variation and teaching activities to develop these skills. The teaching strategies can be used at any proficiency based on the selection of the content topic and level of difficulty. The teaching activities are designed to get students to notice the use of prosodic features and then use them to get their ideas across more effectively. For example, one activity will have participants use a single statement (Tom took Jane out for pizza tonight) and vary the word stress patterns to build awareness of how word stress effects the connotative meaning of a message. 

Category: BE, ESOL

Presenters: Greg Stultz, New Reader’s Press & Rebecca Eller-Molitas, New Reader’s Press & Elgin Community College  

Opening with one or two quick polls, attendees will discuss the importance of using news as a vehicle for reading instruction. Next, they will examine the news resource News for You, connecting its different features to relevant skill-building opportunities. Then, using 3 CCR anchor standards as examples (CCR Reading Anchor 1, CCR Reading Anchor 8, CCSS RI.5) the presenters will demonstrate how to facilitate standards-based instruction using three main activities - close reading/citing evidence, distinguishing fact from opinion, and comparing and contrasting information. Attendees will participate collectively and in breakout rooms as they learn about virtual instruction options like Padlet and Google Jamboard. The presenters will explain/model how these activities can be used for both in-person and virtual instruction, synchronously and asynchronously.

Attendees will receive a printed issue of NFY, a 2-week trial of NFYOL, and photo-copiable PDFs of graphic organizers.

Category: BE (Reading Levels 3-6), ESOL (High Beginning and above)

Presenters: Kate Brandt & Eric Appleton, CUNY Adult Literacy/HSE Program

In this workshop, teachers will immerse themselves in the CUNY-produced Detailed Description and Sample Items for Earth Science, a document which will show them precisely what concepts students must master to correctly answer TASC Earth Science questions. Once so informed, teachers will put on their “learner hats” to participate in an activity designed to help students visualize and conceptualize Earth’s position in space, and how this affects night and day as well as Earth’s seasons. Finally, teachers will be given access to a Google Classroom where a series of TASC Earth Science lessons are posted. Originally designed for a paper-based classroom, the lesson have been adapted for remote learning, so teachers will gain resources that they can use both in the short, when we are still remote, and in the long term, when we return to the physical classroom. Participants will be in the main room as specific teaching activities are demonstrated, but they will then have the chance to go into breakout rooms to look over and discuss materials. 

Category: BE/HSE

Presenters: Dianne Ramdeholl & Team, SUNY Empire State College

In the U.S. (and world) we are living in a moment where social justice is lacking yet necessary. This interactive workshop will engage participants in a discussion about teaching social justice in ABE classrooms and why it is valuable for students. The presenters will offer participants concrete strategies as to how to implement the teaching of social justice in their classrooms. They will each present an example of social justice teaching from their own teaching context. Participants will respond to the presentations in breakout session groups where they will collaborate to plan an activity or lesson that could be utilized in their classes. The participants will be able to choose their breakout group based on the specific topic that interests them. After their group activities, participants and presenters will share their activities and ideas.

Participants will take away skills and knowledge as to how to integrate the teaching of social justice in the ABE classroom.

Category: Advocacy

Mary Ritter & Abby Mack, NYU School of Professional Studies

Revision is one of the most important parts of the writing process, but English language learners (ELLs) often have difficulty processing feedback and revising successfully (Ferris, 1997). We have found that ELLs resist editing in part because they do not perceive the flexibility of a draft and their freedom to make organizational changes. In this interactive session, participants will see an example of a student-produced storyboard and short story. They will compare two different editing processes, one with and one without a storyboard. In breakout rooms, participants will work in pairs to revise pre-made storyboards as part of the writing process or to revise a written text. In the following whole-group discussion, participants will analyze and evaluate their experience of editing as well as explore strategies and online resources for storytelling projects. Pairs will then reflect on their reimagined stories with another group in reconfigured breakout rooms, comparing storyboard to written versions, and evaluate the role of the storyboard in editing. Participants will discover how fun, flexible, and useful storyboarding is, empowering them to add storyboarding to the writing process. 

Category: ESOL

Presenter: Manar Marouf, International Rescue Committee

Newly arrived immigrants often want to learn English as a way to thrive and integrate into their local community. In many cases, however, past trauma and the feeling of having to leave their culture behind in order to assimilate into their new community can stand in the way of learning English and achieving their goals. This workshop will highlight strategies education providers can incorporate in their classes to improve the learning outcomes of English language learners. It will also explore ways teachers can motivate students to attend and engage through trauma-informed and culturally responsive lesson planning and teaching methods. Participants will work in small groups identifying and applying learned trauma informed and culturally responsive strategies in teaching ESL and subsequently will create a lesson plan. 

Category: ESOL

Presenter: Elke Stappert, NYPL

This hands-on workshop explores ways to encourage learners to practice English outside of class. We will first look at different homework assignments that benefit learners while saving precious time for teachers. Then we’ll explore ways to help learners set up routines and practice activities for the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing – both with online resources and without technology. What’s the fifth skill in this workshop? Watching! 

Participants will receive a resource list.

Category: ESOL

Presenter: June Foley & Yejin Chang, NYU Gallatin School

This workshop focuses on writing memories—but not memories of entire lives; instead, memories of limited “slices” of life—scenes or even moments. They need not be from early life; they can be memories of this morning. These memories have many names—iStories, flash nonfiction, micro memoirs. And though they are brief, they expand in significance, shedding light, perhaps, on an entire life. In this workshop, using ScreenShare, participant volunteers read aloud a variety of examples of micro memoirs, both prose and poetry, from writers including Paule Marshall, Theodore Roethke, Kate Simon, and Robert Hayden. Participants discuss the ways in which the examples work, then allow them to inspire their own micro-memoirs, which volunteers read aloud.

An electronic handout of many examples, including some from Literacy Review writers, will be available to all. 

Category: BE, ESOL, Writing

Presenter: Yoland Moore, DYCD

Scaffolding is a teaching strategy to deliver content gradually to meet the needs of the learner. It supports the learner to solve problems and complete tasks that they cannot perform independently. Students' performance in class is classified into three groupings: students who work independently with little or no assistance, those who work with some help, and those that need total assistance. Instructors offer support to students at their level or a little above their level. In this workshop, the participants will learn: the importance of Zone of Proximal Development in scaffolding and its use in lesson planning; about the three characteristics of scaffolding; how to make teaching effective using scaffolding; to use scaffolding to accommodate different learning levels. Breakout rooms will be used to discuss a case study and apply the scaffolding techniques for effective teaching. 

Category: BE, ESOL

Presenter: Lisa Diomande, Henry Street Workforce Development Center  

Using the I.D.E.S. (Identify, Define, Explain and Support) tool helps students create a bridge between their breakdown of texts with their need for clear structure in writing. Through a general textual lens, students will be able to see how good texts are written, then apply that lens as a guide for their own writing. In this workshop, we will work in small groups to apply the tool on simple texts, then see how it can work with writing prompts. We will share our experiences to get a handle on how this model can be best used in a variety of settings with a diversity of needs.

Category: BE, Pre-HSE, HSE

Presenter: Mark Trushkowsky, CUNY

In her Rights of the Learner, math educator Olga Torres tells her students, “You have the right… (1) to feel confused, (2) to make mistakes, (3) to do and represent only what makes sense to you, and (4) to engage in conversations that allow you to ask questions share ideas, and listen to the ideas of others to support your learning”. In this vein, this workshop will engage participants in an investigation of some math problems, using a set of instructional routines that help us focus on sense-making. Sense-making will drive the process, and these instructional routines will serve as our tools. Participants will understand how to use these instructional routines with a wide variety of math topics, providing all learners access to rich mathematical tasks.

Category: BE/HSE, Math

Panelists:

Linda A. Pelc, Ph.D.

Adjunct Associate Professor, LaGuardia Community College

Associate Teaching Professor, The New School

Alex Pence

Continuing Education Teacher

LaGuardia Community College

Elaine Roberts

Director of Programs, International Center

Catholic Charities Community Services 

Nikeisha Smothers

Program Manager

Brooklyn Public Library Adult Learning  

Elke Stappert

ESOL and Literacy Lead Teacher

The New York Public Library