MinneTESOL June 2007 Updates

Minnesota Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages www.minnetesol.org

Congratulations, Essay Contest Winners! Congratulations to the winners of the 2007 MinneTESOL essay contest. Duyen Do Roosevelt Elementary School, Virginia, MN teacher: Deb Meissner first language: Vietnamese length of time studying ESL: 4 ½ years Anthu Huynh Falcon Ridge Middle School, Apple Valley, MN teacher: Jincy Vaitkunas first language: Vietnamese length of time studying ESL: 6 years Khadra Mohamed North Senior High School, North Saint Paul, MN teacher: Janelle Fischler first language: Somali length of time studying ESL: 2 years Rebeca Robles Metro North Adult Basic Education, Blaine, MN teacher: Zsuzsanna Matika first language: Spanish length of time studying ESL: 9 months MinneTESOL would like to extend a big thank you to all the students who participated and to all teachers who assisted their students with the submission process. Many great entries were among the 46 essays received. Each essay was rated by three teachers, and the winner in each group earned the highest combined score of all the essays in that group. Thanks are also due to all who volunteered to serve as judges. Essay readers included Angela Birk, Adele Hanson, Carrie Jerome, Darlene Kunze, Ellen Lewin, Emily Peterson, Mari Walker, and Clair Wolters. Winning essays are now posted online at www.minnetesol.org. Submitted by Anita Dualeh, MinneTESOL board member and essay contest organizer

MinneTESOL Fall Conference November 2-3, 2007 What's new? There are lots of exciting conference developments to report, as well as some changes: · New conference location – University of St Thomas, Minneapolis · Dynamic speakers to address issues of advocacy and morality and values in English language teaching · New online registration system coming soon · Improved conference website, including tips and models for presentation proposals Submit a proposal! Summer is here: Time to relax and put together that conference proposal! The conference needs your participation. Evaluations each year ask for more presentations that deal with the elementary classroom, for example, but conference organizers can't materialize presentations out of thin air…we depend on YOU to submit something to share with your colleagues! Help is available… Members are always looking for effective practices or teaching ideas, so think about sharing what you are doing in the classroom. At the conference website you'll find the call for proposals with guidelines for submitting, a PowerPoint presentation to take the mystery out of the submission and review process, and sample proposals to use as models. And don't forget your colleagues! Interest section leaders and others are happy to read and provide guidance to writing great proposals. Questions? For information about the conference or submitting a proposal, check the website at www.minnetesol.org Or contact the conference organizers: Kim Johnson kjohnson60@hamline.edu Becky Uran Markman uran0005@umn.edu

What would YOU like to hear more about? "Ohhh – you know what I'd really enjoy at the MinneTESOL Conference? A session on legislative advocacy. Do you think there might be someone who could present on that topic?" I was at a table letting folks know about MinneTESOL, and the teacher was energetic, enthusiastic...and gave me a really good idea. So yes, at this year's MinneTESOL Conference we will have a session on legislative advocacy. But let's not stop there! Every year a number of conference evaluations mention that there should have been more sessions on (fill in the blank) or it would have been better if there had been more sessions on (choose another item for this blank.) So here's my question: What specifically would you like to attend a session on at this year's MinneTESOL Conference on November 2nd and 3rd? Send your idea to admin@minnetesol.org before July 15. We'll then publish the requests we receive in the July newsletter. Then, if you see a request that you know something about, please write up a presentation proposal and submit it by September 2nd. Or if you know someone else who knows about that topic, ask them if they'd present on it. Go to www.minnetesol.org for details on how and where to submit your proposal, and thanks. Together we can do great things! --Submitted by MinneTESOL President Andrea Poulos

Teacher Educator’s Event The MinneTESOL Teacher Educator's Interest Section held a gathering on June 2, following the CARLA Institute meeting at the U of M Campus Radisson. A small, yet dynamic group of attendees met informally to review how schools are coordinating their ESL and mainstream programs, and to discuss measures being taken to support our colleagues who prepare Minnesota teachers in pre-service programs to work with English language learners. Finally, we exchanged ideas on how we can further assist mainstream teacher educators in fulfilling Minnesota Licensure Rule, 2001, Standard III, diverse learners. This important rule states: "The teacher must know about the process of 2nd language acquisition, and about strategies to help support the learning of students whose first language is not English." Kelly Frankenfield, an elementary ESL teacher whose school is currently involved in the CARLA "TEAM UP" project through the U of M, shared her thoughts, experiences and involvement thus far in this innovative collaboration between ESL and mainstream colleagues. Attendees to our group concluded that the biggest challenge we face at this time is persuading mainstream teachers and school administrators (in both university and k-12 settings) to get involved in the conversation about working successfully with English language learners. --submitted by Beret Hagen, Teacher Educators' Interest Section Co-Chair

Professional Development and Sharing Assessment Conference coming up! The conference will be held August 9, 2007 at Northwestern College in Roseville. Breakout sessions on a wide range of assessment-related topics will offer assessment coordinators, teacher leaders, and administrators opportunities to learn more about their areas of interest in assessment. Breakout sessions that may be of interest to ESL professionals include o Impact and Implications of Minnesota's ELL Assessments on Five Sites o English Language Proficiency Standards Update o Reading Assessment in Middle and Secondary Grades (not in registration information, but added to the final program) o Creating Your School and District Reading Assessment Framework (not in registration information, but added to the final program) The conference brochure and registration form are available at http://www.mngts.org/mdeprograms/Assessmentreg.html * * * Share your great Adult ESL idea on a poster! "It's a Great Idea" Literacy MN Poster Session at the ABE Summer Institute Share one of your best Adult Basic Education ideas (marketing, teaching, celebrating, etc.) with your colleagues. Design a poster to display your idea and create handouts to distribute to others so your great idea can be duplicated in programs throughout Minnesota. Posters will be on display in the Humphrey Theatre Foyer throughout the conference. Poster session presenters will be asked to staff their posters after lunch on Thursday, August 9th. Please see the attached document for more information. If you are interested in participating, please contact Claudia Kinville at kinville@frontiernet.net. * * * New Adult ESL Newsletter available The Spring 2007 issue of CAELA Currents, our quarterly newsletter, is available online on CAELA's Web site at http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/ccmay07.html The complete table of contents follows: May 2007 Articles TESOL and COABE TESOL and COABE 2008 Upcoming on the Adult ESL Electronic Discussion List New on the CAELA Web site What's New From CAL? New Resources from the Cultural Orientation Resource Center Teaching Reading to Adult English Language Learners: Workshops in Virginia New Report on Citizenship Issues If you have information that you would like us to consider including in the newsletter, please contact the editor at Miriam@cal.org To unsubscribe to CAELA Currents, send a message to caela@cal.org. Thank you. Miriam Burt Center for Adult English Language Acquisition * * * Research on English Language Learner Development in Middle School The Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) is a partnership of researchers working under a contract awarded to the University of Houston by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Research. CREATE conducts research designed to address challenges in the education of English language learners (ELLs) in the middle grades (Grades 4-8). The focused program of research is designed to address the critical challenge of improving educational outcomes of ELLs by · enhancing the empirical research base in Grades 4-8, · using narrative and expository text to develop and test interventions that promote content knowledge and language and literacy development, · investigating the features of instruction and text modifications that facilitate learning for ELLs (e.g., traditional instruction v. ESL-enhanced instruction, teacher guided instruction v. group work, traditional text v. modified text), · designing, testing, and delivering professional development that helps teachers implement effective classroom practices to help ELLs achieve high standards, and · disseminating information on the research to a broad audience using a variety of methods. More information available at: www.cal.org/create

June 2007 MinneTESOL www.minnetesol.org