Education Commons^™

Developing A Service Learning Course For Iep Students, Krista Bittenbender Royal, Justyna Kikowska, Kristen Mcgreger, Laura Murphy, Sangita Victor

INTO Faculty and Staff Publications

Service-learning is a great way for ELLs to get involved in the community, develop interpersonal communication skills, and do research on social issues, but it can be an overwhelming course to develop. This presentation will outline how one IEP successfully developed a service-learning course and offer tips for those who want to develop their own.

In Summer 2012, a team was organized to examine the ways in which service-learning could be implemented at our university’s IEP. This “Creative Team” explored both curricular and extra-curricular options, and after surveying students and examining other models of service-learning courses, the team decided to …

Creating Safe Zones For Lgbtq Esl Students, Krista Bittenbender Royal

INTO Faculty and Staff Publications

It is important for language teachers to foster an environment in which all students feel safe, and while many of us think that we hold ourselves to this ideal, we may inadvertently be excluding students whose identity is not always visible. Whether we realize it or not, we very likely have students who identify as LGBTQ in our ESL classes. What are we doing to be considerate of their identity? When we present family vocabulary, do we provide language for same-sex partners? Do we allow for LGBTQ identities when we ask students to write or speak about their perfect boyfriend …

Web Resources For Teaching Media Literacy, Krista Bittenbender Royal

INTO Faculty and Staff Publications

Preparing students for academic success involves more than just English; it must also address critical thinking skills. Using technology to integrate media literacy into a course can help students develop the higher-order thinking required for university classes. In this workshop, designed for teachers and curriculum coordinators, participants will learn about several web-based resources and materials used in an advanced English for Academic Purposes class that dealt with media literacy. These resources range from the websites of media literacy networks and current event sites to web-based information tools and visual representations of information, as well as educational learning resource centers that …

Blogs & Glogs: Revitalizing Class Projects, Krista Bittenbender Royal

INTO Faculty and Staff Publications

This workshop looks at two technologies that can be used to energize traditional poster and writing assignments to bring them beyond text: Glogster and Blogger. Both are free, easy to use websites with which students can create web pages with images, text, and audio to share with their classmates and the world. In the workshop, intended for instructors and curriculum coordinators, we will look at each of these platforms, discuss examples of project assignment guides using each of the sites, and talk about other ways they could be integrated into courses. I will also share some student feedback and some …

Using Ning For Conversation Partner Networks, Krista Bittenbender Royal

INTO Faculty and Staff Publications

Providing opportunities for conversation practice is one way that an IEP can help students improve their English as well as enhance their engagement in the language learning process. However, matching individual language learners to fluent English speakers can be difficult and time consuming. This workshop will introduce participants involved in setting up such interactions to Ning, a free online social networking platform which can facilitate the creation of individualized networks. Participants will gain insights into how one IEP used Ning to connect ELLs to university students interested in having conversation partners.