TESOL 2010

It’s 11:00 on Thursday and the end of a very long day two. This convention center is large and you do well to wear your walking shoes. Someone told me it covers the equivalent of four football fields. Grace said she thinks they should have those automatic sidewalks you see in airports. Anyway, at 7:30 AM I dragged my roommate Melissa and friend Kristen to hear Eli Hinkel speak on grammar and ELL writing. For those of you who have never experienced her, she is a very quirky and actually hilarious at times presenter. She talked about the verb tenses that are only used in grammar books. Her advice-don’t teach them! She then regaled us with naked nouns that need pants and shirts, etc. Incredible that anyone could make grammar so entertaining, especially at 7:30 in the morning.
One of the great things about TESOL is having the opportunity to gain the perspectives of other English speaking countries. To that end I attended a workshop on writing called “Glocalisation”. Again, the presenter was very interesting, an Australian, very laid back with a wry sense of humor. He is a linguist who works with ELLs preparing for college writing. His premise was that the writing feedback his students typically receive from their English teachers consists of a one-time editing of grammar. He advocates beginning with the genre and eliciting form that the rhetorical structure and so on downwards to the grammar at the end of the process. It rang very true for me, as I realized I work that way often with my high school students.
It’s a bit late, so I’ll sign off. I did go to a couple of WIDA workshops and an online teaching one, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Can’t tell who might be reading this. If you are, make a comment. Until tomorrow-Linda