Eisen-ELI Newsletter, Fall 1999 (A Cooperative Model from Oregon State University’s English Language Institute, Department of Foreign Languages and School of Education)

After each set of Eisenhower workshops, the project team will provide a follow-up newsletter to summarize the sessions and as lead-in to the next sessions. This first newsletter contains

• a summary of the first sessions
• a preview of the February workshops
• information about the EIsenhower-ELI web site
• more information on our Nicenet sites
• information about registration for the ED 571 class
• Food for Thought -- comments and graphics from the first workshops.

In the first workshop participants got acquainted with each other and with the use of Nicenet online conferencing both as a tool for classroom use and in conferencing with each other. Participants were also introduced to the theoretical framework on which the Oregon Standards and any communicative curriculum is based. This allowed us to establish a common theoretical base and it worked as a vehicle to find out from participants where we needed to focus the second workshop.

In working our way through the communicative framework it became apparent that participants needed and wanted more information about methods, approaches, techniques that could be employed in the classroom. Through brainstorming classroom activities with this very diverse group, we were able to identify that the following topics were new to and of interest to the participants:

• Using Drama in the Classroom
• Information Gap Activities
• Schema Theoretical Research
• Using Graphic Organizers
• Error Correction
• the Language Experience Approach
• Total Physical Response
• Task-based Approach
• ESL models from Other Institutions, and
• Fluency Building Activities including Jazz Chants, Fluency Squares and Drawing.

The second fall workshop was designed as a mini-conference in which we offered participants a choice of 3 to 4 workshops each hour. All of the topics listed above were covered within these workshops. Workshop presenters made a point of presenting the theoretical foundation on which each approach is based as well as how to put it into practice, so that teachers can make informed decisions about when and how to use a particular approach. As one veteran teacher put it to me later, "You've got to have a theoretical base or you don't know why you're doing what you're doing and have no business being in the classroom."

In our second set of workshops in February, we will continue to look at classroom activities but this time, with a focus on using technology. The same communicative curriculum framework applies and participants will be encouraged to consider not only how they might apply what they learn in these new sessions in their classrooms but also how the techniques, and approaches they learned in the fall workshops might be applied through technology.

The project team has been working on the agenda for the February 3rd and 4th workshops. The focus for this second round of workshops is on integrating technology into your school's curriculum. Please bring the URL addresses for any sites that you are currently using with your students. There will be a designated time for sharing and discussion of these sites. We are also going to do a guided exploration to determine the usefulness of some of those hundreds of sites that we're all given on lists but never have the time to visit. We will be offering sessions on Teaching with Technology, a tour of the English Language Institute Learning Center focusing on the computer-based language programs, and an introduction to the new CAN 8 language system lab in the Department of Foreign Languages. We'll be offering a session on using video in your classrooms and showing an easy-to-use student-generated computer animation project.

On the afternoon of February 3rd, Gloria Muniz and someone (yet to be determined) representing the foreign language contingent from the state will answer questions and speak to your concerns about meeting the needs of language learners in this new standards-based environment. Some of you raised great questions at the first workshop session and those questions have been provided to Gloria Muniz, but please come to the workshop on Feb. 3rd ready to engage these representatives from the state in a lively discussion.

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Deborah Healey has established the Eisenhower-ELI web site and has already posted a lot of very useful information as well as links to other sites. You can access this web site through the following address: http://www.orst.edu/dept/eli.

Once you are there, just scroll down to theEisenhower-ELI link. This is the site that those of you taking the ED 571 class will continue to build using your class projects. Copies of some of the handouts from the Fall workshops are posted on the website, and there is a link to the Nicenet site as well.

For those of you who have not entered one of the Nicenet classes that we established during the first workshop, you have a choice of two classes: ED 571X or ED 571A. You must have a key in order to enter these classes, and you must register fully so that you are not entered into the class as anonymous. This means that you need to fill out the entire registration page including your first name, last name and email address. Be sure to choose a username and password that are easy to remember. Once you arrive at the class site, click on conferencing to view the topics that have been posted so far. The URL address for Nicenet is http://www.nicenet.org (You will only join one class, and you can choose either one.) Following are the class keys for these classes:

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Hello Everyone,

I need for the inservice teachers who are going to take the Eisenhower workshops for credit (ED 571) to email Joyce Bryan so that she can mail to you the registration forms. I handed out the registration forms to the PTEP students this afternoon but I may have missed a few of you. I will place some of the forms in my mailbox if you didn't get one.

Both of the texts for the course are now in the bookstore. Please read the assignments that were originally assigned for our second workshop in November and, if possible, try to finish the assignments for the February workshops. We decided at our last meeting to have our final group project be the website. I hope you have had a chance to see what is already available on the website for the Eisenhower Project that Deborah Healey has set up. You need to be thinking of what you will add to it using your individual (or group) projects. Be thinking of what your contribution will be and please let me know what it will be when we meet again in February (or before if you know what you are doing!).

Eileen

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How, specifically, do I grade ESL students on speaking and writing CIM work samples? How and when do you modify? Does a modification affect a student's chances later for college?		I would really like to know exactly what to expect from our ESL students K-5 so far as meeting benchmarks I and II. Do we have ESL Standards?
How can ESL teachers and classroom teachers bridge gaps and work together?	Exactly what assessment "tools" will be used to measure CIM/PASS standards in FL? How and by whom (and when) will the assessment be made? What adjustments/adaptations will be made for districts that don't have an articulated 7-12 FL program?
I would like to know about state assessment materials, expectations, support for ESL students. Every time I call them -- "Things are in draft form, almost done, will let you know." I don't feel like the information and training is getting to the people who need it (from the state).	Dealing with breaks in Spanish language taught in the district: Grade 4/5 1st exposure 8th grade next exposure High school   How do we teach to benchmarks when there isn't the same continuity as other subjects?

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