Conference Presentations

• Teaching Social Skills and Pragmatics in the Language Classroom to Improve Interpersonal Communication.

  • A lot of linguistically proficient students are reluctant to have meaningful conversations with native speakers.  This presentation is focused on teaching social strategies and conversation skills to have meaningful real-life interactions with native speakers.
    • Wikispace
    • PREZI
• Teacher as an "Artist". Using Teacher Created Drawings to Support Student Comprehension.
  • The goal of this presentation is to teach ALL teachers (regardless of artistic ability) methods to do very quick drawings in class to support student understanding of the target language, cut down on preparation time, and serve as a prompt for spontaneous speech.  
    • Presentation
    • Handout - folds into a little booklet
• Metacognitive Language Strategies for Struggling Students.
  • his is a toolkit to help struggling students help themselves.  Sometimes, hard-working students continue struggle even after spending significant time outside of class studying.  This presentation focuses on training them to study more effectively, and to help them adjust their mindset about how they approach a language class.
    • Presentation
    • Handout - folds into a little booklet (E-mail address is no longer accurate)
• AP Strategies in the Novice Classroom
  • When discussing vertical articulation with colleagues, the conversation deals with the content (themes, vocabulary, and language structures) that was covered in a particular level.  As an AP teacher, I was often less concerned with WHAT the students were learning in other classes and more concerned with what they were DOING with that material.  I then started to adjust my novice and intermediate classes to begin to expose the students with the types of ACTIVITIES that would benefit them in an AP class.Presentation
    • Handout - folds into a little booklet (e-mail address is no longer accurate)
• But I Don't Teach AP! co-presented with Jennifer Cornell
  • This presentation was designed as a way to introduce a higher level of rigor into our novice classes.  This rigor was rooted more in putting a higher cognitive demand on the students, but not by increasing the amount of material covered in a class. 
    • Presentation