MIDTESOL Matters
Fall 2004
“Campaigning For Excellence” MIDTESOL Fall Conference To Be
Held October 22 & 23 in With a full slate
of interesting and relevant speakers and presenters, MIDTESOL will
proudly host its 2004 fall conference, “Campaigning For Excellence
in ESL”, Friday, October 22 and Saturday, October 23 at the Hilton
Garden Inn in According to Jane
Robison, MIDTESOL First Vice President and Conference Coordinator,
this year’s conference will not only feature outstanding plenary
and workshop speakers but also continue MIDTESOL’s tradition of
providing a wide variety of concurrent sessions to meet the diverse
teaching interests of conference attendees. Beginning Friday
in the pre-conference morning workshop, Mark A. Grey, Ph.D., will
present “Immigrants and Integration: The Political and Economic
Context for ESL Education in the Margo Gottlieb,
Ph.D., Director of Assessment and Evaluation at the Illinois Resource
Center, highlights the Friday afternoon pre-conference session,
speaking on ”Standards-Based Assessment, Curriculum, and Instruction”.
“As educators, we live in a standards-based world.
How can we best organize it to maximize the success of our English
language learners?” asks Gottlieb, who leads a multi-state consortium
to build an enhanced assessment system for ELLs. To answer the
question, Gottlieb will illustrate how English language proficiency
and state academic content standards can be translated into sound
educational practice through ties to assessment, curriculum, and
instruction. Gottlieb, who is
also current chair of TESOL’s Pre-K-12 Standards Revision Committee
and former chair of TESOL’s ESEA Reauthorization Task Force as
well as co-editor of TESOL’s Journal’s “Tips From the Classroom”,
will speak at the Plenary session Saturday afternoon on “Assessment
of English Language Learners: Politics or Passion?” While No Child
Left Behind and English Language Learners may seem an oxymoron
to many, Gottlieb emphasizes that, for the sake of students, ESL
and bilingual educators must unite behind advocacy efforts and
focus on positive responses to national legislation. Concurrent sessions,
addressing ESL issues at all levels – K-16 and adult – are scheduled
for Friday evening, as well as Saturday morning and afternoon.
Further conference details are included elsewhere in this newsletter.
In addition, you may contact Jane Robison at jer405t@smsu.edu or
(417)836-6540. |
