Second Language Writing

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR FOUR TESOL 2009 ELECTRONIC VILLAGE SPECIAL EVENTS
TESOL 2009: "Uncharted Mountains, Forging New Pathways"
March 26-28, 2009, - Denver, Colorado, USA
EV FAIRS, HARDWARE FAIRS, EV MINI-WORKSHOPS, and DEVELOPERS' SHOWCASE

*DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: Friday, December 12, 2008*

You are invited to submit a proposal for participation in one or more of these TESOL 2009 CALL Interest Section Special Events. You are welcome to submit proposals to more than one event, and it is possible to have more than one proposal accepted (depending on space availability and quality of the submission). Windows and Macintosh equipment will be available at no charge, along with CD ROM Drives, Internet connections, and (for the Showcase, EV Hardware Fair and EV Mini-Workshops) projection equipment. Plan to bring a minimum of 100 handouts per Fair/Showcase acceptance slot since these are very popular events!

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE EV FAIRS: Presenters have approximately 20-30 minutes to demonstrate their material on 1-2 computer(s) without projection equipment in a presentation format similar to a "poster session." Participants walk around the EV, dropping in and out of demonstrations, thus precluding highly structured presentations. A demonstration may be repeated a second time (an additional 20 to 30 minutes), if interest warrants and space allows.

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE HARDWARE FAIRS: A Hardware Fair is a variant of the regular fairs, where presenters will demonstrate their material for 20-30 minute intervals, so people can go around the room and see the event multiple times. The variation is that presentations will be on devices which may or may not include computers, but may also interact with them in some way (see description below for suggested items).

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE MINI-WORKSHOPS: One or two presenters introduce a topic to a small group of workshop participants. The workshop is "hands-on" in a computer lab setting. Each workshop - with instruction and "hands-on" practice - lasts 90 minutes.

WHAT HAPPENS AT THE SHOWCASE: A selected group of presenters will demonstrate their software or application for 8 to 12 minutes each. A brief question and answer session follows each presentation. 

_____EV FAIR_____
Coordinator: Roger Drury (roger.drury@ esl.gatech. edu)

WHAT ARE EV FAIRS?

In the EV Fairs, teachers or teachers-developers share their use of computer-based and/or internet-based resources. These resources can be software (PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Excel, Focus on Grammar, Word Attack, Skype, etc.) or websites (presenter-made or public like CNN.com, Yahoo! Groups, an online concordancer, etc.). Demonstrations may highlight student projects, activities or curriculum created for students or educators. Examples:

• Email projects
• Lesson plan archives for teachers
• Vocabulary worksheets using an online thesaurus
• Skimming/scanning activities using a local newspaper webpage
• Research/writing exercises for investigating Internet hoaxes
• A descriptive writing activity combined with HyperStudio illustrations
• Web 2.0 activities, using social networking or SecondLife

Please submit your proposal(s) for the EV Fairs online at http://www.langconc epts.net/ ev2009.html

_____HARDWARE FAIR_____
Coordinator: Randall Davis (eslrandall@yahoo. com)

WHAT ARE HARDWARE FAIRS?

Do you have an innovative, effective or otherwise interesting instructional activity that utilizes hardware other than a conventional computer? Do your students use hardware in an interesting way? If so, why not share it with others in the EV Hardware Fair? Presenters will be located at stations around the Electronic Village demonstrating use of specific kinds of hardware like:

• handheld devices
• cameras
• porttable technologies
• smartboards
• clickers
• ELMOs
• MP3 players
• cell phones

It is suggested that you bring your own small hardware (as in hand-held device, camera or cell phone) or ask the company (like Smart) to send you a loaner for the larger equipment (like interactive whiteboards) to demonstrate at the workshop (they are usually good about this). Some responsibility for hardware by the presenter will be needed.

Please submit your proposal(s) for the Hardware Fairs online at http://www.langconc epts.net/ ev2009.html

The Call for Proposals for the 2009 Symposium on Second Language Writing, to be held at Arizona State University on November 5-7, 2009, is now available in PDF format.

http://sslw.asu.edu/2009/sslw2009cfp.pdf

The Call for Papers for Symposium on Second Language Writing 2009 is now available at this site. The conference will be November 5-7, 2009, and the deadline for proposals is April 30, 2009.

NCTE's Pathways Professional Development Program is ready for the new school year, both for individuals and for school or district teams. Areas of professional development include Adolescent Literacy, English Language Learners, and 21st Century Literacies. 

The submission date for the International Society for Language Studies 2009 Annual Conference is soon coming to a close on September 1, 2008. For more information, go to their website.

I just learned about the Tamkang International Conference on Second Language Writing (via TeachEnglish). Wish I could go!! That would be great to learn about pedagogy and research on L2 writing outside of the North American context.

On a sidenote, my Firefox browser said that the official website for this conference was an "attack site," so I would use the information at TeachEnglish instead of going to the site. Firefox added that the site could have been compromised without their knowledge, and I imagine that it was (if it actually was).

Most of the "More resources" page was moved to Teaching Resources on the SLWIS site, and the page was renamed "Email Lists" to reflect what remained.