Please note that this event has been cancelld

Working with EAL Learners: Considerations and Strategies 

Workshop Descriptor:

This interactive workshop will investigate the considerations teachers must be aware of when working with EAL learners. Language, culture, and identity will be explored in order to understand the complex profile of EAL learners in international schools today. A model for co-teaching to support EAL learners will be explored. In addition, a brief overview of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories, including the importance of a learner’s mother tongue, will be discussed. The remainder of the workshop will focus on identifying the language EAL learners need to participate in a mainstream classroom and how to develop this language through inquiry. Participants will examine how to best structure oral, written and visual language so that they meet the needs of EAL learners within a school’s curriculum. The presenter will provide practical strategies and suggestions on how to most effectively facilitate the language learning process for EAL learners, whilst ensuring that the content of their learning is still cognitively challenging. Throughout the workshop, contemporary digital learning tools and strategies will be explored to illustrate the important role that digital literacy plays in supporting additional language learning.

Participants will:

1. investigate the complex language profile of learners in international schools today

2. begin to develop an understanding of the theory behind additional language learning

3. understand the importance of a learner’s mother tongue and the impact this has on additional language acquisition

4. discuss various models for EAL support and will understand how to implement a co-teaching model

5. consider a range of strategies and suggestions for the learning and teaching of oral, written and visual language

6. explore a range of digital learning tools to support additional language learning and teaching

Workshop Leader Biography: Beth Queeney-Dressler

Beth Queeney-Dressler is a Year 5 EAL teacher, the Elementary EAL Coordinator and the Elementary Language Coordinator at NIST International School in Bangkok, Thailand. Before moving to NIST, Beth was the teacher librarian/information literacy specialist at Firbank Grammar Junior School, Brighton Campus, in Melbourne, Australia where she worked collaboratively with classroom teachers to infuse information literacy knowledge, understanding and skills into all aspects of curriculum and to develop digital citizenship ethics across the school.

Beth is passionate about language teaching and learning and is excited by the new literacies that are emerging in today’s digital age. She has more than 20 years of experience as an EAL teacher/language specialist and has worked at schools in the United States, the Czech Republic, Thailand, Ukraine, Malaysia and Australia. Beth is an International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) workshop leader, an ESL in the Mainstream trainer, and holds a Master’s Degree in Teaching English to Speaker’s of Other Languages (TESOL) from Michigan State University. In the 2016-2017 school year Beth will move into the position of Assistant Head of Elementary-Curriculum at NIST International School. She tweets at @bqdressler.

Workshop Timings:

Saturday 8 October

8.30 - 9.00       Introduction to the conference

9.00 - 10.30     Session One

10.30 - 11.00   Break (snacks provided)

11.00 - 1.00     Session Two

1.00 - 1.45       Lunch (lunch provided)

1.45 - 3.45       Session Three

 

Sunday 9 October

8.30 - 10.30     Session Four

10.30 - 11.00    Break (snacks provided)

11.00 - 1.00      Session Five (conclusion of workshop)

 

Certificates

All participants will receive a certificate of participation for the workshop.

 

Costs

Early Bird Fee: US$260

Registration fee after the 31 August 2016: US$290

Registration fee after the 31 September 2016: US$320

 

Cancellation Policy

Please note that each workshop will proceed based on participant registration. Innovative Global Education will inform you by 8 September, 2016 if the workshop is to be cancelled. If the workshop is cancelled your full payment will be reimbursed. If the workshop is proceeding you will not receive an email. 

Workshop Participation

If Innovative Global Education is informed by 8 September, 2016 that a participant is unable to attend the workshop, a full refund will be given. If notification of not being able to participate is after 8 September, 2016 IGE will be unable to refund the registration fee. 

If, for any reason, a school needs to either transfer a registered participant to another workshop from the workshop registered or change the name of the participant attending a workshop, Innovative Global Education can make these changes on request from the school or participant at any time.

 

Accommodation:

Innovative Global Education together with NIST International School is pleased to announce the following partnerships with hotels. When booking the room state you attending an IGE workshop at NIST International School.

 

U Sukhumvit:

Superior Room THB 2,300

Deluxe Room THB 2,800

Khun Khanittha: reserve@usukhumvitbangkok.com

 

Kingston Suites:

Superior Room THB 1,600

Deluxe Room THB 1,800

Executive Room THB 2,200

Khun Kukkai: sales-co@presidentsolitaire.com

 

Movenpick Sukhumvit 15 

Superior Room THB 3,100

Executive Room THB 4,600

Khun Kanokporn: Kanokporn.Arkard@movenpick.com

Getting to and from NIST International School:

Shuttle Service

There will be a shuttle service provided by NIST International School (with their logo on it) that can take participants from the top of Sukhumvit Soi 15  (in front of the Manhattan Hotel, across the Lobby of Four Points by Sheraton) to NIST Internaitonal School and vice versa. The shuttle service will run from 8:00 am on the 31st October and the 1st November, and will do the reverse and drop people off at the end of the day.

Note:

If you are staying at U Sukhumvit (300 meters from NIST) and the Kingston Suites (700 meters from NIST Internaitonal School) and would like to walk, you should turn left as you come out of the hotel and keep walking towards the end of the Soi, the school will be on your right hand side.  

The Kingston Suites and U Sukhumvit also have shuttle services that can take guests to nearby places, including NIST Internaitonal School, the nearest Sky Train station, Terminal 21, etc.