PARALLEL SESSIONS - VRT3 Young Learners

[stevenherder]

Friday, 20 April 2012- 10:30pm GMT | 7:30am Tokyo (Saturday) | 3:30pm Los Angeles

Moderator - Marina Petrovic

Patrick Jackson

Recording (28min)

@patjack67

Getting Back to Basics: What to do with Young Learners when it all gets too much

If you’re watching this talk you’re probably a technology lover. This all-consuming, addictive fascination with the digital world can get in the way of some really important basics, especially with young learners. This unfashionably low-tech talk will look at some of these basics, vegetables, books, songs and things I have learned from my children in the past week or so. I will also talk a bit about Linked Language Learning and how we’re all in the same boat. It may become a trifle freeform. Apologies in advance.

Bio Patrick Jackson

Following a number of enjoyable educational and career false starts, I moved to Japan in 1997 and spent 12 years there teaching English. During that time I became involved in writing materials for my younger students: early roots being Potato Pals and more recent sprouts including Everybody Up and Stars (OUP). I am quite passionate about Linked Language Learning and particularly keen to find out why the answer to many questions is just under one’s nose or slightly to the left.

Ayat Tawel

Recording (24min)

@ayatawel

Harry Potter Book Project in Edmodo: A Collaborative Initiative Between Students from Egypt and Canada 
With an increasing acceptance of children using internet for academic purposes, comes apprehension pertaining to their safety and well-being when online. While as educators we want children to become more « net savvy », we need to temper this with precautions to keep them safe on the web. 

This session will demonstrate how educators Ayat Tawel and Bernadette Rego successfully established using Edmodo, a free Learning management system, as a place for students from Canada and Egypt to meet and discuss questions enhancing their reading skills using the popular book « Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone ». We will demonstrate how Edmodo and other web 2.0 tools can be used to protect the students' online identity and communication while creating an enriching learning atmosphere.

Bio Ayat Tawel

I'm an EFL teacher from Cairo, Egypt. I have been teaching different age groups and levels for more than ten years. I'm currently teaching young learners. My main interests are online teaching & learning, and using blended learning and web 2.0 tools to create a learning atmosphere that enhancing creativity in the classroom. I have participated as a co-moderator in Baw2012, one of Evo online sessions. I'm a life-long learner, who believes in professional development through sharing!

Barbara Sakamoto

Recording (31min)

@barbsaka

From Speaking to Writing: Teaching Literacy with Young Learners

Students learn to speak before learning to read and write. This foundation enables students to learn to write using language that is familiar, and allows them to learn to read by reading words that already have meaning to them. In this presentation, I’ll demonstrate writing and reading activities appropriate for pre-literate students, emergent readers and writers, and growing readers and writers. Participants will learn simple reading and writing activities to use with their own classes.

Bio Barbara Sakamoto

Barbara is a Program Director and author for iTDi’s English For Teachers course, and co-author of the best-selling young learners EFL series, Let’s Go (Oxford University Press). She has taught English, ESL, and EFL for more than 25 years, and has conducted teacher development workshops around the world. Her motto is “Always try new things,” so these days, when she’s not teaching, writing, or giving workshops, you’ll often find Barbara online exploring the potential of social media for professional development. If you’d like to explore with her, you can usually find Barbara on her award-winning blog, Teaching Village.

[Heike Philp]

http://teachingvillage.net
iTDi.pro
(International Teacher Development Institute)
http://www.teachingvillage.org
morguefile.com
@barbsaka

Accuracy vs. Fluency

Emergent level - still learning the Alphabet

Transitional level - students can write independendently but not necessarily accurately
A great piece of advice: cut the sections apart to encourage expansion!

Working on accuracy by playing different language games.

Transitional to Fluent - ss need to be challenged
Reward: www.toondoo.com comic