Collaborative Understandings Sessions

Collaborative Understanding (CU) sessions is an ongoing program where we discuss anything related to teaching English to students of other languages (TESOL). Teachers, trainers, tutors, etc. are all welcome to join in on the discussion. If you ever want to present something during the program, just let me know beforehand and I’ll gladly give you time to discuss anything related to TESOL!

edit   Welcome! TESOL talk is for anyone interested in teaching English to students of other languages. Participants are encouraged to bring their own perspective and experience to the open discussion so that we might find new and innovative ways to improve how English is learned. Click here to access open courseware. (Open) Agenda: (1) introductions, (2) attendees will bring up theories, experiences, and/or opinions as talking points, and if time permits (3) presenter will bring up theories, experiences, and/or opinions as talking points. If you participate in our CU Sessions, feel free to modify the summary section below to more accurately reflect what was discussed. Also, if you have suggestions or comments about the show, leave them in the guest book pod below.

edit   Collaborative Understandings (Blog) Failed to load RSS feed from http://bnleez.com/?feed=rss2|date|short|max=10: Error fetching URL: Could not resolve host: bnleez.com edit   Webinars edit   Videos Click here to see prior and past videos! edit   Guest book Please sign the guest book by clicking on the "edit" button above or to the right of this pod!

edit   Talk Summaries TESOL Talk 7 (July 19, 2011) Will provide an overview of how to best participate in TESOL Talk and will discuss academic writing if no other topics are presented first by attendees. Join us! TESOL Talk 6 (July 5, 2011) Discuss autonomous learning, VoiceThread, and how to integrate the four skills in class when high-stakes testing is the criteria for evaluating the English language learner TESOL Talk 5 (June 21, 2011) Discuss blended learning: online offline interaction, synchronous and asynchronous types of communication, and various learning theories TESOL Talk 4 (June 9, 2011) Discuss UbD Guide to creating high-quality units, backward design, and performance tasks in general. TESOL Talk 3 Work through a performance task using the GRASPS framework TESOL Talk 2 (May 10, 2011): Discussed performance tasks (PTs) in more detail, differentiating PTs from task-based learning. Perhaps this could be a topic for further discussion during next session. Will explain and design a performance task for the EFL/ESL classroom TESOL Talk 1 (April 27, 2011): Reviewed briefly attendee research, discussing topics related to purpose, problems, and participant selection. Discussed how to integrate the four skills (e.g., briefly discussing performance tasks).