I am writing today’s TESOL Convention Tidbit from the Denver airport. After a “flash blizzard” yesterday, flights are delayed. So I’m typing as I sit in an uncomfortable chair outside gate A30, waiting for my flight.

Luckily, the snow didn’t affect the conference. I was a busy bee… buzzing around to six different sessions.  The tidbit comes from Ruelaine Stokes, Andrew McCullough, and Nigel Caplan’s session titled “Beyond ‘Help!’ Diagnosing the L2 Writer’s  Essay: A Strategies-Based Approach.” Their session was delightful and full of witty metaphors. (For fear of ruining the humor, this post is metaphor free.)

Anyway, this panel had a great way to get students writing by using a free writing activity. They called the activity “Pick a Sentence and Go!” Students chose a sentence from a list to begin their story. They were instructed to write non-stop for ten minutes (in typical free write fashion), but they were also instructed to use the words “suddenly” and “murky” and the phrase, “rich beyond my wildest dreams.” Giving students words (especially words like “suddenly” that allow students to change the direction of their writing) help them sustain the freewriting. Other freewriting ideas including having students keep track of how many words they are able to write each time. Over a term, students will be able to see their progress in writing fluently. For other great tidbits from this session go to their webpage and download all the handouts.

Even though today was another busy at the TESOL Convention, I wish I could have done more. I didn’t go to a lot of sessions, instead I went to a few longer sessions, presented my poster and had a job interview. Still my favorite tidbit comes from the first session of my day titled: “Serving Adolescent ELLs and Struggling Readers: Similarities and Differences.” David Moore, one of the presenters, gave a quick three step process to help students find and write the main idea.

1. Find the most important word in the passage–write the topic. (ex. Facebook)
2. Expand on the topic by adding “and.” He calls this a comment. (ex. Facebook and how teens communicate)
3. Write the comment in a nice sentence. This is the main idea. (ex. Facebook has changed how teens communicate.)

By giving students this process, David Moore says it is much easier for students to find and write the main idea of a reading passage. I know I am going to give it a try.

English teachers from all over the world have congregated in the mile high city, Denver, Colorado. This week is the national TESOL convention (all part of March Madness). And, as tribute to my trip here, I am going to post my favorite tidbits from the conference each day.

Today, my favorite tidbit comes from Ji Hyun Byun and Min-Jung Jee at the University of Texas Austin. They gave some great advice on creating a student-centered “Book Club.” During a three week process, students selected a book to read. They were given selection criteria from the instructor. Then, each student found interesting books. They interviewed friends about book suggestions and then presented their suggestions to the class which voted for the ones they liked best.

Then the students split into groups of four to read the chosen books. Each group member had a specific role each week in the book club (create a timeline, describe characters, find a favorite passage, develop discussion questions). Research after the fact showed that students enjoyed the book club.

Sounds like a plan to me! Look for more inspiring ideas from the TESOL Convention tomorrow.

Last week I interviewed Sasha Vujacic, the Los Angeles Lakers‘ Slovenian point guard, for an English lesson. But before we even got it edited and on our site (it will be up Friday), the interview was mentioned in the LA Times:

Sasha Vujacic finished off his day doing a stand up interview for a website called English Baby!.  It appears to be a place where folks can come to improve their spoken English.  I don’t know exactly what they talked about, but the interview finished with the dude on the mic and Sasha high fiving and yelling, “English Baby!”  That’s going to be the first thing I do to Sasha when I walk into the locker room tomorrow night.  I encourage other members of the media to do the same.

The high-five was something we came up with for the Culture Cruise and did a lot of at the Olympics, but I felt it never got the attention it deserved, so thanks, Brian Kamenetzky, for giving it a bump! But the best part of the LA Times post was the comments. A lot of people simply signed off on their comments with “English, baby!” but some got more excited about this new greeting than others.

English, BABY!

That’s my new catch phrase. I don’t care what anyone says.

Posted by: Xodus | March 18, 2009 at 03:18 PM

We’re not the only Lakers/English education connection:

as a former English teacher, i’m also down with the “English, BABY!” catch-phrase.

Posted by: leonardbast | March 18, 2009 at 04:53 PM

But this one is unsurpassed for enthusiasm:

Q: What’s 4+8?
A: English, baby!

Q: What’s for dinner?
A: English, baby!

Q: Who is 12th all time on the NBA’s all-time scoring list?
A: English, baby! (ok, that one’s actually correct)

The point is, this is my new answer to every question posed to me, at least until it becomes annoying enough that I get death threats.

English, baby!

Posted by: puddle | March 18, 2009 at 05:59 PM

It looks like my dream of starting an Internet meme may be on the horizon. Maybe I should call home, “Mom! I’m a lolcat!

In our on-going quest to recruit international stars to help people around the world learn English, today on English, baby! there is a lesson on the terms “a.k.a.” and “alter ego” with Nicholaus Arson, who, as guitar player, is one of the leading creative forces behind the gold-selling Swedish garage rock sensation, the Hives.

The Hives just finished a fourth month break, and starting next week will tour Sweden, Finland and Japan, so we figured now would be a good time to feature them on the site. I was thrilled that Nicholaus took my interview request–I remember listening to the Hives’ 2000 album, Vidi Vidi Vicious over and over in my car as a teenager. I got it out to refresh my memory before the interview and still remembered most of the words. Just before we got on the phone I was listening to the Hives’ most recent The Black and White Album and found myself literally dancing in my office. They’ve only gotten better. Here is the unedited text of my phone conversation with Nicholaus.

Jason: So you guys just took a break from playing shows. What were you doing?

Nicholaus: Oh, just having time off, pretty much. Not playing was the main plan, I think.

Jason: How do you relax when you take a few months off like that?

Nicholaus: Well, most of us go home. And I don’t know…Once you’re in a touring mode, you’re used to working at least some portion of the day or at least doing stuff that’s very band-related all the time. You come home and you have a hard time winding down like the first few weeks or so. You pretty much get up in the morning and you start playing instruments and stuff. You work on new stuff. But after a while you get into a more easy-going mode where you can sort of kick back and just do whatever.

Jason: Right on. So you guys weren’t working on new material or anything?

Nicholaus: We are every once in a while. I think we’re working more than we expected to be working, but it’s your hobby. It’s what you do. I suppose it’s a job as well, but it’s what I do when I want to have fun, you know?

Jason: I’ve heard you might have a new album this year. Is that true?

Nicholaus: Eh…maybe.

Jason: What’s your next album going to sound like?

Nicholaus: I have no idea yet, actually. We’ve worked on a bunch of songs, but we’re not in a state where we’ve decided what songs to go with yet or anything. We’re more bulking up for something.

Jason: So you guys are about to do five shows in Sweden and I feel like a lot of bands that aren’t from Sweden will only do one or two cities and I just wondered what you think they’re missing if you don’t do five shows in Sweden.

Nicholaus: There is the possibility of doing five shows in Sweden for most bands. But if you’re on tour…like, we go to Czech Republic, we pretty much only play Prague, you know? Or if it’s summer, we may do a festival here and there, but it’s pretty much what we’re used to doing. But for us it’s a thing where we used to tour Sweden a lot like in ’99 or 2000, we did tours of Sweden, so we played every bush in this country. For us it’s sort of like going back to places we haven’t played in a long time.

Jason: What’s the hidden gem? What’s the spot that people don’t usually go to but they might should?

Nicholaus: Well, up north is usually good and they’re not spoiled with shows at all, you know. So it’s great to go up north. I guess it’s like…I don’t know…Canada. Canada is usually good. Going up north is something that you may not want to miss out on.

Jason: Gotcha. I wanted to ask you about Randy Fitzsimmons, the songwriter for the Hives.

Nicholaus: No comment. That’s a touchy subject.

Jason: Oh, is it? I didn’t realize it was touchy…

Nicholaus: Touchy for some…for Randy, you know. We’ve sworn allegiance to him. He wants to remain anonymous.

Jason: Right. Definitely. But you collect his checks, right? You have like an alias of Randy so you can pick up his checks?

Nicholaus: Yeah.

Jason: And you guys also have a well-known song, “A.K.A. I.D.I.O.T.” and so I was just wondering if you could explain for our members who are learning English, what “a.k.a.” means?

Nicholaus: Also known as.

Jason: Yeah. Some people think that Randy might be an alter ego of a band member since he’s so hidden. Do you have an alter ego?

Nicholaus: Well, people usually think that we have alter egos because we’re sometimes very calm off-stage and then we’re, perhaps, energetic onstage. People usually think that it’s an alter ego. But it’s not really. You’re the same guy, but that’s how you move to music that you like, you know. We don’t use alter egos in the band, and Randy Fitzsimmons is not an alias for anybody in the band. I collect the money and then we split it six ways. He’s always been a part of the band, but he doesn’t tour and doesn’t show his face.

Jason: That’s so cool. That’s so unusual. One last thing. Can I ask you about Japan real quick?

Nicholaus: Yeah, Japan, yeah sure.

Jason: You’re about to play there and you’ve been there quite a few times. Is it different than playing other places? Is there something special about Japan?

Nicholaus: It is a bit different, actually. It’s a very controlled environment. People aren’t drunk at the shows or anything, but they go crazy. They might be drunk at the club afterwards, or they’re very well-behaved drunks or something. I don’t really know. It’s hard to tell. As soon as you stop playing a song, they’re quiet to listen to what you’re going to say. But as soon as you start playing a song, they go completely nuts.

Jason: Unlike…

Nicholaus: Unlike maybe England or Germany or Sweden. Any place where people drink a lot, you know. Then you’re sort of playing to a sounding amoeba. It’s just a pack of sweaty people forming into one, falling over and screaming and never being quiet. Which is sort of what we always get used to playing to. There is something weird about playing Japan.

Jason: Do you guys like that contrast, being able to play to a calmer audience or an audience that at least slows down when you slow down?

Nicholaus: Um, I don’t know. It’s sort of like trying to outrun your shadow, you know. There’s a freakiness to it that I’m not used to since I’m used to playing to the amoeba type crowd. But I think it’s a respect thing and I appreciate it. They want to show you respect by quieting down and listening to what you have to say.

When we create materials for our ESL classes, we might use bubbl.us, comic strips  or Read, Write, Think (like I discussed here). And the decision is pretty simple. If we like the program and the product, we use it. The story gets quite a bit more complicated when we start having students use computer assisted language learning (CALL) products. It’s about more than fun colors and flashy end-products. The process of using the technology should be helpful to students. The use of technology should be tied to learning outcomes. But there is even more to think about than learning outcomes.  Well, I have developed a nice process to help you/me decide when and how to use CALL in your/my ESL classes.

Let me explain since you can’t read the chart to the left (view a larger/readable copy here). First, you need to consider the learning objectives of the ESL lesson. Then, identify appropriate CALL materials. Determine what is feasible in your setting and fully consider the benefits of the technology. Finally, decide.  There are a lot more details on the chart which will hopefully help you decide if and when to use CALL.

Last week, I was in meetings with librarians and adult educators from around the country. I realized how little I know about libraries. Libraries in the US are community centers, lifelong learning schools, and places to find books. Mistakenly, I have only used the library to check out books.

I have recommended that my students go there to read and also to use the free computers. What I didn’t know was that libraries have some great computer programs and subscription services. Libraries have the tools to improve students’ reading, writing, and other skills. They offer free tutoring service (online and in person). They have English conversation groups. But more than offering traditional educational opportunities, they provide other great free services: art clubs, museum passes, and knitting groups.

Since I last moved, I haven’t gotten a new library card. Now, I know I need one. I also made an appointment with my local library, which is one of the highest ranked in the nation. The woman I’ll be meeting with is going to tell me about (even more) library services that will help me and my students. If you live in the US, I recommend you go see your local librarian. Librarians have a lot to teach students, teachers, and everyone, really.