Date

Topic

Presenter

Thursday

Feb 3^rd

7 pm

Open Event

Leveraging Spanish Language Skills to help your Multilingual Language Learners Succeed

Sponsored by the GATESOL Bilingual Ed. Interest Section

Dr. Brian Hibbs

Associate Professor of Education

Dalton State College

Thursday

March 10th

5:30 pm

Open Event

Effective Support for English Learners:

The Promise of the New WIDA Standards:

This session will explore the opportunities that the 2020 WIDA Standards present for changing the paradigm of how English Learners are supported in public schools in Georgia.

Dr. Elizabeth Webb

GATESOL President & Supervisor for ESOL/Title III

Cobb County Schools

Wednesday

March 23rd

5:30 pm

GATESOL Members Only

Reimagining multilingual learners: Using photo stories to honor students' strengths, interests and experiences.

Participants will learn about the literacy strategy of inviting students to create photo stories that honor their lived experience. The presenter will share steps for creating photo stories with students and discuss how photo stories can promote productive dialogue among educators and students that celebrate the diverse languages, cultures, interests, and life experiences present in classrooms today.

Dr. Jennifer Allen

Assistant Professor, Department of Literacy and Special Education

 University of West Georgia

Thursday

April 14th

5:30 pm

GATESOL Members Only

Supporting Newcomers at the

Middle and High School Levels

This session will address instructional challenges for educators of newcomer English learners in grades 6-12, where the complexity of the curriculum presents significant linguistic challenges.  We will focus on scaffolding instruction, identifying essential learning, and modifying assessments.

Dr. Alisa Leckie, Associate Professor  & Assistant Dean for Partnerships and Outreach

Georgia Southern University

Tuesday

April 26th

5:30 pm

Open Event

Supporting practitioner inquiry in teacher education:

Opportunities and challenges in ESOL contexts

Participants will learn about practitioner inquiry, a promising pedagogical practice for developing preservice teacher candidates  who  are  effectively  prepared  to  support  emergent bilingual and multilingual students.  The presenters will provide an overview of practitioner inquiry, describing how it is currently being used within a teacher preparation program, and will use experiences and insights from this implementation to share opportunities, challenges, and recommendations for other teacher educators in their respective programs.

Dr. Lindsey Chapman

Clinical Assistant Professor, Special Education, School Psychology, and Early Childhood Studies

Dr. Chelsea Morris

 Assistant  Professor,  Department  of  Literacy  &  Special  Education

University of West Georgia

Dr. Katy Green

Associate Professor,  Department  of  Literacy  &  Special  Education

 University of West Georgia

Thursday

May 12th

5:30 pm

GATESOL Members Only

    Using Math Language Routines to Cultivate Conversations (K-5 English Learners)

This session will focus on implementing Math Language Routines (MLRs) in K-5 classrooms for the purpose of supporting Multilingual Learners as they develop the skills needed to engage in meaningful learning experiences. Through the use of MLRs teachers can maximize student output as aligned to the four WIDA language domains Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing.  MLRs foster productive opportunities for students to fully engage in the math classroom across all English Language Proficiency (ELP) levels while making the math standards accessible. Additionally, MLRs incorporate research-based cooperative learning structures that cultivate rich conversation in the mathematics classroom.

Roxanne Stewart

ESOL Consultant, & Sheri Drake, Title I Instructional Coach

           Cobb County School District

Thursday

June 2nd

5:30 pm

GATESOL Members Only

Authentic Voices Assess ‘Culturally Responsive’ Children's Books

Effective teachers, especially teachers of ELs, seek out and use books that reflect their students' lived experiences and support their cultural and linguistic backgrounds. However, how are we to do this effectively if we ourselves do not share those backgrounds and experiences? Book awards and reviews and our own critical readings can only take us so far. This conversation will discuss what new perspectives authentic insider voices can bring to book selection and how to gather those perspectives.

Dr. Scott Beck

Professor, Middle Grades and Secondary Education

Georgia Southern
University

Thursday

July 14th

5:30 pm

Open Event

Becoming a Mexican American in the U.S. South

The presentation will be an autobiographical exploration of my childhood experience in México, my experience of involuntary immigration, and my life in the United States. Theoretically, I will draw upon a wide array of works by immigrants regarding their experiences. Methodologically, I will draw upon the autobiographical writings of people of color. I will finish by presenting my 6 findings.

Dr. Claudia Martinez

2020-21 GATESOL Teacher of the Year, & ESOL Teacher, Tattnall County Schools

Thursday

Aug 11th

5:30 pm

Open Event

Key Principles to Retain Adults in ESOL Literacy Programs

The retention of adult learners in ESOL/ Literacy programs is a challenge for adult education instructors. Adult ESOL learners encounter internal and external barriers such as lack of self- confidence, childcare, family, cultural, transportation, and lack of digital literacy, causing many learners in this population to discontinue their English course of study.  This presentation will provide adult education practitioners/ adult ESOL programs several key principles to retain adults in ESOL/ Literacy programs. Attendees will be able to understand the challenges that adult ESOL learners encounter in pursuit of learning English as a second language in the USA and will be better prepared to address retention among adult ESOL learners.

Dr. Joel Floyd. GATESOL 2nd Vice-President, and Founder and President,

English for a Lifetime Language Institute

Tuesday

Aug 23rd

5:30 pm

GATESOL Members Only

Teaching Vocabulary to Middle and High School English Learners

This session will focus on vocabulary development strategies for middle and high school English learners of all proficiency levels.  Learn how to identify which words to teach and how to integrate meaningful vocabulary practice in every lesson.

Dr. Alisa Leckie, Associate Professor  & Assistant Dean for Partnerships and Outreach,

Georgia Southern University

Thursday

Sept 8^th

5:30 pm

GATESOL Members Only

Oral Language Strategies for K-5 English Learners

We will explore different hands-on, interactive activities that both ESOL and mainstream teachers will be able to utilize in their classroom the next day.

Paula Guy

GATESOL Board Member at Large &

ESOL Teacher

Bartow County Schools

Wed

Sept 14th

5:30 pm

GATESOL Members Only

Formative K-12 Assessments

Beyond ACCESS for ELLs: Assessing K-12 Language on the Fly

This live session will introduce tools and methods for quickly and informally documenting student performance. ACCESS scores  measure annual progress, but regular ongoing assessments are critical for informing instruction and showing how students actually use language in the classroom. The assessment tools introduced in this session provide for purposeful instruction that can nudge student performance to next levels in specific domains. Attendees will leave this interactive session with digital versions of the assessment tools introduced.

Dr. Jennifer Pendergrass

Past President, GATESOL

&

ESOL Instructional Coach

Floyd County Schools

Thursday

Sept 22nd

5:30 pm

GATESOL Members Only

"See, Think, Wonder": A Visual Thinking Strategy

This presentation will help  K-12 educators to learn to use "See, Think, Wonder" as an effective strategy to help students of all proficiency levels access content through visual media. I can show examples of how I have used it in my classroom to support Social Studies and Science grade-level content and different ways that teachers can use this resource to engage students.

Dr. Darline Douangvilay

GATESOL Member at Large

&

K-5  Teacher of the Year

2020-21

  Cobb County School District

Thursday -Saturday

October

27 - 29

2022 GATESOL Conference:

Language at the Heart of Learning

Locations and Program TBA

Thursday

Nov 10th

5:30 pm

GATESOL Members Onlyy

Let Them Talk! Leveraging Instructional Conversation to Increase Language & Content Learning

In this session, we present UGA CLASE’s Instructional Conversation as a tool to engage all learners in structured discussions and share the journey of how our implementation in a sixth-grade social studies class positively impacted oral language development of our multilingual language learners as well as student achievement for all learners.

Dr. Anna Yang

ESOL Instructional Coach

Gwinnett County Public Schools

Thursday

Dec 8th

7 pm

GATESOL Members Only

GATESOL Holiday Social

Bring your favorite holiday beverage and join GATESOL Board Members from 2022 and 2023 for an evening of conversation and a preview of the exciting plans for the New Year of 2023!

GATESOL Board Members