CATESOL 2019 Recap
Read on for a few highlights:
Effective Grading Through Color Coding
Jaquelin Yang
One of my favorite sessions at CATESOL this year
was Charmaine Phipps’ session on more effective grading through color coding. I
am working on slowly transitioning my classes to OER/ZTC, and Charmaine’s idea
of color coding all of her handouts would be a useful strategy to try once I
start creating my own materials.
A sample grading color scheme:
● Green
- formatting
● Purple
- structure of the paragraph or essay
● Blue
- grammar
● Pink
- sentence structure
● Red
- spelling
Charmaine prints all of her handouts
for the semester on colored paper and has the students organize them in a
binder in lieu of a textbook. Then, when the students write essays, she uses
this same color coding system to grade them.
As a student, I never liked getting an
essay back that was covered with red marks. Even if the comments were positive,
it always felt somewhat discouraging. I recently tried this strategy out in one
of my other classes, and once I got used to the technique, it actually made
grading go by faster! I could take one look at a student’s paper and see if
most of their problems were with spelling, grammar, or comprehension of the
text. Additionally, I could compare various students’ work to see if I was
grading fairly and consistently. Students enjoy this grading method because
they can tell that you’ve put a lot of work into it, and that your marks are
deliberate and meaningful.
Charmaine recommended the Pilot Frixion Erasable Pens because
when you first start out with this system, it’s easy to make mistakes. I’ve
recently tried out these pens, and they work wonderfully! Erasable pens have
come a long way from when I last used them! My only warning is not to leave
these near a cup of coffee or in an extremely hot car because the erasable
feature is heat-activated.
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday
season & if you’ve tried out this grading system, let me know what you
think!
Classroom Strategies for Overcoming Internal Barriers to Learner Success
Stephanie Lange
The
50th CATESOL conference in San Jose, CA was very insightful
because it was the first time I have been to a CATESOL conference. There where
so many great workshops to choose from that I became overwhelmed because they
were all very interesting, but I could only choose to attend one at a time.
Navigating through the convention center and looking for the workshop rooms was
like navigating through a maze. If the room was not upstairs, then I had to go
down to the basement and look for the room where the workshop would take
place. From all the workshops that I attended, “Classroom Strategies for Overcoming Internal Barriers to Learner Success” presented by Kristi Reyes,
CALPRO and Mira Costa College, was my favorite.
The workshop began with the handout - Helping Students Overcome
Barriers - where the attendees had to put a checkmark next to strategies we
have done in the classroom. For example, do you call students on their
cellphones, or do you send students text messages to follow up on class
attendance? The presenter had everyone share his or her answers on the
questionnaire and a wonderful discussion took place. Ms. Reyes emphasized on
the importance of open communication and positive reinforcement between the
instructor and students at all times during the semester. She mentioned that by
week nine, attendance drops to 59% in the classroom and it is a phenomenon that
occurs every semester. As instructors, we have to be aware of many factors that
are occurring in students lives: money problems, work, childcare, sickness,
lack of confidence, mental illness and every other impediment that is occurring
in students lives. This is where we come in as instructors; we have to
encourage our students to succeed and have them see the classroom as an
environment where they feel safe, and not ashamed of low grades or of their
personal problems. Instructors should set short-term goals for the semester
that students feel they can achieve instead of long-term goals that are not
attainable.
Time went very fast in this workshop because there was so much
valuable information Ms. Reyes shared with all of the attendees. She finished
the workshop recommending the book “Growth Mindset." When a student says;
it is too hard, I cannot do this; we have to change their attitude immediately
and say; yes, you can do it! Always taking mistakes in the classroom as a
learning opportunity.
Key Take-aways
Denise Maduli-Williams
Colleges are deep in discussions/revisions
about AB705 and CB 21. View the ASCC presentation on AB705: New Challenges and Benefits for ESL Faculty, and learn about the ESL CB21 Recoding Project.
CATESOL has a newest Interest Group: Online Teaching.
The three plenary speakers were highlights for me:
Huda Essa, of Culture Links, who reminded us of the privilege to know our family’s name and history.
Dr. Deborah Healey who spoke about intelligent use of technology in her plenary
presentation: Growing Up Digital
Dr. Keith Folse who took a standing-only room on a journey around the globe while recounting his 40 years of teaching, only to bring us back home to the fact that one single teacher can have a huge impact in the lives of their students.
CATESOL 2020
The next CATESOL will be in Pasadena, October 8-11, 2020. More details to come, but keep a look out for volunteer opportunities, proposal deadlines, and scholarships.
