Plenary Title: Motivating, Nurturing, and Letting Go: Student Persistence and Ultimate Success
Concurrent Session Title:
Project-Basic Learning and Team Projects: The Ultimate Learner-Centered Experience
Activating the Imagination: The Creative Arts in Second Language Teaching
Learners come to us with all types of issues, problems, concerns, desires, preferred learning styles, and goals which all influence learning and acquiring language. Learning a language is not the same for everyone and until we recognize that meeting student needs is an individual student by student effort, we won’t reach but a handful. How can we discover their needs and meet them while still having time to teach our curriculum in a class of 20-40? What strategies can we use to stimulate learning and student success? Learner-centered instruction will be discussed and its implications.
In this era of testing and standards, the creative arts may seem irrelevant to the curriculum of many ESL programs. This presentation will suggest ways to engage the imagination of language learners through the arts. By judiciously weaving arts-based activities into a typical classroom, a teacher can promote mastery of language structures, stimulate interaction, and evoke cultural interpretation. We will explore a series of activities involving poetry, visual art, and music in order to reflect on how arts-focused instruction can be a catalyst for second language acquisition. Expect a challenging, visually-rich, participatory session!
From ITBE President Maja Teref:
Please join us at ITBE's Spring Workshop followed by a board meeting.
