Best Practices Shared

Like many colleagues in our department who had volunteered to work and put the whole thing together, I was so busy coordinating part of the registration area at the just finished CATESOL annual conference at Town and Country over the weekend that I only made it to one and a half sessions. But was I glad to even do so. I was late to the first session I attended. It was the only show at the conference focusing on how to build a good ESL tutoring program, and it was presented by none other than three of our own tutors - Mike, Diego, and Christl.

The intimate group of attendees got to ask us, the Palomar folks, quite a few questions as they showed a genuine interest in establishing their own ESL tutoring operations or improving on their existing ones. Our tutor stars did a fantastic job dispensing usable information as they engaged the participants in a couple interactive exercises to focus them on the important components of a successful ESL tutoring program.

Yesterday morning, I got to participate in a full session, a half-day Sunday workshop that is an annual favorite for many. The one I chose to be there for was given by a couple veteran teachers at San Diego City College Continuing Education Campus. They showcased six best teaching practices on video:

• Introducing a new lesson  before opening the book
• Graphic cut-outs for conversation practice in a multi-level class
• Learning new words interactively
• The writing process in action
• How to help students organize their binders
• Using assessment folders to monitor student progress

Participants viewed each strategy, reflected on the factors that make these strategies effective, and shared other effective strategies in the same skill areas.

I went into this Sunday workshop hoping I could gain some IOU (interesting and usable) information as my continuing struggle to decide the ways to provide ESL tutor training required a fresh dose of perspective. And I left with a feeling of inspired confidence that I could use the same approach as the good people at the San Diego adult education ESL program did.

To access the videos, click here.