TESOL Proposal Guidelines

The following guidelines are taken from www.tesol.org for presenting at the 2007 National TESOL Convention and are meant to guide us for preparing presentations for 2008:

1. Presentation Title

The title will

1. accurately reflect the content
2. be clear to the intended audience
3. have no colon or em dash
4. contain no more than to seven words. Each part of a slashed or hyphenated word counts as one word. Do not use quotation marks.
5. capitalize each word having 4 or more letters

2. Presentation Abstract

The abstract describing the presentation will

1. not exceed 40 words
2. be written in the third-person present tense (“The presenter begins by ... and she...”)
3. avoid all references to published works
4. be carefully edited and proofread
5. be written to draw the most appropriate audience to the presentation
6. spell out any acronym(s) or abbreviation(s) used in the title

The abstract will appear in the program book, so proofread it carefully. Convention participants read abstracts to decide which sessions to attend. Abstracts are edited by the convention core planning team and TESOL staff upon acceptance.

3. Session Description

The session description is used to adjudicate the presentation content. Only the proposal reviewers see the session description; it does not appear in the program book. See below for samples of accepted session descriptions.

Session descriptions vary according to type of presentation:

Paper: synopsis, including central idea and supporting evidence - 45 minute presentation
Report: synopsis, including central idea and supporting evidence - 20 minute presentation
Demonstration: central purpose and description of what will be demonstrated - 45 minute presentation
Workshop: statement of goal, synopsis of the theoretical framework, and precise description of tasks - 1 hour and 45 minute presentation
Colloquium: synopsis of issue(s), brief schedule of the presenters and their topics, and discussion time - 1 hour and 45 minute presentation
Poster Session: main ideas and description of the visual display - 45 minute presentation

The session description will

1. not exceed 200 words. Proposals submitted with longer session descriptions will be disqualified.
2. be typed, double-spaced, and readable, if submitted by fax or post
3. have a clearly stated purpose and point of view
4. include supporting details and examples
5. contain evidence of current practices and/or research
6. use an appropriate format (e.g., paper, demonstration)
7. include a variety of techniques (e.g., activities, visuals)
8. show appropriate amount of material for the allotted time
9. demonstrate careful editing and proofreading
10. be anonymous (not include identifiable references to the submitter or submitter’s institution)

You must complete a separate proposal form (online or by fax or post) for each proposal. The proposal form includes space for a proposal title, an abstract that will appear in the program book if the proposal is accepted, and a session description used to adjudicate the proposal. Note: Proposals from within the United States must be submitted online. Proposals faxed or mailed from within the United States will be disqualified.

Deadline ~around June 1, 2007

Blogging in the Writing Classroom

Last night I attended a discussion session hosted by Charles Nelson from Kean University on the topic of Blogging in the Writing Classroom. It is surprising/fascinating to me the quantity of blogging sessions there are at this years TESOL conference.

Prof. Nelson suggested that blogging can be a useful tool in teaching writing to students from K-12 all the way through graduate school. He assigns his writing students 2 blog entries per week. The topic can be anything as long as they write at least one paragraph. I believe his reason for this is to train his students to start writing automatically.

My main concern for K-12 blogging is online predators. This morning, I conducted a little research on my own and found out that blog groups can be closed to the public. In other words, we could set up a blog group where only those invited can view or contribute to a blog. Also, teachers can set themselves up as administrators so that they can monitor the appropriateness of posting.

I wonder how/if we could implement blogging at Tubman. How could we incorporate blogging with Teachers Institute?