MD TESOL welcomes you to our
44th Annual Conference
where you will
share your funds of knowledge to foster
community, action, and agency!
Hosted by: Towson University
on Saturday, November 2nd, 2024
8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Keynote Speach by Dr. Heather Linville
"Advocating for Multilingual Learners:
Where We've Been and Where We Are Going"
In her keynote presentation, Dr. Heather Linville will first highlight the several advances we have made in multilingual learner (ML) education due to advocacy efforts over the past few decades. Tracing historical and current approaches to advocacy, she will then explain the multiple ways teachers are and can be advocates for MLs. She will finally focus on the work that remains to be done, highlighting how we can and should work with other groups that are fighting for linguistic diversity and linguistic justice.
Heather A. Linville, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of Educational Studies at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. Her research interests include teacher advocacy multilingual learners, digital storytelling, and translanguaging. Heather has taught around the world, including Indonesia, Mexico, and Panama. Her most recent publication, with Polina Vinogradova, is the book Digital Storytelling as Translanguaging: A Practical Guide for Language Educators (Routledge, 2024). She also edited Advocacy in English Language Teaching and Learning (Routledge, 2019) and wrote Advocating for English Learners—Zip Guide (TESOL Press) with James Whiting. Heather is also President of her local TESOL affiliate, WITESOL.
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Our invited guest speakers include:
Dr. Gilda Martinez-Alba, Towson University
Highlighted session: Social-Emotional Learning: Advocating for Meaningful Connections and Positive Relationships
with Dr. Javier Luis Pentón Herrera (pre-recorded)
Do you find yourself thinking how to better connect with your students and their families? You can make a difference advocating for these relationships through social- emotional learning. Come to this workshop to discuss practical ways to make it happen.
Dr. Gilda Martinez- Alba is a professor in the College of Education at Towson University. Her books include, English U.S.A. Every Day, with over 8,000 copies sold, Wordless Books: So Much to Say! (a best seller), and Social Emotional Learning in the English Language Classroom, also a best seller. She was the recipient of the Maryland TESOL Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. And, last but not least, in her free time she enjoys traveling with family, spending time with her babies Mango and Kiwi (which are Chiweenies), making bilingual books about them for her YouTube playlist, and cooking Cuban food.
Dr. Luciana de Oliveira
Highlighted Session: Advocacy for Multilingual Learners: What, Why, and How
Advocacy for multilingual learners has become a necessity in our profession. We often find ourselves in situations in which we need to advocate - for our students, ourselves, or our profession. This presentation explores the what, the why, and the how to effectively advocate for multilingual learners.
Dr. Luciana C. de Oliveira (Ph.D.) is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Graduate Studies in the School of Education and Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research focuses on issues related to teaching multilingual learners at the elementary and secondary levels, including the role of language in learning the content areas. Dr. de Oliveira has authored or edited 30 books and has over 200 publications in various outlets. Her most recent book Supporting Multilingual Learners’ Academic Language Development: A Language-Based Approach to Content Instruction (LACI) (Routledge, 2023) provides teachers with a ready-to-use framework of six scaffolding elements that serves as a guide to enable multilingual learners to meet grade-level standards without simplification. She has over 30 years of teaching experience in the field of TESOL. She served in the presidential line (2017-2020), served as President in 2018-2019, and was a member of the Board of Directors (2013-2016) of TESOL International Association. She was the very first Latina to serve as President of TESOL.
Dr. Polina Vinogradova, American University
Highlighted session: Creating Multimodal Advocacy Spaces for Multilingual Voices with Digital Storytelling
Digital storytelling (DST) blends tradition in storytelling with multimodal expression and can be incorporated in English language education to create innovative multimodal spaces for multilingual voices of English learners. The presenter will highlight several recent DST projects conducted by English language educators, discuss how DST projects support multilingualism and translanguaging, and establish connections between these projects and advocacy.
Polina Vinogradova, Ph.D. is Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer and TESOL Program Director in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at American University (Washington, DC, USA). Her research focuses on the use of digital stories in English Language Education and on postmethod pedagogy and advocacy in TESOL. Most recently, she has been studying the role of pedagogy of multiliteracies and postmethod in TESOL candidates' empowerment. She is a co-editor (with Joan Kang Shin) of Contemporary Foundations for Teaching English as an Additional Language: Pedagogical Approaches and Classroom Applications (Routledge, 2021) and Co-author (with Heather A. Linville) of Digital Storytelling as Translanguaging: A Practical Guide for Language Educators (Routledge, 2024).
Dr. Christa de Kleine, Notre Dame of Maryland University
Highlighted Session: Critical language awareness: What is it and why is it essential for advocacy in TESOL?
Critical Language Awareness (CLA) refers to the ability to analyze how language shapes, and is shaped by, identity and power. In this session, I will argue that CLA forms an essential element in our ability to advocate for multilingual learners. We will examine language ideologies commonly held in education and analyze how these can—sometimes entirely unintentionally— exercise a profound effect on multilingual students’ social and academic experiences in our schools.
Dr. Christa de Kleine is a Professor of Education and TESOL at Notre Dame of Maryland University in Baltimore. She teaches courses on linguistic diversity at the master’s and Ph.D. levels and serves as coordinator of the M.A. in TESOL program. Dr. de Kleine’s most recent research examines the written language development of multilingual immigrant students at various community colleges in Maryland, including the effects of standard language ideology on writing instruction. She has over 35 years of teaching experience, including in the U.K., the U.S., and Panama. Dr. de Kleine is the 2020 recipient of Maryland TESOL’s Teacher of the Year (Higher Education) Award, and the 2024 recipient of the Mullan Distinguished Teacher Award at Notre Dame of Maryland University.
...and a special message from International TESOL president, Dr. Debra Suarez
Invited Panels include: The CALL Act, The MD TESOL Mentorship Program, and Who's Who of Some Maryland organizations that advocate for our communities.
Dr. Drew S. Fagan, University of Maryland
Invited Panel: ELT Educators as Advocates in State-level Policymaking: The Case of Maryland’s CALL Act
While most educators are viewed as passive recipients of state-level policymaking, this panel illustrates how educators can not only be active in this process but be at the helms of developing, advocating for, and helping to pass laws that ensure our state’s multilingual learners have equitable access to education.
The Panel Chair, Dr. Drew Fagan, is Clinical Professor of Applied Linguistics and Language Education at the University of Maryland and Director (and Developer) of the state’s first Ed.D. in School System Leadership Program- TESOL and Dual Language Education Specialization. Dr. Fagan works closely with policymakers in the Maryland Legislature, the Maryland State Department of Education, and the Maryland Higher Education Commission to enact change in laws, teacher certification policies, public school assessment and accountability standards, and higher education programming related to multilingual learners' equitable access to education. He was the 2022-2023 President of the Maryland TESOL Association, where he co-developed and was the initial coordinator of the state-wide mentorship program for professionals in the TESOL field, and he was the 2023 Teacher of the Year for the TESOL International Association and National Geographic Learning.
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Included Meals:
Breakfast: Assorted donuts, bagels with butter, cream cheese and jam, orange juice, bottled water, coffee, tea
Lunch: Choice of Sandwich accompanied by Chips, Mustard, Mayo, Assorted Craveworthy® Cookies and Bottled Water
Snack: Chips, salsa, cookies
Available all day: Gourmet Coffee (decaf & regular), Hot Tea, and Water.
