Proposal deadline EXTENDED to Monday, December 16, 2019 11:59 PM

The 2020 MATSOL Conference brings together educators of English learners from across Massachusetts to learn, network, and share expertise.

Submit a proposal to present at the conference!

MATSOL encourages engaging, interactive presentations that make the theory to practice connection. Successful proposals include practical classroom activities informed by current research and pedagogy, demonstrations of successful instructional practices, examinations of current issues in education, and research that informs educators in the Massachusetts context. Presentations should engage the audience through hands-on or interactive activities when possible. 

Presentations may address audiences from all program types including PK-12 schools (public, charter and independent), adult and workplace education, community college ESL, Intensive English Programs (IEPs), private language schools, and pre-service and in-service teacher education.

Topic strands:

• Academic Language in the Content Areas
• Bilingualism and Biliteracy
• Co-Teaching and Collaborative Practices
• Culturally Responsive Teaching
• Curriculum Development
• Data and Assessment
• Listening, Speaking and Pronunciation
• Digital Learning & Technology
• Family and Community Engagement
• Policy and Advocacy
• Program Administration and Evaluation
• Professional Development and Teacher Education
• Reading, Writing and Literacy
• Vocabulary and Grammar

Presentations take place on Wednesday, May 27 – Friday May 29, 2020.

Proposal deadline extended to Monday, December 16, 2019 at 11:59 PM.

Submit a proposal: https://www.matsol.org/2020-conference

View webinar: Submitting a MATSOL Conference Proposal (recording)

Note: The Call for Graduate Student Poster Sessions will open in January 2020.

The MATSOL PLS/IEP and Community College ESL Special Interests Groups (SIGs) are proud to present the 2019 Intensive English Program & Community College Conference!

Please join us in downtown Boston at EC English Language School on Saturday, November 9, as presenters from the world of private language schools, intensive English programs, and community college ESL programs converge from all over Massachusetts and New England to share their insights and experiences of the ESL industry.

Session topics include: intercultural communication, test prep, lesson planning, and professional development, just to name a few. This is a great opportunity to network and share your knowledge with others who love the ESL industry as much as you.

We look forward to seeing you there! Register soon as space is limited!

More information can be found here: https://www.matsol.org/iepcc-conference

Great teachers like you are also lifelong learners. You are continually looking to improve your skills and add new strategies to your toolkit.

At the MATSOL conference (only weeks away!), you can focus on skills and topics like these:

Reading, Writing and Literacy

• College Ready Writing: Instruction for Long Term ELLs 6-12
• Amplify, Not Simplify: Accelerating Access to Complex Texts
• Adaptive Literacy Instruction for High School Newcomers and SLIFE
• Pre-Reading Strategies to Support English Language Learners

Listening, Speaking, and Pronunciation

• “Wisdom in Wonder”: Socratic Seminar for SLIFE and Beginner ELs
• Say What? Boosting Academic Talk in the EL Classroom
• Learning Science through Speaking in the Secondary SEI Classroom.
• Teaching Listening as a Language Skill: Latest Approaches and Strategies

Vocabulary and Grammar

• Applying Best Practices: Grammar Instruction in a Foundational Composition Course
• Building Bodies of Vocabulary Through Meaningful Interaction
• Individualized Vocabulary Development through Independent Reading
• Breaking It Down: Teaching Word Learning Strategies

Looking forward to seeing you May 28 in Framingham!

At the 2019 MATSOL Conference, you will find multiple workshops to help you use student strengths, building on their own funds of knowledge. You will learn strategies for recognizing and celebrating student identity and culture and explore social-emotional learning; trauma-informed practice; impact of poverty on learning; and creating physically and emotionally safe environments.

Here are some (just some!) of the workshops you can choose to participate in:

1. Incorporating Story Books into Culturally Responsive ESL Teaching
2. A Culturally Responsive Classroom Looks Like…
3. There is no L without SEL: Social-Emotional Learning in ESL
4. Practical Use of Translanguaging and Multiliteracies in the Classroom
5. Empowering ELs by Turning the Tables: Students Teaching Teachers
6. Telling Our Stories in Pictures and Words: Creating Identity Texts
7. Walking in the Footsteps of Asian Students and Their Families
8. The Dos and Don’ts of Family Engagement in Early Childhood
9. Break (dancing) through cultural and communicative barriers
10. To Teach Them, You Must Know Them – Brockton to Cape Verde
11. Enacting Social Justice Principles in K-12 ESL Instruction
12. Engaging Haitian Students and their Families

There is a lot to look forward to at the 2019 MATSOL Conference. See you there!

This is a watershed moment for all of us who work with EL students. Thanks to the LOOK ACT (which you and MATSOL helped to pass), we have opportunities to teach bilingual students in ways we haven’t been able to do for years. How do we take advantage of those opportunities?

If you’ve been wondering about that too, consider attending some of these sessions at the 2019 MATSOL conference! These sessions are presented by your fellow educators in the field.

1. Codemeshing and Multimodal Literacy: The LOOK Act’s Translingual Potential
2. EL Student Success Plans: From the Ground Up
3. Impact of English-Only instruction on English Language proficiency of ELs
4. LOOKing at Our Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Community Engagement Practices
5. Primeiro Eu Canto, Depois Eu Falo: Teaching Two Immersion Students
6. Supporting Positive Identity Development and Language Learning in Science Classrooms
7. The Politics of the Look Act Teaching Spanish Heritage Language

We are also very fortunate that the staff of the Office of Language Acquisition from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) are coming to share their perspectives on topics including Curriculum and Professional Development Updates from OLA, ELE Compliance and Alternative Programming Proposals, English Learner Parent Advisory Council (ELPAC): Getting Started, LOOK Act Requirements for English Learner Benchmarks, State of the State 2019: Update on English Learner Education, the State Seal Of Biliteracy, and The LOOK Act and Alternative Programs in Massachusetts.

There is a lot to look forward to at the 2019 MATSOL Conference. See you there!