This session, "Unleashing Your True Teaching Power: Interaction in Online Learning Environments," demonstrates how to engage learners in online environments by transforming traditional classroom tools. Common techniques such as reading circles, interactive lines, information gaps, and jigsaws are ‘reimagined’ for the online setting. Teachers will not only see how researchers repurposed these activities, but will also reimagine their own favorite activities through the SAMR model for technology integration. A resource kit with activities ranging from warm-ups to guided and independent practice for reading, writing, listening, and speaking will be shared.

This session, "Creating Community Online," explored strategies for building community in the online English language classroom. The session highlighted some of the differences between synchronous and asynchronous learning and how each learning format can be effectively used. We also examined how to adapt important classroom management practices, such as monitoring work and giving feedback, for the online classroom. We discussed how to create a plan that establishes communications-related expectations and how to build a positive class community by incorporating reflection. Finally, we explored activities and tools for enabling student collaboration.

The authors describe a detailed, step-by-step procedure to help students analyze the concept of identity—with the use of “identity wheels” and a knowledge-skills-attitudes framework—and apply their understanding to develop intercultural communicative competence

Learn how Tamadar Issa, an author and a “creative educator,” uses her unique communication skills and her imagination to inspire the students she teaches in Tripoli.