Calendar
English graduate student Liz Deegan will be hosting a D2L Drop-In Workshop for anyone who needs it, both incoming and advanced students! On Wednesday, September 16th, from 2-4pm, she will have open zoom hours where anyone can drop in for help on some D2L basics. Below are a range of topics she can help with:
- Making Announcements
- Organizing your Content
- Setting up Attendance
- Setting up your gradebook
- Creating a Rubric
- Creating Quizzes
- Release Conditions for Content
- & more! Let me know if you need something specific
The event can be a way for folks to get more comfortable with D2L and its capabilities – especially considering we are extra reliant on technology with virtual learning. But also, feel free to drop in and say hi!
Contact deeganel@msu.edu for zoom link.
The Departments of WRAC and English will be working together this year to program events for graduate students related to careers outside of academia as well as non-faculty careers within the university (such as program coordinators, etc.). We are planning to hold our first workshop on Thursday, December 3, 3:00-5:00. We will follow up with additional details concerning speakers for this event, but we want to write now to ask you to save the date.
Meet with SoSLAP at Blue Owl Coffee in East Lansing. Grab or bring something hot to drink, and spend some time in the fresh air connecting with colleagues!
Dr. Aline Godfroid will be leading two discussions on time management for doctoral students in Second Language Studies and other research-focused grad programs. Do you find you need help balancing your research, coursework, and job? Want to organize so you still have time to socialize, read, and relax? Then these sessions are for you!
- Tuesday, January 19, 10:35 AM to noon
- February 23, 10:35 AM to noon
The second session will build on the first session and thus, will be most beneficial to people who also joined January 19.
Location: https://msu.zoom.us/j/93798163438
Please email SLS Graduate Student Joanne Koh, by clicking on “Email” above next to “Contact,” to receive the passcode to the meeting(s).
This interactive online writing workshop is designed to help you develop an individualized plan for graduate writing, especially comprehensive exams, dissertation proposals, and dissertations. Session 1 is generally designed for students in the early years of their PhD study. Read more and register here.
Shelley Staples, University of Arizona
Friday, February 5, 2pm EST
Open to all; Sponsored by the TESOL program, the Second Language Studies program, and the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University
Description: In this talk, I will provide an overview of ongoing projects in the Corpus and TELL Lab at the University of Arizona, including an introduction to the two learner corpora we are developing, the Corpus and Repository of Writing (Crow), and Multilingual Corpus of Assignments: Writing and Speech (MACAWS). For both corpora, I will discuss both research and pedagogical applications that we are exploring. Both corpora are freely available to the public and access information will be provided for participants’ future exploration.
Zoom Information:
https://msu.zoom.us/j/96045124339
Meeting ID: 960 4512 4339
Passcode: 319339
Language and Literacy Assessment for PreK-2 Students
To determine whether a language measure works well for test taker populations, it should be valid and reliable for all groups. Such groups include those whose first language is not English and/or those with limited speech production. If an early language battery is administered to multilingual children in just one of their languages, we have only a murky view of those children’s oral language skills. For diagnostic assessment, misclassification could result in children being directed into the wrong school services. Another issue is that assessments may not have been developed and validated with children from underrepresented groups or who would benefit from special accommodations. Sarah will share some of her lab’s research on two projects to develop language assessments for preschoolers and kindergarteners, specifically for phonological awareness/sensitivity, the understanding of language sound structure: 1) ATLAS, the Access to Literacy Assessment System, designed to be accessible for children with and without speech production difficulties; and 2) BAPS, the Bilingual Assessment of Phonological Sensitivity, for Spanish-English speaking children. She will also highlight differential item functioning (DIF), an item response analysis technique to check whether test items are measuring language proficiency in the same way for different groups.
Sarah Goodwin, Ph.D., is a Research Associate in MSU’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies. In their Early Language and Literacy Investigations Laboratory (www.ellilab.com), she conducts psychometric analyses of early language assessments and manages lab data. She also teaches research methods for graduate students. Sarah’s research interests include language assessment, listening skills, and second language acquisition. Her work can be found in Language Assessment Quarterly; Assessing Writing; and Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.
There is no registration necessary to attend this event!
Zoom Information:
Direct link: https://msu.zoom.us/j/92214631324?pwd=RWUyRXpPZVYzR1RxLytmYnVRV2VTdz09
Meeting ID: 922 1463 1324
Passcode: testing
On February 9th, Dr. Brian Burns will host an English Alumni Career Panel, with three of our alums (1990, 2006, 2017), from 6:30-8pm. Students will have the chance to engage this panel on their career pathways and discuss how their English major prepared them for a variety of careers.
On February 16th, Dr. Burns will host an English Career Planning Workshop from 6-7:30pm. This workshop aims to give students the tools to begin their career trajectories by connecting with career, internship, and networking resources on campus. Dr. Burns will also talk students through a fast-paced resumé and cover letter workshop.
Learn the fundamental differences in CVs and resumes, how to decide which document you should submit when applying for a position, and how to convert your CV to a resume (and back again). Smart students will have both an updated CV and resume in their files: this workshop will help you get there. Read more and register here.