CATESOL24

Academic writing often confines students to a rigid approach that stifles creativity. This session introduces an innovative approach using stories from The Players' Tribune blog as mentor texts. By fostering personal voice and multimedia expression, students learn to challenge academic norms. Participants will explore strategies for encouraging 'rule-breaking' within academic contexts, empowering students to find their unique voices and build community through multimedia and digital literacy.

Adult learners in California have benefited in so many ways by participating in the EL Civics program. From civics lessons to workforce prep as part of Integrateed English Literacy and Civics Education (IELCE), the EL Civics program has offered a flexible and culturally responsive framework to meet the needs of students as needs arise. Agencies have developed civic objectives and addtionally assessment plans (COAAPs) to address the great digital literacy divide exacerbated by the pandemic and an entrepreneurial COAAP to empower ESL learners to start their own businesses. This session will inform about cutting-edge ideas developed by your colleagues, how agencies might expand Integrated Education and Training (IET) beyond IELCE, and potential changes in funding.

As our world becomes increasingly digital, it is important that we, as teachers, stay on top of new developments and adjust our teaching styles and techniques accordingly. At the same time, it's important that we work with our students (newcomers to the U.S) to do the same. This panel will share latest trends in educational technology and AI and make suggestions for how teachers can keep their skills up to date and assist their students with doing the same.

Looking for somewhere to eat lunch? Drop in and introduce yourself to other San Diego area educators. Share what you've been teaching, regional-specific challenges and successes, and whether you've been involved in Chapter activities before! Whether you're new to the San Diego area or are interested in getting involved in the Chapter, we're happy to have you here!

San Diego Chapter Serves the following region:
- San Diego County

Are you on the San Diego Chapter message board? Take this opportunity to log into your catesol.org member profile and join the San Diego Chapter message board, so you can stay up-to-date on all San Diego Chapter CATESOL events!

Interested in getting involved in the Chapter? Message catesolmerve@gmail.com, our Chapter Council Chair, and she'll get you connected!

This workshop empowers educators to optimize prompt engineering in AI to create tailored educational materials for students. Participants will learn to craft precise prompts, guiding AI to generate differentiated, multilingual, and culturally relevant content. Prompt engineering skills will include building context, specifying roles, integrating key vocabulary, verifying outputs, and engaging iteratively. Through two hands-on activities, educators will develop texts and scenarios that can be used in their classrooms, in turn enhancing digital literacy and instructional practices. The session includes a discussion on ethical considerations, data privacy, and applications of when AI integration is ideal for the language classroom.

This study used a written interview format to ask several large language models (LLMs, specifically, Claude, Chat GPT, and Gemini) about their ability to write reading passages restricted to particular vocabulary lists, and with specific restrictions on text complexity. The presentation outlines the background of the study, particularly features that might be included in passage specifications, and provides options for setting specifications in a particular context and/or at a particular level of English proficiency. It outlines the various capabilities claimed by current versions of the LLMs that were interviewed.