##### Teacher Training Methodology Workshops in March 2007

Please sign up for a particular seminar at the circulation desk, by
phone (044) 238-6610, or by e-mail: <etrc_kyiv@yahoo.com>[.]{.underline}

[**Wednesday, March 7** from 4.00 - 5.30PM]{.underline} **["Extra!
Extra! English Language Students Read the Newspaper!"]{.underline}**

Presenter -- **Jennifer M. Herrin**, Senior English Language Fellow

Participants will use material from the newspaper to create effective
task-based language learning activities. Comics, classified ads, and
short articles will be manipulated; participants will learn how to use
authentic materials for multi-level students, be introduced to templates
for designing reading activities, and gain ideas to apply to other texts
and pictures. Ways to find authentic newspaper materials on the Internet
will also be discussed.

[**Tuesday, March 13** from 3.00 - 4.30PM]{.underline} **[Academic
writing and Critical Thinking]{.underline}**

Presenter --**Johanna Kowitz**, English Language specialist, U.S.
Embassy

This will be a look at characteristics/features of academic writing, and
rhetorical strategies commonly used to organize material. A look at some
very specific elements such as hedges, qualifiers, negatives, fairly
sophisticated items.  We will also look at how these features can
be made 'lighter' (less advanced) by looking at sentence level work,
rather than longer texts. This is combined with a look at some of the
elements of \"critical thinking\", including such topics as facts and
opinions (can we tell the difference??) support for claims, using
multiple sources and synthesizing them, proper citations.

[**Wednesday, March 14** from 4.00 - 5.30PM]{.underline} **[How to Write
an Academic Essay and a "Statement of Purpose"\
]{.underline}**Presenter -- **Jennifer M. Herrin**, Senior English
Language Fellow

Many applications require a statement of purpose or "personal statement"
--university admissions applications, Fulbright fellowships, and other
scholarship or professional programs. This is an essay in which you
describe your character, experience, and professional and/or academic
goals. In this workshop, participants will engage in activities that
will uncover the format of the academic essay; it will also show
examples of successful and unsuccessful essays.

[**Wednesday, March 21** from 4.00 - 5.30PM]{.underline} **[A love-hate
relationship: Ways of manipulating the textbook]{.underline}**\
Presenter -- **Jennifer M. Herrin**, Senior English Language Fellow

Most courses have a textbook, but do teachers always like to follow it?
Ideally, we have the opportunity to be involved in selecting it, but
this is not always the case. This workshop takes participants through
four (4) ways that they can make the textbook more effective by
supplementing, omitting, adapting, and/or reorganizing. Samples from an
actual textbook will be used in demonstrations; time permitting,
participants will design "new and improved" activities using textbook
excerpts.

[**Thursday, March 22** from 10.00 -- 11.15AM]{.underline} **[Cultural
Diversity in America: the Japanese-American Experience]{.underline}**

Presenter - **Micheal Uyehara**, Political Officer, U.S. Embassy

[**Wednesday, March 28** from 4.00 - 5.30PM **Novel** **Ideas for
Novels**]{.underline}\
Presenter -- **Jennifer M. Herrin**, Senior English Language Fellow

When an institution can arrange for all students in one class to read
the same novel, the instructor wants to find creative ways for the class
to read the book together. Choosing a novel, organizing weekly
discussions, and creating supplementary tasks for students are
presented.

**[Professional Development Seminar: \"How to Teach Business
Communication\"]{.underline}** **will be repeated in March on Fridays
(March 23, 30, and April 6)** from **12:00 to 3:00 PM** for those who
have not had an opportunity to attend in November and December.

[Please note]{.underline}: **Only participants who can attend all 3
sessions will be admitted. Certificates of completion will be presented
to participants who attend all sessions.**

Presenter: Jennifer Herrin, Senior English Language Fellow, will hold a
9-Hour Seminar over 3 Fridays from 12:00pm to 3:00pm. The sessions will
be held on the following dates:

**March 23** - Module 1: How to Teach Students to Give a Presentation;
How to Integrate Small Talk into the Lesson

**March 30**- Module 2: How to Teach Meeting Skills; How to Teach
Telephoning Skills

**April 6** - Module 3: How to Write a Thank You Letter; How to
Integrate the Task-based Approach and Certificates

As an illustration of the task-based approach, participants will be
involved in interactive, demonstrations, discuss language focus and
feedback methods, and devise ways to adapt the techniques to their
current student populations and textbooks. Related Internet websites
will also be presented.

**American Literature Lectures in March 2007**

This series of lectures, **presented by American Fulbright Scholar
Daniel Belgrad**, uses American literature to offer a survey, from a
historical perspective, of patterns in American culture since 1900. The
literature is analysed to understand how it has reflected and shaped
American cultural values. Professor Belgrade has started has series of
seminars at the ETRC in January and will continue it in March. All
seminars will take place at the ETRC on **Thursdays from 4:00--5:30 PM**
on the following dates:

[**Thursday, March 1** from 4.00 - 5.30PM **Meridel Le Sueur, "Women on
the Breadlines": The Great Depression and the New Deal**]{.underline}

Presenter - **Daniel Belgrad**, American Fulbright Scholar

The economic depression of the 1930s led many Americans to rethink their
commitment to industrial capitalism and the "corporate liberal" social
order. Leftist radicalism was represented by the work of writers and
artists who joined Popular Front organizations, like Meridel Le Sueur,
whose "Women on the Breadlines" exemplifies the *reportage* style
expressing moral outrage and calling for social change. Le Seuer's
writing is of particular interest as an expression of the often
overlooked experience of women during the Depression. President Franklin
D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" administration would preserve corporate
liberalism by shifting the balance of power towards organized labor and
state intervention in the economy.

[**Thursday, March 15** from 4.00 - 5.30PM **John Steinbeck, "The Moon
is Down": World War II and Democracy**]{.underline}

Presenter - **Daniel Belgrad**, American Fulbright Scholar

Steinbeck's novel expressed his democratic vision and was used as
anti-Axis propaganda during World War II. Steinbeck's leftist past (he
was most famous for his Depression-era *reportage* novel, *The Grapes of
Wrath*) is evident in his portrayal of the fascists as industrial
planners. The novel also offers an early articulation of the
"psychological warfare" that would become an important aspect of World
War II and all later wars.

[**Thursday, March 29** from 4.00 - 5.30PM **John Cheever, "The
Swimmer": Suburbia and Psychotherapy**]{.underline}

Presenter - **Daniel Belgrad**, American Fulbright Scholar

The power and affluence of postwar America led some Americans to imagine
the coming century as "the American century." The suburban lifestyle of
the period symbolized for many the "American dream." John Cheever's
fiction uses a psychological style of writing to articulate a critique
of the suburban value system.

#### Conversation Club Topics

We invite you to attend our speaking club in February.

The discussion topics are the following:

[March 13]{.underline} **- Travel**

[March 27]{.underline} -- **Culture**

The meetings of the English Conversation Club are held on Tuesdays, from
5:00-7:00 PM. If you wish to come, please **RSVP** to the ETRC at
etrc_kyiv@yahoo.com or by phone (044) 238-6610.

**[Professional Development Seminar: How to Teach Business Writing\*
NEW]{.underline}**

+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Date/Time:   | [Wednesday evenings]{.underline}                      |
|              |                                                       |
|              | **April 4, 11, 18, & 25; May 16 & 23, 2007**\         |
|              | 4:00pm-5:30 pm                                        |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Presenter:   | **Jennifer M. Herrin**, MA --\                        |
|              | Senior English Language Fellow, US Department of      |
|              | State                                                 |
+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+

In this 9-hour seminar, participants will gain techniques for
integrating business writing into the curriculum. Participants will
learn ways to teach students to:

-   Understand register

-   Forms of greeting and closing (formal vs. informal)

-   Polite requests and other appropriate phrases

-   Etiquette of virtual correspondence

-   Write business letters

-   Write email messages

-   Understand functions of faxes and memos

-   Understand the basic format for reports

-   Review recurring grammatical forms

As an illustration of the task-based approach, participants will be
involved in demonstrations, language focus activities, feedback
techniques, and other methodology that will give them ideas on how to
make business writing activities more effective and interactive. Related
Internet websites will also be provided.\
\*[Note: Certificates of completion will be presented to participants
who attend all five sessions]{.underline}