8 MA TESOL Students to be Published in 2016-2017

In 2016 and 2017, eight students in the USF Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages master’s program are scheduled to be published in the New Teacher Advocate, a journal that “is designed to support new teachers transitioning from being a student through being a student teacher and into their first years of teaching.”

The students and their articles listed below came to be published with the guidance of Dr. Madeline Kovarik.

Bell, Shad – "Six Skills to Improve ELLs’ Test Scores" (Winter 2016)
Blair, David – "4 Activities to Help Modify ELLs’ Pronunciation" (Spring 2017)
Homsi, Khalil – "5 Strategies for Using the Internet to Help ELLs" (Summer 2016)
Lorentzen, Andria – "5 M’s of Using Social Media in the Classroom" (Winter 2016)
McCrane, Jessica – "5 Strategies to Improve the Cohesive Writing of ELLs" (Winter 2016)
Ojeda, Rosie – "7 Supporting Strategies for Grade 3–12 ELLs with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education" (Fall 2016)
Ortman, Lisa Ortman – "5 Strategies to Guide ELLs in Learning Math" (Fall 2016) & "The Four Pillars of Flipped Learning" (Spring 2017)
Vasquez, Joe – "A School-Home Connection: Engaging Parents of Migrant ELL’s" (Summer 2016)

Dr. Madeline Kovarik teaches IME 630: Teaching English as a Second Language, which “focuses on the theory, methods, and assessments of instruction and language development.” Dr. Kovarik has a strong passion for working in the field of education, specifically TESOL. She states, ”I firmly believe that a quality education can have a long term impact. This is especially true for marginalized groups. One such group are the children of non-English speaking migrant workers. These children frequently have fragmented educational histories and limited access to English language instruction.” She joined the TESOL program because she says she “wanted to move to an online environment because it offers students, throughout the world, access to a quality educational program.”

Dr. Kovarik says that these students in her course were charged with focusing on “individual professional development and furthering the knowledge base of others within the profession.” She states that “Throughout the course the students studied the theoretical base and the practical application of strategies for teaching non-English speaking students. Beginning with module one, the students selected a topic for an in-depth study. Throughout modules two to seven, the students researched, explored cutting-edge information, and reflected on the topic. In the final module, module eight, the students prepared and submitted an article for publication to the New Teacher Advocate, a publication of the Kappa Delta Pi honor society of education.”

Dr. Madeline Kovarik explains the process of these students getting published. “The journal editor and the reviewers were aware that the original submissions were ‘first attempts’ at a publication submission so they provided very specific feedback on article improvements. Both the editor, Sally Rushmore, and the reviewers were very supportive and encouraging.”

I enjoy helping our students advance their professional expertise while building their resume and marketability,” says Dr. Kovarik. “I am blessed with working with a wonderful group of people at the Kappa Delta Pi and at USF.” Congratulations to our students and Dr. Kovarik on all of their hard work!