Building Bridges 2008!

Location & Date

Friday, 1 February 2008
8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Four Points Sheraton
5101 California Avenue
Bakersfield, CA 93309
Phone: (661) 325-9700

Overview

The 18th Annual Building Bridges Reatreat will provide college English and ESL teachers opportunities to connect with publishers and colleagues, to attend breakout sessions on a wide range of topics, and to learn and share teaching successes with each other. See the 2007 Highlights for an idea of what you can expect.

Possible Topics

First-Year Experience, Basic Skills, Learning Communities, English as a Second Language, Technology in the Classroom, Responding to Papers, Teaching Research, Teaching Reading, Critical Thinking, Grammar/Usage, Learning Disabilities, Coping with Student Attitudes, or any topic related to teaching composition, literature, or ESL.

Register for the Conference

Fill out the 2008 Registration Form. Deadline: January 28, 2008.

We look forward to seeing you!

Call for Proposals

As in years past, we know that we will have superb presentations by outstanding presenters--faculty from our campuses. If you have an idea for a group or individual presentation on a topic relevant to the teaching of composition, ESL, and literature.

To submit a proposal, fill out the 2008 Proposal Form. Deadline, January 23, 2008.

2007 Highlights

2007's Building Bridges Retreat on Friday, March 9 was a day for English teachers to get together with publishers and colleagues to exchange ideas on the craft of teaching college English. Our thanks go out to the publishers, their wonderful regional representatives, the presenters, college administrators, and English teachers who attended and participated. Below is the program schedule and a slideshow of highlights featuring many of the individuals that made 2007's Building Bridges Retreat a great experience. We hope to see you in 2008!

7:30-8:30 - Registration; Continental Breakfast; Publisher Exhibits

8:20-8:45 - Opening Remarks

8:45-9:30 - Publisher Presentations: Antoinett Greensky and Elvis Becerra of Allyn/Bacon Longman; Jennifer Sano and Dennis Adams of Bedford St. Martin's; Quentin Murphy of Cambridge University Press; Joy Ecklund and Alison Henry of Houghton Mifflin; Jonathan Boggs of Longman/ESL.

9:30-9:50 - Coffee Break

9:55-10:55 - Breakout Sessions: "Grading ESL Essays Fairly" by Sara Beheseta and Jeannie Parent of BC; "An Approach to Teaching Poetry" by Kerrie Buis of BC and COS; "Best Practices: Sharing Our Experiences" by Chris Chung-Wee of Taft; "Departmental Norming" by David Hurst of COS, Susan Regier of PC, and Valerie Turner of CSUB.

11:00-11:45 - Publisher Presentations: Brian Gore of McGraw-Hill; Ron Barasch of Oxford University Press; Cheryl Smith and Valerie Turner of Prentice Hall; Liz Poulsen and Alex Kasuboske of Thomson Learning; Erin Chenoweth of Thomson Learning/ESL.

12:00-1:20 - Fiesta Buffet Lunch

1:25-2:25 - Breakout Sessions: "Using Technology in the ESL Classroom" by John Hart of BC; "The How's and Why's of Increasing Student Contact" by Brenda Freaney and Paula Parks of BC; "Critical Thinking via Audience Awarenesse" by Cheryl Hogue Smith of CSUB; "Research Paper" by Gary Graupman of Taft and Kate Pluta of BC.

2:25-2:40 - Chocolate and Cheesecake Dessert Break!

2:40-3:40 - Breakout Sessions: "Designing and Effective Research Writing Course" by Gloria Dumler and Denise Mitchell of BC; "Craft-Oriented Composition Assignments" by Robert Vasquez of COS; "Handling the English Instructor Paper Load" by Kim Flachmann of CSUB; "Reading Journals and Idea Notebooks" by Randi Brummett De Leon and Brooke Hughes of CSUB.

3:40-4:00 - Wrap-Up!