In a world where students are exposed to many different types of on-line media, educators are aware of the importance of building students’ ability to identify bias and misinformation online. Unfortunately, few of us have time to devote entire class periods to media literacy. By raising student awareness of the ways that common vocabulary can be used to persuade and influence, we can help our students become more savvy consumers of media. In this presentation, teachers for all age groups will be introduced to short critical thinking activities that can be incorporated into writing and vocabulary lessons.
Willow Barnosky is an experienced TESL/TEFL professional. She has taught ESL and EFL in the United States, Japan, and South Korea in adult education, intensive language institutes, community college, and university contexts.
She possesses an MA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies as well as a BA in Spanish from the University of Pittsburgh. Willow's career to date includes serving as the ESL specialist for a Pennsylvania Department of Education, Division of Adult Education, professional development center, where she traveled the state providing curriculum and instruction workshops and trainings for adult and college ESL instructors. She has also worked at a university in Japan where she taught academic writing and at a language school in Korea teaching intensive English and Business English. Before teaching in Poland, she worked for community organizations in Silicon Valley in California, teaching English and literacy skills to adult learners.
During the first semester of the academic year of 2019/20 she conducted courses of advanced English to the students of English Philology at the University of Rzeszów through the English Language Fellow Program supported by the Department of State. She also ran a series of seminars for ESL teachers and delivered webinars for IATEFL Poland. In the 2020-2021 academic year Willow will be associated with the University of Opole through the Virtual English Language Fellow Program.
