An Evening for World Language Educators

Details

Description

6:30 – 8:00 pm

We’re all missing the connections we’ve enjoyed over the last eight years at the Annual CAIS Evening for World Language Educators @ Greens Farms Academy so we’re moving this year’s event online!

Join us for a special evening focused on sharing and discussion surrounding the topic of teaching languages in independent schools. Enjoy your favorite beverage and international eats while engaging and gathering ideas with your colleagues —sharing of recipes is encouraged!

Schedule for the evening:

Session Details

S’MORES Storytelling in the WL Classroom
Sara Hall, Fraser Woods Montessori School
Learn to differentiate reading and listening comprehension activities using S’MORES as an acronym (Sketch, Match, Order, Retell, Expand, Sketch), we’ll touch on how to reach students with various learning styles and abilities all while engaging with the same text. I will walk participants through a sample in English and include ways to modify based on level and age.

Creating interactive worksheets for distance learning and hybrid classroom with Liveworksheets.com
Claire Bouyssié, Greens Farms Academy
Creating interactive worksheets for distance learning and hybrid classroom with Liveworksheets.com

Building Structural Competence in the WL Classroom
Peggy Malec, Millbrook School
In this session, I will demonstrate practical ways to present cultural material so that students are able to contextualize cultural practices and gain a deeper understanding of the societal structures that shape our world.

LGBTQ+ Resources for the World Language Classroom
Joseph Parodi-Brown, Marianapolis Preparatory School
Creating world language learning spaces that are safe and welcoming to all of our students necessitates addressing and validating queer communities within our target language cultures and within our classrooms. Proactively integrating content that is representative of LGBTQ+ individuals and addressing the role that gender plays in the languages we teach and the communities that speak those languages is important to make all students feel welcomed.

Actuating “L’ACTU”: Current events in French class
Sangeeta Dhawan, Greens Farms Academy
Making language learning real and not just an academic pursuit is the constant challenge of any world language teacher. The presenter will share her experiences with using the French magazine “L’ACTU” with learners at the intermediate-mid and intermediate-high levels of proficiency. Objectives, choice of articles, and activities will be shared.

Spreading Kindness in the time of COVID: an Intercultural Social Approach to the Subjunctive
Montserrat García, Sacred Heart Greenwich
In my session I will review a recent project that I implemented in my Spanish IV Honors class. This was a collaborative project between Sacred Heart Greenwich and our sister school in Barcelona.
Content of the project: students were presented with the challenge of completing three acts of kindness toward people and three acts of kindness toward the environment over a period of two weeks. Students had to upload a photo or video of their acts of kindness in a Padlet with a small description of their actions. Their classmates then had to post a comment regarding each of these acts of kindness (four comments over these two weeks) using the Subjunctive (Present and/or Past).
At the end of the project, students shared their actions with our sister school in Spanish, while the students from that school shared their own acts of kindness with us in English. The meeting took place via Zoom.

Scaffolding 90% Target Language in Novice Level Classrooms
Wenqing Zhang, Greens Farms Academy
The session will talk about three things to focus on when scaffolding a successful target-language-only classroom: motivation, autonomy, and accountability. The presentation will focus on some success stories and strategies in creating the immersion learning environment. At the end of the presentation, attendees will discuss how to maintain target-language-only in online learning in breakout rooms.

Creating an Engaging Online Learning Environments That Enhance Language and Culture
Mimi Melkonian, Brunswick School
To engage language learners, instructors need to offer various types of learning experiences within a lesson. This presentation will explore some Apps and tools such as MapChat, Vlogs, and Sutori that enhance language and culture within an active learning environment. All of these elements make online learning more relevant and authentic.