As language teachers, our goal for our students is to be more proficient in the target language when they complete our course than when they began. We probably have other goals for our students (being more kind, more empathetic, more responsible, more culturally aware), but all of these objectives fit into the overarching mission of … Continue reading What is Proficiency Oriented Language Instruction?
If we want language to come OUT of our students’ mouths, we must get language IN to their heads. They need INput so that they can produce OUTput. » Input is reading and listening » Output is speaking and writing This is common sense. A learner cannot utter an expression in a new language if … Continue reading How to teach such that they understand
If you are at a conference this summer and you have Twitter and you want to use it, send out as many SWEET TWEETS as you can! Sweet tweets: Not sweet as in the opposite of sassy; sweet as in...awesome. So...what makes a conference tweet sweet? CONFERENCE HASHTAG Use the conference hashtag (#xxxx)! Make … Continue reading Conferencing this summer? Make your Tweets Sweet
Want to make the most of MovieTalk this coming year? Join Rachel Lucas & me this week on Thursday to learn about Movie Talk Strategies for World Language Classrooms! » What is MovieTalk? » How can you maximize the impact of MovieTalk? » What can you do before and after a MovieTalk? Date: 6/28/18 Time: … Continue reading Learn about MovieTalk, LIVE!
“I love CI. But I have 7 large classes a day. My voice begins to give out by my 4th period. What can I do?” Señora Spicer emailed in this question to the We Teach Languages podcast after listening to me chat with Stacey about how to write comprehensible texts on Episode 56 (click here to … Continue reading Give students input, keep your voice.
I am thrilled to be participating in this year's Express Fluency Language Teacher training in South Burlington, Vermont this summer, and I hope you will join me! Like iFLT, NTPRS, and Comprehensible Cascadia, Express Fluency offers this annual summer training for language teachers that are looking to learn how to help their students understand the language that … Continue reading Language teacher training in Vermont, August 2018
What burning questions do you have about Comprehension Based Methods? What can you do NOW and over the summer to to set yourself up for success in the 2018-2019 school year? What do you need to know about the SOMOS Curriculum in order to decide if it is a good match for you? Join me … Continue reading LIVE Q&A for language teachers TONIGHT!
You are a great teacher. You are learning and growing, you are connecting with your students, you are an expert in your content area, and you are a team player. You are an ideal candidate--but are you able to communicate that effectively on your résumé? You probably know that I love writing lessons, but do you know … Continue reading Hey, teacher–need help with your résumé?
What is grammar instruction? What does it do for language acquisition, and what should its role be in a language classroom? These are some of the questions that a group of enthusiastic language teachers tackled on Friday evening at OFLA with Keynote speaker, Paul Toth (read his bio here). Following Carol Gaab's address at the OFLA awards group, … Continue reading What is Grammar Instruction?
The thing about teachers is that we can't help but teach. Nothing we learn can be kept to ourselves! We spent many years learning our content, and we are excited about it and love having the opportunity to share it with our students. Learn a parenting tip? Blab it to all the parents you know--and don't let … Continue reading Workshop for world language teacher trainers!
