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2008 Annual FLENJ Spring Conference
Friday, Mar 7, 2008 — Saturday, Mar 8, 2008
FLENJ 2008 Spring Conference
March 7 – 8, 2008
DoubleTree Hotel, Somerset
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs
The Challenge and Possibilities of Curriculum Mapping World Languages
Friday, March 7th Pre-Conference Workshops
9:00-3:00 (Lunch Included in All Sessions)
Power Up Your Storytelling – SOLD OUT
Lori Langer de Ramirez, Herricks High School, New Hyde Park, NY
This workshop will expose teachers to the use of PowerPoint and PhotoStory in scaffolding language and presenting stories and vocabulary in the language classroom. Teachers will view a video of best practices in using this technology in presenting stories to language learners. A web-based resource that provides prepared PowerPoint story presentations will also be explored. Teachers are asked to bring a target language story of their choice to the session. A brief explanation of PowerPoint or PhotoStory basics will be followed by a hands-on session. Teachers will leave the workshop with the storyboard for a presentation that they can use to create a PowerPoint presentation at home or in school after the conference.
A Day of Danish
Joseph Goebel, Jr., The College of New Jersey
As experts in the languages we teach, we often forget what the beginning student experiences in our target language classroom. In this Danish immersion workshop, you will have the opportunity to once again take on the role of a true beginner, experiencing firsthand the challenges, the successes and the frustrations that occur in the initial stages of language acquisition. In addition, this workshop will serve as an intensive, concrete session on the role of INPUT, the critical factor in language acquisition. As new students of Danish, you will acquire Danish through massive amounts of INPUT and early output activities. From your position as a student, you will experience the three modes of Communication, the three levels of Culture and a variety of Connections and Comparisons. The final component of the day will be a group discussion on the INPUT activities used in the workshop and how you can create similar ones for your own classrooms.
Planning with a “Communication Triangle” – Developing the Three Modes of Communication in K-8 Units – SOLD OUT
Jessica Haxhi, Maloney Interdistrict Magnet School, CT.
This workshop will help participants to solidify their understanding of the three modes of communication (interpersonal, interpretive and presentational) and their development in the K-8 classroom. Participants will explore ways to foster student skills in all three modes through activities and assessments that are engaging, meaningful, and fun. examples will be given and participants will be encouraged to create a “communication triangle” for their most challenging units, blending instruction in all three modes for greater overall student proficiency.
Chinese Immersion
Lucy Lee, Livingston High School; Chinese Language Association of Secondary Schools
Workshop participants will discuss and share effective strategies, activities and resources that enhance standards-based instruction. The afternoon discussions will center around specific issues related to the teaching of Chinese. Discussions and presentations will be conducted in Chinese language. Teachers of Chinese in New Jersey are cordially invited to participate in this interactive session. Chinese heritage school teachers are welcome to join your colleagues from K-12 schools.
French Immersion
Harriet Saxon and Jacqueline Gilbert
This full-day workshop is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the French language and culture while exploring perspectives, products and practices of the French-speaking world. Participants will gain insight into the linguistic and cultural diversity represented by French speakers through viewing, reading and discussing authentic materials. Networking with colleagues will take place during a French luncheon served in at the hotel.
Italian Immersion – “Dalla Formalità alla Spontaneità” (From Structure to Spontaneity )
Maria Papaleo and Carmela Monzo
This Immersion Day will focus on how high school students can develop a theatrical production using authentic material such as narratives, songs, poems, newspaper articles, etc. This workshop will guide you on how to select authentic material for creating and writing scripts, preparing props, staging, and directing a production that will be eventually presented and performed in front of an audience. The workshop will include an Italian luncheon on the premises.
Spanish Immersion – SOLD OUT
Cheri Quinlan and Grisel López-Díaz with Nelson Montoya
The goal of this full-day workshop is to provide a communicative experience in the target language that centers around a standards-based thematic unit on the life and works of Fernando Botero. The presenters will model the unit and provide resources that participants may duplicate or modify for their classes. The immersion experience includes a Latino-flavored luncheon on-site.
German Immersion: The Pro and Context of German Class: How to teach a meaningful, relevant and student-centered German language curriculum using the commercial textbook as the anchor
Olga Liamkina: Bildungskooperation Deutsch, Goethe-Institut NY; Ester Eichler: Abington Schools; Lauren Klein: Hempfield High School; Max Achtau: Community Middle School; Christopher Gwin: Haddonfield Schools
This immersion workshop builds on the strength of the 2007 immersion day and offers participants the chance to reflect on how the use of the commercial textbook interacts with the curriculum and will provide space to interact, share and learn. The power team will facilitate sessions based on growth and participants will leave with meaningful and practical ways to reshape lessons to maximize resources and student learning potential.
How to Evaluate your World Languages Program
Myriam Met, National Foreign Language Center, University of Maryland
This workshop will provide principals and supervisors with tools for evaluating world languages programs and classroom instruction. Based on the principles of Understanding By Design, criteria for self-assessment and external evaluation will be presented that will enable instructional leaders to identify desired program outcomes and evidence of their
attainment as related to state and national standards. Particular emphasis will be given to useful types of evidence in world languages program evaluation such as performance indicators of student learning and observable evidence of
high-quality language instruction.
Saturday, March 8th Workshop Sessions
Early Language Learning in New Jersey: Leadership, Technology and Networking
Ana Lomba
Nachwuchs: “Those who shall carry on the work” (Dalhberg, 2006). This workshop is dedicated to Carol Ann Dahlberg and to the legacy of past and present leaders of NNELL, on its 20th anniversary (2007). Come and join other early language educators as we carry the torch into the new decade. Get inspired with new ideas and tools to enrich your instruction. Connect with others. Share your knowledge. Ask questions.
Prima Lingua: A Preparatory Course for the Study of FL
Margaret Roberts & Colin Angevine
Prima Lingua is a preparatory course that familiarizes students with grammatical concepts English shares with other languages and introduces grammatical elements not present in English. The course gives students an understanding of linguistic terms, a foundation in derivatives across languages, an appreciation of the cultural aspects of language, and knowledge of the development of language groups. Participants will learn how they can customize the web-based features to their own curriculum.
Teaching Language and Culture: What & How?
Dongdong Chen & Cathy Bao Bean
To teach by the Chopsticks-Fork Principle, we developed a bilingual, cross-cultural reader composed of personal, often humorous, stories followed by innovative as well as more standard exercises. By seeing “familiar” events – like dining, the first day at school and birthdays – through “foreign” lenses, learners of Chinese can appreciate the products, practices, and perspectives of both the target and native culture. In this way, acquiring a second language helps improve the first linguistically and culturally.
Adventures Through Time and Space in World Language Classes
Mark L. Eastburn
The focus of this presentation will center on four simple and exciting science concepts that will foster student interest in world language class and promote meaningful language acquisition. The four themes will be dinosaurs, space travel, endangered species, and disease. The session will not only provide background information and cultural context, but it will also demonstrate ways that useful, everyday language can be generated through these examples. Examples will be provided in Spanish, French and Chinese.
Special Needs Students + Spanish = Success
Kathryn A. Oliver, Dr. Carmen Benitez-Moralet & Andrea Fox
This session presents a practical approach to teaching and learning Spanish. This presentation will address three aspects:
- Special education information regarding law, classifications, modifications and adaptations,
- the inclusion classroom, and
- the self-contained language classroom.
Participants will receive hand-outs based on a PowerPoint presentation, which includes specific instructional methods, techniques, activities, and assessments proven to be successful with special needs students.
Ipod, upod, we pod…Anyone can Podcast!
Glennysha Jurado-Moran
Tap into the world of podcasting and learn how to use this engaging, yet easy to use technology. Podcasting is a fun way to inspire and motivate your students. Learn how podcasts can be used for instruction and assessment in all three modes of communication at all levels of language learning. Discover how podcasts can not only bring authentic language directly to your students but can also bring the culture to life in a manner that is appealing and meaningful to today’s students. No significant background is required to benefit from this session.
Scribo Ergo Disco: The Use of Writing to Enhance the World Language Classroom
John Rathgeb
This workshop is designed to introduce participants to several strategies that can help them to experience writing as an educational tool, rather than just a means of assessment. A hands-on approach will be utilized, allowing the participants to experience the strategies first-hand. Although many of the examples will be based on activities created for a Latin classroom, the strategies can be applied to all world languages.
Gouin Series Activity Design: Easy to Make & Use Language/Culture Models
Daria Cohen
The use of Gouin Series activities in the foreign language classroom allows teachers to provide authentic linguistic input and embedded culture to students at all levels of instruction. This session will introduce teachers to the basic elements of Gouin Series activity design, to discuss its pedagogical benefits, to provide varied models, to guide hands-on practice of Gouin Series construction and to present assessment options and extension possibilities.
Strategies for Developing Written and Oral Proficiency in French
Christine Soper
The presenter will show how to actively promote the development of the students’ written and oral proficiency through the use of task cards, open-ended situational dialogs, class journals, and comic strip narratives. Specific examples will be given to illustrate each strategy. In addition, the presenter will share ideas for generating and internalizing the targeted vocabulary and structures.
NJDOE Update
Janis Jensen, World Languages Coordinator
Participants will receive updated information on the implementation of K-12 world languages standards and assessments that includes the results of the second year of pilot testing in Grade 8. They will also have the opportunity to ask questions, offer suggestions and provide comments for consideration by the NJDOE.
Integrated and Interactive: Making Language Learning Last Through Culture and Technology
Dan Battisti
Culture is a cornerstone of language learning. Let us show you how to enrich your Spanish lessons by integrating authentic culture and interactive technology to use as vehicles for a successful journey for both you and your students. We will demonstrate how to weave culture and technology into instructional practice to help make language learning last. Examples in Spanish.
Combination: Instructional Strategies, aka “How to get the most out of textbook exercises”
Esther Gordon
In this interactive session, the participants will become students in the classroom as they learn and participate in various games and activities that they will later be able to use in their own classrooms. Hand-outs provided.
Meet DESCUBRE from Vista Higher Learning
Dan Bane
In this interactive session participants experience DESCUBRE, the new three-level Spanish program from Vista higher Learning. Through texts, DVDs, authentic short films, music and the Web, you’ll see how your students acquire, practice, and use Spanish in motivating and personalized contemporary contexts within a carefully integrated instructional design. You’ll discover the rich array of quality resources you need to prepare your students for a world where skilled multilingual communication and multi-cultural understanding are necessities, not luxuries.
El Cine Hispanohablante
Marty Hayden
Film offers a culturally rich context for advancing language proficiency in high school and college students at the intermediate-mid or above levels. The facilitator demonstrates how to create standards-based thematic units centered on film to develop an exciting language program that motivates students, enhances their critical thinking skills, expands their historical and cultural perspective of the Hispanic world and can be use as an alternative to AP or for post-AP instruction.
El rincón de español
María Dessipris
The presenter has created a “rincón de español”, a Spanish corner at the school library. Utilizing an inventory of Spanish audio books tied to thematic units of the different grade levels, these are used to supplement the “Spanish Storyline” that students call to listen to stories read by the teacher. In addition, students are able to check out books and tapes and to complete interpretive reading and listening tasks to enhance their literacy skills. This session will demonstrate how to set up your own “rincón.”
Designing Thematic Units: From the Court of Louis XIV to Present-day France.
Sheila M. MacRae
The facilitator demonstrates how to design a thematic unit around authentic sources. The model – the art and science of perfumery – is contextually and linguistically rich and the process can be generalized. Attendees participate in performance-based assessment tasks in the three communicative modes. The subject is appealing to young men and women, and appropriate for grades 9-12. Resources include links to authentic sources, templates, and rubrics to keep learning in the target language.
A Cultural Comparison of French & German Fairy Tales
Diane Chiocca & Ann Marie Waidelich
Students’ young and old love fairy tales and many of them are already familiar with their treasured childhood stories. Using authentic texts, the presenters will demonstrate how to create a thematic unit around several fairy tales that incorporate grammar, vocabulary, and culture. They will show you how to use reading strategies to ensure comprehension and other techniques (TPRS, the use of visuals, songs, etc…). This lighthearted, interactive presentation will prove to be enjoyable and invaluable to teachers of all languages.
How to Keep Students Motivated after They Have Taken AP Exams
Marie-Laure Hollander & Carole Huyn
Do you want to keep your seniors engaged after they have taken their APs? We will take you through the steps involved in having your students create, plan, develop, and execute an “immersion” experience for middle school counterparts. During this immersion experience, middle school students will partake in cultural and fun activities such as games, skits, cooking, crafts, with your high school students acting as “teachers” communicating mostly in the target language. This project can be adapted to any language. It is a wonderful “PR” tool to foster enthusiasm for that language at the middle school level.
Oral Language Building: The First Step to Literacy
Michelle Maxson
Oral language development is essential for improving reading comprehension, and teaching language through literature allows students to acquire language skills while improving reading strategies. Using reading selections, songs, games, and crafts, the presenter will demonstrate engaging activities that seamlessly integrate standards, align content instruction, and implement best practices and curriculum mapping. Come explore methods that enable students to acquire concepts, improve comprehension, be creative with language and achieve communicative proficiency.
The Challenge and Possibilities of Curriculum Mapping World Languages
Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs
Based on her extensive and pioneering work in curriculum mapping, Dr. Jacobs will identify some of the unique issues when mapping foreign (world) languages. She will also provide exciting new directions that have emerged for language teachers to engage learners. Her presentation will focus on such topics as: designing essential questions in foreign language classes; wrestling with specific considerations for specific languages; creating 21st century assessments for language classrooms; and cultivating better communication within and across departments.
Kauf mich!
Christopher Gwin
...using advertising in the German language classroom as part of a standards-embedded curriculum to move toward fluency. Learn how to design user-friendly lessons and units incorporating historical and contemporary advertising from German-speaking Europe to invigorate student learning experiences: a powerful yet simple weaving of language and culture, appropriate for many levels of instruction.
Cuentos y Lectores: Striving for Early Literacy Development
Amanda Seewald
This Mead session will explore the idea of elementary second language literacy. Participants will learn unique and engaging strategies to inspire their students and to advocate for curricular strengthening in their schools. All participants will receive lesson plans and classroom friendly materials. It is the goal to empower those in attendance to return to their schools with compelling ideas for improving second language literacy.
Conference Agenda: Saturday, March 08
8:00-9:00 Registration/Exhibitors/Continental Breakfast
9:00-9:45 Business Meeting/Professional Awards
9:45-10:45 Keynote Address
10:45-11:30 Exhibitors and Poster Contest Voting
11:30-12:45 Workshop Session I
12:45-2:00 Lunch/Poster Contest & Mini-Grants
2:00-3:15 Workshop Session II
Registration Information
On-line and mail-in registration has now ended.
Onsite registration for Saturday: $150 for members; $175 for non-members
Directions to the Conference
Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center Somerset, NJ
Click here for detailed driving directions.