Since 2015, Kara and Megan have been working with teachers full-time at department trainings, district PDs, and one-on-one online coaching. They have worked across the United States as well as several countries throughout Asia. Their trainings unite language programs and help teachers by showing how they (as classroom teachers) implemented proficiency: creating performance-based assessments, learning to grade with a common rubric, developing engaging lessons inspired by the target culture, and improving curriculum.

Full-Day Workshop

How do we get learners curious about the world? How does curiosity impact language learning? When learners are motivated to find out more, it’s easy to get them investigating the target culture, reading and listening to the target language, and communicating with a purpose. This session will show a variety of lessons that start with a question and a communicative objective, and lead to independent investigations that they actually want to talk about!

Lesson Planning / Projects

Half-Day Workshop

Unifying department goals and expectations / understanding proficiency levels and rubrics / setting department benchmarks / explaining proficiency to learners and parents / evaluating options for assigning grades

This workshop shows teachers the big picture of proficiency and how it impacts their teaching. It gives tips, ideas, and activities to support student proficiency growth in parts of the lesson (warm-up, daily objectives, vocab, reading/speaking/listening activities, games, and assessments) that will get students engaged and communicating more.

Full-Day Workshop

Let’s take a deep look at our 6 core practices to identify which areas we need to workout a bit more. Discuss general ways and classroom activities to strengthen those area.

This can be a half-day with only 3 core practices.

Full-Day Workshop

Exploring performance-based assessments / creating real-life scenarios / experiencing interpersonal assessments / including self-assessment / providing meaningful feedback / measuring with proficiency rubrics

Half-Day or Full-Day Workshop

Modifying all parts of the lesson to support learners’ proficiency levels and promote growth (warm-ups, daily objectives, vocabulary, reading/speaking/listening activities, games, formative assessments) / increasing teacher and learner target language time / Good for those new to proficiency

Half-Day or Full-Day Workshop

Let’s remember to focus about what is meaningful to our learners and also aligned with Core Practices and the Standards. After some difficult few years, let’s focus on manageable ways to make the upcoming year memorable for teachers and learners.  

Unit Design / 5 C’s / Experiences

Full-Day Workshop       *most popular workshop*

Collaborate with us on your new thematic unit – inspired by culture and authentic resources! Experience communicative lessons to jump-start your own lessons. You’ll see how to quickly plan new lessons based on the most used daily objectives. See different ways to combine engaging authentic resources with our favorite adaptable activities. Walk away with inspiration to build your own lessons for any thematic unit.

Planning daily lessons / breaking unit goals into daily communicative objectives / choosing authentic resources / letting learners acquire their own vocabulary / transitioning into a natural language interaction / creating formative assessments that demonstrate their learning about language and culture

Unit examples can be chosen to fit your curriculum. This workshop can be done multiple times, using different objectives and unit examples. There is also a “Developing Authentic Lessons: Starting the Year” version.

Half-Day or Full-Day Workshop (preferred)

Choosing the best authentic resources to support unit topics / letting learners acquire their own vocabulary / improving learners’ interpretive skills / transitioning into a natural language interaction / reflecting on culture including products, practices and perspectives

Half-Day or Full-Day Workshop

Accuracy is important but how does it fit with communication? Many teachers are unsure of what to do with grammar instruction as they move toward proficiency. Rethink what is needed based on proficiency guidelines, see lessons that teach it in context, and learn to improve accuracy with feedback. Give the benefit of grammar without the bad taste.

Full-Day Workshop

Let’s develop communication tasks for what we do most in real life: the interpersonal mode! What are the different purposes of the interpersonal mode? How can we connect with all learners? See examples of interpersonal tasks that can support any unit you teach.

This can be a half-day workshop with less examples.

Half-Day or Full-Day Workshop

Experiencing stations for the world language class / designing them for communication / including all modes and skills / differenciation / independent learning

Session (1-3 hours)

Traditionally we think we need a list. Now that proficiency-based instruction influences our lessons, learners are picking what is important to them. We’ve found that learners have exceeded our expectations after we ditched the list. See ways to replace the list with strategies and activities that make them responsible for their learning and give them ownership.