Spotlights

Spotlight topics:

Storyasking - Justin Slocum Bailey
Mastering the Art of Storytelling

Bring your storytelling skills to life in this hands-on spotlight designed to build confidence and creativity. We'll dive into the techniques, planning, and follow-up strategies that make storyasking a powerful tool for language acquisition. Whether you're just starting or looking to refine advanced skills, this journey will empower you to captivate your students and inspire learning through story.

• Day 1: Introduction to Storyasking
  In this initial session, we'll experience a round of storyasking before breaking down the exact steps and core techniques of storyasking. You'll get to practice these techniques in small chunks to start getting comfortable with them!
• Day 2: Storyasking Success: Preparation, Planning, and Setting the Stage
  We'll learn and practice how to set yourself and students up for success during storyasking: how to prepare your story script, your overall lesson plan, and yourself, and how to set the stage and establish norms for students.
• Day 3:Mastering Storyasking: Practice, Strategy, and Advanced Techniques
  We'll put it all together with the opportunity for you to practice storyasking in a supportive setting. We'll also explore how to get the most out of storyasking through strategic follow-up tasks, and touch on more advanced skills such as storyasking without a script and flowing from PQA or PictureTalk directly into storyasking.

Assessment - AnneMarie Chase
Assessment Made Simple: Inspiring Growth, Not Stress

Take the stress out of assessment and put the focus on growth! This interactive, three-part workshop series is designed for language teachers who want to inspire confidence, track progress, and support acquisition—without endless grading or high-pressure tests.

• Day 1: Foundations of Low-Stress Assessment: Purpose, Expectations, and Proficiency
  Explore the purpose of assessment, the characteristics of effective, low stress assessments and ACTFL's proficiency descriptors to aid in setting realistic expectations for each level.
• Day 2: Fueling Acquisition: Assessing Listening and Reading with Comprehensible Input
  Learn to assess listening and reading while providing rich, comprehensible input to fuel acquisition.
• Day 3: Empowering Learners: Practical Strategies for Speaking and Writing Assessments
  Discover practical strategies for assessing speaking and writing, while keeping feedback manageable, affective filters low and motivating learners by making acquisition visible.

AI in the World Language Classroom - Eric Richards
World L(AI)nguages: AI in World Languages - Trepidation, Excitement, and Possibilities

AI is here and it is quickly becoming part of education. This reality can bring both trepidation and possibilities. In this interactive, three-part collaborative workshop, we explore practical, creative, and ethical uses of AI. We'll use multiple AI tools to create activities, visuals (and more!) that support educators and foster student engagement and acquisition in the classroom. Please bring a computer to use during the workshop.

• Day 1: Moving Forward with AI
  Let's see where we are with AI and begin moving forward by getting to know one another using AI tools and activities that you can readily take back to the classroom.
• Day 2: Prompting, Books, and Brainstorming
  Learn how to create better prompts to get better results and then use this skill to create a customized, reusable AI assistant or the World Language classroom. Plus, use your prompts to create customized books (with pictures) and brainstorm new ideas.
• Day 3: Oh, the Places you'll go with AI!
  From songs and visuals to scaffolding and sub plans, explore more possibilities with AI tools that support world language educators and students.

Choose a Spotlight and join our presenters as they illuminate these important topics!