What a fantastic conference! The TCIMaine Conference was October 16-17 in Lewiston, ME. CLICK HERE for the conference details. You don’t want to miss it next year!
Here are the highlights:
Day 1:
Backward Planning/Understanding by Design:
Culture and language are inseparable: in order for students to value one they must study both. Music, film, art, readings, MovieTalk are ways to bring in culture.
To plan backwards, start with your goals: Choose a worthwhile cultural lesson and develop a unit, plan an assessment. What activities are needed to prepare for the assessment. Identify the desired results and plan a variety of activities and lessons to reach the outcome. Begin the unit with a hook! Carrie Toth has more on her website.
Embedded Reading–Part Deux:
If what you are doing in class is not interactive, they will not acquire the language. Some interactive based activities are: oral stories (c0-created stories, legends/myths), conversations about current events, authentic resources, and teacher created and student created materials. Laurie Clarcq has more on her website.
The afternoon was spent creating an embedded reading. I created one about a parrot. See it HERE
Day 2–October 17th:
We learned about being a peer TPRS/CI coach. Coaching is observing, listening, answering questions, giving feedback, asking questions, directing reflection, finding strengths, and encouraging and supporting. It was my first time being a peer coach and certainly not my last. It was powerful being a coach and watch
ing people being coached.
Appily Ever After: Carrie Toth presented many APPs for the language classroom. See her website for the list.
MovieTalk:
The conference finished with a demonstration of MovieTalk. Sabrina Janczak used this video and did a MovieTalk in French.
The structures were:
cherche = looks for
lui donne = gives him/her
saute à la corde = jumps rope
s’en fiche = doesn’t care
It was a fantastic conference. Hope you can join us for the 10th anniversary conference next October 2015!
Williamson CI & TPRS 