Tuesday, 19 January 2016 14:17

Taking it Personally – Personalized Learning for Language Learners by Lori Langer de Ramirez

This full day pre-conference session has four parts.

  1. Windows and Mirrors – Exploring & celebrating best practices in language teaching
  2. Language Instruction That Works – Marzano’s Strategies for World Language
  3. Assessing Proficiency in the Language Classroom
  4. Empowering Language Learners with Tools from the Web

Part 1: Windows and Mirrors – Exploring & celebrating best practices in language teaching

In this session, participants will view images of teachers and students engaged in language learning at a variety of levels. Through the images, we will explore research- and standards-based best practice in language teaching. The images will provide us with both “windows and mirrors;” in the mirrors we will see how our existing teaching reflects best practice, while windows will allow us to peek out at new methods and strategies for improving the language learning experience for all learners. Specific activities and lesson ideas will be shared.

Part 2:  Language Instruction That Works – Marzano’s Strategies for World Language - Students and ELLs

Based on research, case studies, and statistical data, Bob Marzano and colleagues at McCREL developed a set of 9 “strategies that work” with students: Identifying similarities and differences, Summarizing and note taking, Reinforcing effort and providing recognition, Homework and practice, Nonlinguistic representations, Cooperative learning, Setting objectives and providing feedback, Generating and testing hypotheses, Cues, questions, and advance organizers. In this session, we will explore these strategies as they apply to the language classroom. Examples and resources will be provided.

Part 3:  Assessing Proficiency in the Language Classroom

It can be so challenging to determine how well our students are doing in our language classes? What kind of feedback is most effective for language learners? How can we best assess our students’ proficiency in both language and culture? In this session we will explore elements of backward design, the use of rubrics, standards-based and performance assessments and self-assessments using the can-do statements and portfolios. Resources and assessment examples will be provided.

Part 4:  Empowering Language Learners with Tools from the Web

In this session we will survey web based tools such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, VoiceThreads, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and social bookmarking sites like Diigo and del.icio.us. The presenter will provide an overview of different tools available to language educators, briefly explain how they work, and discuss a rationale for their use in teaching languages. The workshop will situate web-based tools within the framework of differentiated instruction and 21st century learning skills. The central purpose of the workshop is to de-mystify these tools and show how they can be used in teaching and assessing language learners at all proficiency levels.

Lori Langer de Ramirez

Lori-Langer-de-Ramirez

Dr. Lori Langer de Ramirez began her career as a teacher of Spanish, French and ESL.

She holds a Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics and a Doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently the Director of World and Classical Languages & Global Language Initiatives at the Dalton School in New York City. Dr. Ramirez is the author of several books, including Empower English Language Learners with Tools from the Web and Take Action: Lesson Plans for the Multicultural Classroom, as well as several Spanish-language books and texts. Her website offers free materials for teaching Chinese, English, French, and, Spanish.