Best Strategies for Strengthening Your Students' COMMUNICATIVE PROFICIENCY in the Target Language (Grades 6-12)

Presented by Tracy Rucker
Award-Winning World Language Teacher and Presenter

Specifically Designed for World Language Educators Serving Grades 6-12: Classroom Teachers, Department Heads, Curriculum Specialists, and Administrators

Engaging, innovative, time-saving techniques to increase communicative proficiency in the target language learning environments
Ready-to-use activities, tools and resources that promote time in the target language and active negotiation of meaning
Proven strategies for using technology to enhance target language proficiency
Practical strategies to leverage ACTFL’s core practices, integrated performance assessments and oral proficiency strategies

Practical Ideas and Strategies

This outstanding NEW and engaging seminar by award-winning world language teacher, Tracy Rucker, has been specifically designed to help increase your students’ communicative proficiency in the target language. The seminar focuses on practical ways to foster authentic, communication, student-centered tasks, interculturality, and effective differentiation. Each strategy and idea will be thoughtfully considered in terms of how it can be leveraged or adapted in a learning environment.

Tracy will share numerous authentic resources that reflect identity and multiple perspectives from target cultures. Throughout the day, you will receive a wealth of “right back to the classroom” strategies and learning scenarios that will help your students develop vocabulary and grammar contextually and expand their ability speak in the interpersonal and presentational modes of communication. Tracy will present and model activities and techniques that are classroom-proven to be effective and fun. You will leave this seminar with numerous practical strategies and effective tools to increase your students’ communicative proficiency.

Ten Key Benefits of Attending

Increase Effective Communication in the Target Language
Discover innovative, highly effective activities and tools that develop communicative proficiency in meaningful and culturally-relevant ways
Develop Cultural Competency Through Authentic Resources and Multi-modes of Authentic Communication
Discover highly effective strategies for exposing learners to diverse practices, products, and perspectives to address cultural competency
Cultivate an Engaging, Inclusive Language Learning Environment
Explore practical strategies that build upon student strengths and fosters inclusion … Help all language learners feel safe, connected and supported in the learning process
Maximize Comprehensible Input Strategies to Hook Students
Learn how to weave comprehensible input, oral circumlocution practices and the most effective tech tools in ways that immerse your students in language that is comprehensible, compelling, and relevant
Leverage Differentiation to Reach All Learners
Empower students to thrive by focusing on what they can do … Differentiating tasks motivate students to use resources and tech tools that help them communicate more effectively … Here’s how
Focus Student-Centered Activities on Cultures and Choice
Discover a variety of strategies to increase global awareness by focusing on interculturality and purposeful diversification of student-centered tasks
Enhance Interpretive, Interpersonal and Presentational Skills
Communicative proficiency comes from exposure and practice … Experience a wealth of compelling and relevant efficient strategies to maximize use of the target language in personalized ways
Learn Classroom-Proven Ways to Increase Exposure to the Target Language
Align practical strategies with ACTFL’s Core Practices … Discover engaging community building activities to optimize interpretive communication skills and accountability for your students
Incorporate Effective and Engaging Assessment Tools to Advance Language Acquisition
Learn how to effectively incorporate circling and circumlocution as powerful scaffolding tools so that students of all levels can demonstrate communicative skills as they learn to f ill gaps with rejoinders and connector phrases
Receive an Extensive Digital World Language Resource Handbook
Participants will receive an extensive digital world language resource handbook specifically created for this seminar containing all of the strategies and high quality resources presented in this seminar … Bonus downloads that can be modified for your own classroom use will also be shared

Outstanding Strategies You Can Use Immediately

Meaningful activities and engaging learning scenarios that help students develop communicative proficiency by interpreting and exchanging information, negotiating meaning, and expressing ideas with confidence
Highly effective ways to adapt and implement impactful language instruction in learning environments
Differentiation techniques that contribute to building student confidence while appropriately challenging all students to focus on meaning and communicative proficiency
Purposeful questioning strategies to hone interpretive reading and listening skills while engaging with authentic materials
Innovative strategies for leveraging ACTFL’s core practices to promote communicative proficiency and interculturality for learning environments
Engaging interpersonal tasks that promote real exchange of information and a true purpose for communication
How to move from interpersonal to presentational communication modes in ways that promote real exchange of information and a true purpose for communication
Proven strategies to accelerate communication by focusing on culturally-rich receptive variables – reading and listening
Highly practical classroom-vetted strategies that will motivate students to want to use the target language
Innovative ways to foster can-do mindsets … Scaffolding vocabulary and grammar that challenges students to listen with the intent to understand
Hands-on strategies and tips that encourage students to take risks and demonstrate proficiency skills
Technology tools and authentic resources that allow students to travel the world virtually and interact in impactful ways with people, language, and culture
Timesaving tips and tools to provide meaningful and consistent feedback that contributes to student engagement and growth in proficiency

A Message From Your Seminar Leader

Dear Colleague:

As a world language teacher myself, I know the need for practical, proven tools and ideas that engage students in meaningful, authentic learning situations. As I reflected on designing this seminar to highlight our shared goals as language educators, ACTFL’s position statement on using the target language at least 90% resonated with me. It focuses on planning and emphasizes the importance of language and culture. The resources you will encounter during this seminar are grounded in research, but proven effective in the classroom. I am excited to share with you the very best ways I have found to address this statement in the world language classroom that encourages students talk to each other in meaningful, organic ways. It’s been my experience that focusing on receptive variables leads to more confident learners that seek to hone their productive skills of speaking and writing.

My foremost goal is to share strategies on how to focus on communicative proficiency through active participation and negotiation. To reach this goal, the guiding impetus continues to be making meaning through personal communication. I will share proven strategies for delivering compelling, comprehensible input through multiple formats and instructional models. Together, we will explore language learning and cultural literacy through the lenses of global awareness. I also plan to share many ideas on how to build in and scaffold activities that get students talking, using circumlocution and creating with the target language. I invite you to join me for an engaging day of learning proven techniques that contribute to language acquisition and student language proficiency growth. You will leave with numerous ideas you can use immediately!

Sincerely,
Tracy Rucker

P.S. This seminar is designed to be highly practical and readily applicable so that you leave with new and innovative tools, strategies and techniques to try out immediately! You will leave this seminar with ideas on how to foster a nurturing learning environment that focuses on students.

Who Should Attend

World Language Educators Serving Grades 6-12: Classroom Teachers, Department Heads, Curriculum Specialists, and Administrators

Special Benefits of Attending

Extensive Resource Handbook
Each participant will receive an extensive digital world language instruction resource handbook giving you access to countless strategies. The handbook includes:

Numerous resources, technology tools and activities that are focused on world language instruction and communicative proficiency!
Ways to adapt each strategy in a learning environment
Detailed descriptions of practical activities presented during the seminar so that you can easily take them back to your classroom and implement them
Reproducible activities and techniques to help students increase their use of the target language
Links to impactful blogs, websites and other recourses that impact learning outcomes

For in-person seminars, registrants will also receive a printed copy of the resource handbook as long as their registration is received in the BER office at least 15 calendar days before the event.

Share Ideas with Other Educators
This seminar provides a wonderful opportunity for participants to share ideas with other educators interested in increasing the behavior and learning of their students.

Consultation Available
Tracy Rucker will be available to answer your specific questions and the unique needs of your own program.

Semester Credit Option
UMASS Logo Up to four graduate level professional development credits are available with an additional fee and completion of follow-up practicum activities. Details for direct enrollment with University of Massachusetts Global, a nonprofit affiliate, will be available at this program.

Meet Inservice Requirements
At the end of the program, each attendee will receive a certificate of participation that may be used to verify hours of participation in meeting continuing education requirements.

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