Powerful Strategies for Maximizing COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT in the Target Language (Grades 6-12)

Presented by Janice Kittok
Outstanding World Language Teacher and Presenter

Specifically Designed for World Language Teachers, Department Heads and World Language Administrators Serving Grades 6-12

Dozens of ideas to increase the level of comprehensible input (CI) in the target language
Classroom-tested techniques to achieve ACTFL’s goal of 90% use of the target language from the very first day of class … Increase communicative proficiency in the target language at every level
Easy-to-implement lesson plan designs to both maximize comprehensible input AND create a bridge to scaffolded speaking and writing activities
New and innovative ideas to increase the cultural content of your curriculum … Teach geography, history, biography, and other global knowledge topics in the target language

Practical Ideas and Strategies

You’ve heard the expectations for today’s world language classroom: stay 90% in the target language, engage all learners, embed lessons with meaningful cultural content, get your students speaking and writing accurately but let go of the way you were taught grammar. Today’s professional standards set a high bar for world language teachers. This seminar will go beyond talking about topics by showing you HOW to utilize the techniques and strategies yourself. In this seminar, award-winning world language teacher JAN HOLTER KITTOK models comprehensible input mini lessons that will engage you through experiential learning as a novice language learner – the same principles that are easily adapted to work with higher language levels. Every strategy is followed by research-based insights and step-by-step explanations so you can immediately adapt ideas to your classroom – any age group, any language or any language level.

You will leave this seminar with an extensive world language teacher digital resource handbook and dozens of strategies and time-saving planning templates you will be able to use immediately to increase the level of comprehensible input in all your world language classes.

Ten Key Benefits of Attending

Establish an Engaging Environment Using Target Language from the First Day of Class
Set clear expectations and establish a classroom environment where students feel comfortable navigating this new world … Learn how to directly teach your students the language survival skills they need to journey into the target language world right away
Understand Why and How Comprehensible Input (CI) Works
Experience firsthand how brain-based learning and second language acquisition theory support all the strategies and techniques presented in this seminar
Foster Fluency by Presenting Language in the Context of Story
Stories and narratives provide meaningful contexts that can make language more comprehensible … When learners see and hear the language used in stories from the target culture, stories created for the classroom or nonfiction informational narratives, they see how the language works naturally in the real world
Teach the Target Culture in the Target Language
Microlearning demonstrations throughout the seminar will model how to teach topics such as geography, biography or history in the target language – even with novice language learners
Lower the Affective Filter to Promote Optimal Language Acquisition in Your Classroom
Learn a variety of strategies to increase the level of comfort and time both you and your students spend speaking the target language
Design Activities Aligned with Your Students’ Language Skill Levels
As your students acquire language, they need opportunities to use their new language with tasks that match what they are able to do successfully, in an environment that encourages risk-taking … Demonstrations and examples will show you how to make smooth transitions from language input to language output teaching
Increase Functional Fluency in the Target Language
Learn proven ways to tap into the power of music through songs, chants, choral readings and teacher read-alouds … Learn how attention to the musicality of spoken language strengthens the development of natural language fluency
Motivate ALL Students, Even Your Most Reluctant Language Learners
Nothing motivates like success! We all learned our first language through Comprehensible Input … CI methods make the target language accessible to every student … Early success will motivate them to keep on learning more
Guide Students to Construct Greater Meaning of the Target Language
As students encounter language they can understand, they begin to better recognize language patterns … Students will learn how the language works instead of just learning the rules
Receive an Extensive World Language Teaching Digital Resource Handbook
Each participant will receive an extensive digital handbook filled with dozens of practical ideas, timesaving planning templates and a narrative recap of all the seminar’s key points … You’ll be ready to increase the amount of comprehensible target language used in your classroom

Outstanding Strategies You Can Use Immediately

Highly effective strategies for increasing the level of comprehensible input in every world language class you teach in the classroom
How to stay in the target language AND have your students understand
Numerous quick and easy formative assessments to check for understanding
How you can vary task difficulty and the level of support given to students to scaffold and differentiate their learning experiences
Engaging activities that lower the affective filter and will help you use the target language almost exclusively from the day your students enter the classroom
Dozens of comprehensible input strategies that foster a language learning environment where all students are comfortable to experiment and take academic risks
Innovative questioning techniques that will extend conversations by guiding students towards more sophisticated language use
How to teach grammar in a natural, whole language context, allowing students to get a sense of how the language works versus memorizing isolated rules
Timesaving ways to organize the learning cycle: create, assign, engage students, and provide feedback
Sheltered language techniques that open the door for teaching target culture content topics in the target language at any level
The power of story and narrative contexts to make language comprehensible and increase the rate of language acquisition
How to make CONNECTIONS with other subject areas by teaching content such as

A Message From Your Seminar Leader

Dear Colleague:

My professional journey as a world language educator has led me to many places and people at just the right time. Throughout the seminar, I will be sharing the many “Aha moments” I have learned along the way with the hope that these insights will also guide you in your journey. My lessons are drawn from a variety of teaching experiences: positions in elementary, secondary and college classrooms, immersion camps, study abroad programs, administration and teacher training.

In one of my “Aha” moments, I was teaching an advanced high school Spanish class, starting a unit on the work of Pablo Picasso and the Spanish Civil War. I asked the class to start listing everything they knew about Spain. Expecting to f ill a whiteboard with bullet points, I was flabbergasted when group could barely create a meager list of mostly superficial cultural items. What cultural content had my colleagues and I been presenting to these students in the several years we had them in our program? Why hadn’t we been teaching them about the target culture, building a solid foundation of background knowledge so they could interpret and understand deeper cultural content? Why did we wait to teach these topics at the upper levels when our colleagues who teach English Language Learners teach content in the learners’ new language from the start? The answer – world language teachers didn’t see it as possible.

I have designed this seminar to share with you the very best ways I have discovered and developed over the course of my teaching career to increase the level of comprehensible input in every language level. I will share with you very practical ways to lower the affective filter and make the target language more understandable from the first day students enter your world language classroom. I’ll share proven ways you can teach content in the target language from the very beginning of level 1. The strategies I share with you will not only boost your students’ proficiency in the target language but will also expand their background knowledge of target culture as well. Teachers of any grade, any level and any language will be able to use these strategies immediately when they return to their classroom.

Sincerely,
Jan Kittok

P.S. I invite you to grab your professional passport and join me for an idea-packed day trip. Leave room in your bag to return with oodles of fresh, practical ideas.

Who Should Attend

World Language Teachers, Department Heads and World Language Administrators Serving Grades 6-12

Special Benefits of Attending

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

Timesaving outlines for easy-to-create culturally rich and comprehensible lessons in the target language
The key principles of brain-based language acquisition and how they apply to classroom practice
Descriptions of all activities presented in the seminar with variations for all levels of instruction
Descriptions of all activities presented in the seminar with variations for all levels of instruction
Unique tips and tricks for teacher success when implementing the strategies demonstrated in the seminar

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.

Consultation Available
Jan Holter Kittok will be available for consultation regarding your questions and the unique needs of your own world language 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
Participants of both the Live Online Seminar and those completing the Recorded Version online can receive a certificate of participation that may be used to verify five continuing education hours. State CEUs are available for both versions of the course. For specific details, visit www.ber.org/ceus.

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