NYSAFLT Annual Conference 2024

Motivate your students to use the target language for meaningful purposes! Find out how Level Up Village can connect your classroom with a partner class abroad for virtual exchanges that are tiered by proficiency and topic. Your students will be excited to practice the target language with native speaker peers and find out about life in another country. (This is great preparation for language proficiency assessments that can be used to attain the Seal of Biliteracy!) You have the power to awaken students’ curiosity, build cross-cultural appreciation, and expand their awareness as global citizens.

In this session, we explore strategies for enhancing Target Language (TL) Comprehensibility, extending beyond the basics to encompass all classroom interactions. By the session's end, participants will gain practical insights into creating a vibrant language learning environment characterized by comprehensible input, supportive contexts, and meaningful interactions.

You are committed to speaking as much target language as possible, but what do you talk about and how do you make sure your students understand what is being said? In this session, participants will explore ideas and strategies for presenting vocabulary in context using comprehensible input, scaffolding, and student language supports, and tips for checking student comprehension.

In the United States, approximately 3-4% of the population identifies as Deaf or Hard of Hearing, with a significant concentration in the Rochester Metropolitan area. The current shortage of certified ASL teachers poses a challenge to existing programs in New York State K-12 schools. This session will aim to explore the existing challenges with ASL teacher education and provide a platform for collaboration to identify solutions and to bridge the gaps. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in discussions to identify barriers and move towards improving ASL teacher education in order to pave the way for a more inclusive and supportive learning environment for Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals.

Language influences how we perceive the world, how we interact and respond to it, and how we feel about it. Often in language classrooms we explore cultural products and practices, but we dedicate less attention to perspectives. This presentation will explore ways to integrate exploring the cultural perspectives tied to products and practices using the Universal Design for Learning framework.