PRE-CONFERENCE & CONFERENCE EVENTS

This workshop is dedicated to exploring the vital intersection of equity, access, and excellence in the design and ongoing implementation of dual language immersion (DLI) programs. DLI programs have gained recognition for their potential to close achievement gaps and foster bilingualism, biliteracy, and cross-cultural competence. However, achieving equitable access to these programs remains a challenge, often influenced by socioeconomic status, language background, and systemic barriers.  Participants will self-reflect on the degree to which multiple aspects of their DLI programs are equitable and accessible before delving into strategies and best practices for designing DLI programs that prioritize equity and accessibility for all students. Participants will leave with a personalized action plan to help them address areas of equity and accessibility within their own programs. 

Outcomes:

Participants will

• Define what equity and access look and feel like in DLI programming
• Reflect on the aspects of your own programming in terms of equity and accessibility
• Identify crucial aspects of sustaining an equitable and accessible DLI plan 
• Design a personalized action plan based on identified priorities

This workshop will examine Strand 1 (Program Structure) of the Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education -- Third Edition, starting with participants doing a self-reflection of where their DL/I programs are with its four principles:

1. Vision and goals focused on bilingualism, biliteracy, academic achievement, and sociocultural competence; 
2. Equity and a positive school environment; 
3. Effective leadership; and 
4. Ongoing, continuous planning.

Then we will take a deep dive into the key points of each principle, along with the rubric, to allow participants to assess how they might move their DL/I programs forward. This will include opportunities to share ideas and experiences with colleagues from across the country through small group and 1:1 discussions.

Tailored for educators seeking to enrich their classroom dynamics, this workshop delves into practical strategies and activities aimed at cultivating an inclusive and supportive learning atmosphere. From boosting language proficiency and confidence to nurturing a sense of belonging among diverse learners, participants will actively participate in discussions and hands-on activities, equipping themselves with actionable tools for fostering a positive and equitable environment.

This workshop will focus on modeling instructional strategies and language supports that increase the quantity and enhance the quality of language production across all content areas.

Through this interactive workshop, participants gain insights on how to tap into the assets and expertise of its communities and engage them as co-designers when solving district challenges. Participants explore the principles of equitable design and apply each of the principles to a problem of practice in their own DLI context. Incorporates takeaway tools.

Whether opening new schools or programs, bridging campuses, or expanding offerings, communities are critical to the success of DLI programs. This session/workshop includes a panel discussion, as well as provides resources and planning documents that can be adapted to various settings. This session is appropriate for all teachers, administrators, and community members.

Find out what tools leaders and teachers in Georgia are using to guide teachers in perfecting their craft and build a common language around look fors and best practices.  Discover activities to build team teaching partnerships.  From survival mode to differentiation, you'll walk away with loads of ideas to support dual language educators!

This interactive symposium facilitates participants to make critical discoveries regarding the unique needs of preparing DLBE/DLI teachers. Anchored to the theoretical premises of Collaboration in Dual Language Education and the National Dual Language Education Teacher Preparation Standards, hereafter the EMMA Standards, the session examines ways in which collaborative practices leverage much-needed support for pre- and in-service DLBE/DLI teachers. A few example activities include deep-dives into higher education DLBE/DLI teacher preparation programmatic structures, potential re-shaping of coursework, and critical partnerships within and beyond traditional educator preparation programs. Furthermore, open discussions will point to the national DLBE/DLI teacher shortage with possible ways to recruit and support multilingual educators.

This collaborative workshop will explore existing high school-university partnerships and guide participants to create their own, local plan to establish a program and partnership for K-16 language learning. We will discuss current research and data on high school early college coursework in languages, learn about a variety of secondary-to-higher ed partnership models, discuss variables in K-16 collaboration and articulation, consider research-based predictors of postsecondary continuation, and view existing resources and model documents to utilize and adapt. By the end of this workshop, you will walk away with an action plan and a “tool box” of resources to begin or to ramp up your work to connect secondary and higher education, benefiting students and communities. 

This workshop helps Dual Language Immersion (DLI) teachers answer the question, what comes first: content or language? The constant struggle to find the balance between content and language is at the heart of DLI unit planning and lesson delivery. This workshop explores strategies to help DLI teachers ensure that language is a focus in every content less.  Participants will become familiar with linguistic forms, features, and functions and use their new learning to revise/create a unit of instruction from their own curriculum, which will in turn, increase student outcomes.

Join Utah DLI leaders who will share everything you need to know about how to start and sustain a successful DLI program. Principals, instructional coaches, state and district leaders will discuss how to start a program, program design, staffing, curriculum development, parent communication, ongoing professional development, importance of proficiency targets, assessment, school-wide integration, support for principals and more. We will share the tools and resources we have developed after fifteen years of experience as we engage you in a dialogue of best practices in DLI. 

Leverage the strengths of your community to cultivate a bilingual educator workforce in your context! Participants in this workshop will learn about the power of community coalition-building and collective action in building bridges to certification for bilingual adults and youth. Using lessons learned, participants will collaborate in a power analysis exercise to inform strategic action plans for community-driven bilingual educator preparation and advocacy within their respective state/regional contexts. This community of language advocates will be encouraged to share strategies and successes at and beyond this event.

When and why should dual language teachers maintain separation of languages, and when and why should they engage in translanguaging? Guided by relevant research and real-life examples from classroom practice, we will explore this timely question together, drawing on key ideas from our book Dual Language Tandem Teaching: Coordinating Instruction across Languages through Cross-Linguistic Pedagogies. Specifically, we will: 1) discuss five factors that guide decision-making about instructional language use; 2) propose reframing instructional language as a continuum; and 3) introduce seven cross-linguistic pedagogies that work together to create this continuum. By design, this approach maintains fidelity to the language allocation plan and reaps the benefits of both separation of languages and pedagogical translanguaging. Participants will leave the session with greater clarity about how to navigate this tension between separation of languages and translanguaging in dual language programs, along with practical tools that they can take back to their schools for continued reflection and discussion.

This workshop focuses on the introduction of journalistic writing as an alternative pathway to enhance students’ writing skills both at the university and high school levels and it is aimed for teachers in all languages. The rhetorical and linguistic advantages of this type of instruction are based on the Spanish textbook: Noticia, Crónica, Entrevista: Journalistic Writing in the Bridge Program, authored by the presenter. Participants will learn about the most recent studies that support journalistic writing as an alternative approach to teaching writing expression across languages.

Este taller, diseñado para profesores de español de DLI y realizado en español, cubre dos áreas clave: aprovechar la IA para mejorar la pedagogía y fomentar el avance de los estudiantes. Los participantes descubrirán enfoques innovadores para crear experiencias de aprendizaje dinámicas que ayuden a los estudiantes a progresar más allá del nivel intermedio de competencia en comprensión auditiva, expresión oral, lectura y escritura. Además, realizaremos ejercicios prácticos, utilizando herramientas de inteligencia artificial para facilitar la creación de planes de lecciones, evaluaciones y rúbricas, y para permitir formas de aprendizaje personalizadas y diferenciadas.

This workshop, designed for DLI teachers of Spanish, covers two key areas: harnessing AI to enhance pedagogy, and fostering student advancement. Participants will discover innovative approaches to crafting dynamic learning experiences that help students progress beyond the intermediate level of proficiency across listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Additionally, we will engage in hands-on exercises, utilizing AI tools to streamline the creation of lesson plans, assessments, and rubrics, and to adapt instruction to provide personalized and differentiated learning opportunities.