The Voces Summer CI Conference: Your Story of Success
The Voces Summer CI Conference showcased our stories of success so that you and your colleagues can find your stories of success with the curricula next school year.
Learn about best practices with storytelling and CI using the resources in Nuestra historia and Notre histoire. Discover how best to use the programs in class and remotely. We also explored how to plan a unit, deepen intercultural competence through authentic materials, and use other materials throughout the curricula to reach and inspire students.
Presenters included Señor Jordan, Bess Hayles, Eric Richards, Gary DiBianca, Bryan Kandel, Allyn Lodge, Linda Temby, Nina Holzfeind, and others. These CI educators have shared tips and strategies that have worked for them and their students. There were also sessions dedicated to how to use the Voces platform for maximum success, both in class and remotely. Click here to learn more about our presenters.
Below you will find the presentation notes and recordings for all of our sessions.
Learn about best practices with storytelling and CI using the resources in Nuestra historia and Notre histoire. Discover how best to use the programs in class and remotely. We also explored how to plan a unit, deepen intercultural competence through authentic materials, and use other materials throughout the curricula to reach and inspire students.
Presenters included Señor Jordan, Bess Hayles, Eric Richards, Gary DiBianca, Bryan Kandel, Allyn Lodge, Linda Temby, Nina Holzfeind, and others. These CI educators have shared tips and strategies that have worked for them and their students. There were also sessions dedicated to how to use the Voces platform for maximum success, both in class and remotely. Click here to learn more about our presenters.
Below you will find the presentation notes and recordings for all of our sessions.
| Our Story is Your Story |
In this opening session, we reflect on the story behind the Nuestra historia and Notre histoire curricula and help to set the stage for the learning and professional development you will be experiencing over the next four days. Watch the Recording |
| Path to Proficiency Through Storytelling and CI Señor Jordan |
Join Youtube’s Señor Jordan as he gives an overview of Comprehensible Input and how It can be used to push students towards proficiency. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| Preparing to Teach Level 1 Gary DiBianca |
Is your plan to use Nuestra historia or Notre histoire Level 1 in the fall? If so, this session will provide you the steps and practices for how to deliver Comprehensible Input to your Novice-Low students using the Level 1 materials. We will focus on teaching Unit 1. Some of the topics will be: using TPR, PQA, Questioning, and Telling a Story. *Demos in Spanish, but content will be applicable to Notre histoire. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| Know What Drives You Allynn Lodge |
Build confidence in your teaching by identifying the qualities that are most important to you as a teacher, and making sure that your course reflects these priorities. Learn how to share your approach with both students and parents. While each of us will emphasize slightly different things in our teaching, as CI enthusiasts, we all place value on communication. Explore how to promote Comprehensible Input in your classroom while being true to who you are as a teacher and connecting with your audience. Discover what works and what doesn't! Download Presentation Download Expectations Star of Day Watch the Recording |
| Preparing to Teach Level 2 Gary DiBianca |
Is your plan to use Nuestra historia or Notre histoire Level 2 in the fall? If so, this session will provide you the steps and practices for how to deliver Comprehensible Input to your Novice-Mid/High students using the Level 2 materials. Some other topics will be transitioning from present to past tenses, Asking a Story, and using class novels. *Demos in Spanish, but content will be applicable to Notre histoire. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| Preparing to Teach Higher Levels Bryan Kandel |
Levels 3 and 4 of Nuestra historia and Notre histoire are filled with relevant cultural themes and useful Spanish and French language. In this session, we will explore strategies for getting the most out of each unit in these higher levels. We will discuss techniques for making the content engaging and comprehensible for our students. Many of the strategies from this session can also be used with novels and other CI materials in higher level classes. *Demos in Spanish, but content will be applicable to Notre histoire. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| Incorporating Authentic Material to Deepen Cultural Awareness Linda Temby |
Nuestra historia and Notre histoire stories are the perfect springboard and scaffolding for deepening your own and your students’ awareness of target language cultures around the world. Discover how to incorporate authentic materials and resources that reflect and build on both story content and settings in unique ways. *Demos in French, but content will be applicable to Nuestra historia. Download Presentation Download Companion Deck Watch the Recording |
| Drawing and Doodling in the CI Classroom Allynn Lodge |
Although drawing is often associated with elementary education, this technique can serve as an effective tool in the upper level language classroom. Drawing words or creating images to go with stories allow students to build memorable, personal connections to language. Leave this workshop with several no prep and low-prep activities that you can easily incorporate into your CI curriculum. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| Live Music | Watch the Recording |
| All About Embedded Readings Bess Hayles |
In this session, you will learn how to maximize the use of Embedded Readings through varying reading strategies. Learn about PQA, Three-Ring Circus, and more! *Demos in French, but content will be applicable to Nuestra historia. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| Tease Out the Tales Linda Temby |
Learn how to easily increase and diversify input opportunities, build classroom community, and boost active student engagement by interacting with Nuestra historia and Notre histoire stories and sentence structures in fun, interactive, and creative ways - both in person and online! *Demos in French, but content will be applicable to Nuestra historia. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| What’s So Super About ¡Súper Lápiz!? Señor Jordan |
Learn how to soar with your students while using the the Súper Lápiz level 1 series. This session will include ideas for personalization, discussion and tips and tricks to get even more out of the episodes while having a SUPER time. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| Authentic Voices and Perspectives for Any Learning Scenario Kara Jacobs |
Having a wide variety of authentic voices expressing cultural perspectives from all over the Spanish- and French-speaking world should be a vital part of our curriculum. But how do you bring authentic voices and cultural perspectives into your curriculum? Nuestra historia and Notre histoire have you covered with the "Entrevistas/Interviews" sections of their textbooks! In this session, we will talk about the "Entrevistas/Interviews" and what teachers and students can do with them... even remotely. Examples from various levels will be shared and activities will involve Breakout Rooms so that teachers can see possible synchronous remote examples on Zoom. *Demos in Spanish, but content will be applicable to Notre histoire. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| Teaching with a Focus on Culture Nina Holzfeind |
In this session, we'll explore the ways in which culture has been embedded into the Nuestra historia and Notre histoire approach to teaching language with CI. Using French examples, we'll discuss how to use the stories and authentic resources within the curriculum to promote students' cultural awareness and language proficiency. We'll also talk about ways that teachers can enhance the cultural richness of their classes by incorporating additional authentic resources, their own background knowledge and experiences, and those of their students. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| “But Can I Still Teach Grammar?” Allynn Lodge |
Yes! There is still a place for grammar within CI instruction! This session will look at how explicit grammar instruction fits into the Nuestra historia and Notre histoire curriculum. We will discuss when and how to offer grammar explanations to students, and how traditional grammar exercises and games can be adapted and modified for the CI approach. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| Special Guest - Laurie Clarcq | Watch the Recording |
| Tips for Teaching CI Remotely Bryan Kandel |
In this session, we will explore effective remote CI lessons that can be applied to out-of-the-classroom experiences, homework activities, and substitute plans—or to enhance in-class learning. Strong CI practices can be transferred to remote lessons. We will discuss strategies for creating compelling content, recording it, sharing it, and ensuring that our students engage with it. *Demos in Spanish, but content will be applicable to Notre histoire. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| To the Community and Beyond! Nicole Hartung |
In this session, we will explore ways to utilize the "In my community" component in Nuestra historia and Notre histoire to cultivate connections with the community and the globalized world. How can the community challenges found in each unit spark student interest, and engage them in meaningful work and impactful projects? *Demos in Spanish, but content will be applicable to Notre histoire. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| Keep Reading and Stories Fresh and Engaging Eric Richards |
Reading is vital for vocabulary development, but engaging students in the reading process can be challenging. In this workshop, we will look at various techniques and strategies that will help keep reading and stories fresh and engaging for students in the world language classroom. Increase student participation and excitement for reading and create an enjoyable classroom culture where reading is valued and enjoyed. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| Creating Classroom Culture Bryan Kandel |
No strategy or technique is effective unless we first establish a positive and dynamic classroom culture. When students enter our classrooms or sign onto our virtual classes, they must feel confident, empowered and motivated to use the target language. We will explore practical ways to transform the settings for our lessons. We’ll discuss student engagement, setting expectations for TL use, the importance of variation, customizing lessons for each class and other techniques for bringing classes to life. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| How to Approach This School Year’s Unknowns and Uncertainties Select Presenters and Voces Team |
Q&A-led discussion on how Voces supports blended learning and can help you feel more confident going into this new school year. Watch the Recording |
| All About Assigning, Managing, and Grading Student Work Kelsey Lewandowski |
Discover the control and options these important Voces tools offer. Learn about the many different parameters you can give to an assignment, how to efficiently manage those assignments (even with a large class/many classes), and how to give students the feedback they need while saving your sanity. Watch the Recording |
| Special Guest, Jennifer Degenhardt | Watch the Recording |
| All About Editing, Creating, and Sharing Erin Almeranti |
Learn about the Voces editor, including the Quick Edit tool, and find out how to build your own activities and content anywhere in Voces. You will also learn how to share content and collaborate with colleagues and other Voces users. Download Presentation Watch the Recording |
| Using Zoom for Remote Learning Charles Verhey |
By now most of you have used Zoom. You’re using it right now to participate in our webinars! But did you know there’s more hidden behind the scenes? Features you have with your account right now that you might not even realize are available to you? In this webinar, I'm going to show you some of these hidden settings to help make the experience for you and your students more engaging and easier to use. Learn how to get your students to RSVP for class, how to email reminders to your students prior to the meeting, how to get your students to "raise their hand", how to use break-out rooms and nonverbal feedback, how to protect your classroom against unwanted visitors, how to take attendance, the difference between a "webinar" and a "meeting", and tips on how to manage both small and large groups of attendees. Watch the Recording |
| Concluding Remarks Voces Team |
A reflection on the conference and open Q&A Watch the Recording |
Do you have edited or created pages that you'd like to share with others? Then put your Share IDs in this Google Doc. Check back often to see what others put there. Our hope is that this becomes a place for all Voces subscribers to share their ideas, no matter what title or language they teach.
Don't recall what a Share ID is? Then learn all about editing, creating, and sharing pages in Voces in this presentation (video tutorials included throughout).
Chat Logs
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Collaboration Links
Nuestra historia 1
Nuestra historia 2
Nuestra historia 3
Nuestra historia 4
Notre histoire 1
Notre histoire 2
Notre histoire 3
Tech and Tools Cheat Sheet
Participation Certificate Links
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
About the Presenters
Gary DiBianca
Gary DiBianca is a Spanish teacher, presenter, world language consultant and coach, and AP® reader. He has presented nationally and regionally on acquisition and brain-based strategies in the world language classroom, big picture planning, unit design, pre-AP® vertical alignment, the 21st Century World Language Standards, the inclusion of topics of diversity in the curriculum, and teaching with TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Storytelling) and Comprehensible Input. As a world language coach, he works with teachers at the iFLT conference and as the co-coordinator for coaching at the NTPRS conference. Gary made many contributions to Nuestra historia: Aprender y preparar and is working on including instructional strategies for Nuestra historia: Level 1 and 2.
Nicole Hartung
Nicole Hartung teaches middle school Spanish at Winchester Thurston School, an independent school in Pittsburgh, PA. She has worked with children of all ages since 1995 in both academic and faith-based settings. Nicole has taught Spanish levels pre-K through high school Spanish. She is an alum of the University of Pittsburgh, and studied abroad in Seville, Spain when pesetas were still the currency. Nicole built a pen pal program for her students and students in Cuenca, Ecuador. She strives to inspire life-long learning in her students through meaningful work and global connections.
Bess Hayles
Bess Hayles is the typical crazy French teacher, and has been teaching French for the past thirteen years, eleven of those using the TPRS method. She has taught students from 8th to 12th grade and from levels one to IB and college. In the past several years, she has used her love of students, French, and her knowledge of second-language acquisition to present workshops and create materials for teachers throughout the United States.
Nina Holzfeind
Nina Holzfeind is a French teacher, curriculum writer, and author of the stories in Notre Histoire. She believes that the best things in language learning—and in life—are fun, natural, and from the heart. Nina fell in love with Comprehensible Input-based methods while teaching at the middle school level, and now she is passionate about creating CI materials to help other teachers and students have an effective and enjoyable learning experience.
Kara Jacobs
Kara Jacobs has been teaching Spanish since the late 1990's. During that time, she has changed her teaching style tremendously. As Kara explained, "I started out as a ‘traditional textbook, grammar notes, vocabulary lists-using' kind of teacher and have now fully transitioned to being a ‘CI, TPRS, stories, cultural content, proficiency focused, authentic resources-using' kind of teacher—and am LOVING the results!" Kara contributed to Nuestra historia 3, 4, and Aprender y preparar. Learn more about Kara and see her work at: http://www.ceauthres.com
Señor Jordan
Jeremy Jordan (a.k.a. Señor Jordan) is a Spanish teacher, a YouTube personality, and an author of TPRS novels. Jeremy has dedicated himself to the TPRS method and Comprehensible Input strategies for nearly a decade.
Bryan Kandel
Bryan Kandel teaches high school Spanish in Canton, Ohio. He presents professional development workshops on Comprehensible Input techniques, the importance of strong classroom culture, successful world language AP® courses, reading strategies, and many other topics. He has published many CI Spanish readers, including Bella durmiente (coming Fall 2020), Perdidos en la traducción (coming Fall 2020), El carterista de Pamplona, Bajo el agua, Los sobrevivientes, and La novia perfecta. He has seen the power of input as a method to improve proficiency, and constantly aims to increase engagement with his students. He is the author of the stories in Nuestra historia 3, 4, and Aprender y preparar and currently uses Nuestra historia with his classes.
Allynn Lodge
Allynn Lodge is a foreign language teacher who is passionate about how both language and art can help forge connections and mutual understanding between cultures. She holds an M.Ed. in Art in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a BA in Spanish Languages and Cultures from Princeton University. She is the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship to Madrid, Spain, and was recently selected by the National Association of Independent Schools as a Teacher of the Future for her innovation and creativity in the classroom.
Eric Richards
Eric Richards is a high school German teacher, author, and presenter. Eric is a 2020 ACTFL Teacher of Year Finalist and he is the author of a series TPRS/Comprehensible Input books and other readers for the world language classroom. He also authored Grafted Writing, which is designed to help educators facilitate language acquisition through reading and writing. Eric presents on various topics in foreign language methodology and strategies at national and regional conferences around the United States. He transformed a small German program into a large, successful, growing, and vibrant program, where his students also enjoy opportunities to travel abroad.
Linda Temby, M.A.
Linda Temby is an innovative, tech-savvy French teacher with a passion for facilitating the development of student voice and cultural awareness, both in and outside of the world language classroom. After living 25 years in France, she returned to the U.S. in 2013 to complete a master’s degree in Curriculum Design for Experiential Learning. She has experience teaching kindergarten through graduate level students in both public and private school settings in the U.S. and abroad.View the Conference Schedule
