Don't despair if you missed our smashing summer webinar series focusing on teaching for proficiency! The archived version of our Poolside Proficiency series is now available! Here is a quick summary of the four episodes: 

The basics: What does a proficiency-driven language program look like? 
Let's discuss interculturality, using vocabulary and grammar in context, unit goals, essential questions, authentic resources, measuring students’ performance, and much more with our French and Spanish programs as our guide.

Authentic resources: Where to find them, how to use them
Authentic resources can be used to build vocabulary and language structures. We'll share some strategies on how to use these resources to teach vocabulary and grammar in context and keep instructors and students in the target language.

Beyond traditional testing: IPAs and rubrics
Explore types of formative and summative performance-based assessments, and holistic and analytic rubrics. Connections will be made to how assessments can evaluate student language usage in culturally authentic contexts.

Integrating technology: Online tools to support your instruction
Digital textbooks, grading and feedback tools, online classroom forums and more—take our Learning Site for a spin and receive free access for further exploration after the webinar.

Watch all four now! 

We are excited to head to Philadelphia soon for this year's AATF conference. See us at booths 109-110 to get a free sample of our new French language program, EntreCultures. Our knowledgable instructional strategists will be on hand to answer your questions about how to implement a proficiency-based language program in your school. They can also walk you through a sample lesson plan from EntreCultures, which you can pick up at our booth. 

Two coauthors of the series, Ed Weiss and Elizabeth Zwanziger will be there to answer your questions.

Catch these great sessions by our Wayside team: 

Sunday, July 14
1-4 p.m.
Room:  Shippen

W106:  Interculturality: Building Bridges with Language and Culture

Presenter:  Ed Weiss, Delaware County Intermediate Unit School District (PA)

The presenter will show participants how to engage students with vocabulary, language, and multimedia interactions with authentic resources that will provide a true world view for our students. The presentation will show teachers that cultural immersion is not a separate aspect of instruction but instead must be woven into the fabric of every day teaching

To get a preview of Ed's presentation, check out his post on our blog about the importance of interculturality! 

Monday, July 15
10:15-11:15 a.m.
Room: E1

E213:  Interculturality at the Heart: A New Proficiency-Driven Series for French

Presenters:  Elizabeth Zwanziger and Jay Ketner, Wayside Publishing

Traditionally, publishers haven’t provided teachers resources supporting proficiency-based best practices, let alone empowered them to develop intercultural skills to investigate and interact with other cultures and perspectives. The presenters will examine how EntreCultures is uniquely proficiency driven: a backward-designed program with essential questions, authentic resources and tasks across all three modes, grammar in context, can-do statements, IPAs, and other high-leverage instructional practices that spiral upward to help students develop global and intercultural competence.

Tuesday, July 16
10:30-11:30 a.m. 
Room: E2

S314: Comment dit-on everything I’m thinking right now?

Presenter: Erin Gibbons, Barrington High School, IL

Do you have intermediate learners who want to express themselves in French but do not have the necessary structures yet? How can teachers approach deep discussions where the complexity of the students' ideas exceeds their language skills? Come and discover some examples of pedagogical sequences and strategies to offer to your learners.

You are invited to register early for our summer webinar series and explore how you can implement proficiency-driven strategies in your classroom.

With EntreCulturas for Spanish and EntreCultures for French as our guides, our Wayside Instructional Strategy team will be live with jampacked sessions covering topics and tools that will take your language instruction to the next level.

The basics: What does a proficiency-driven language program look like? 
June 11, 2:30 p.m. ET
Let's discuss interculturality, using vocabulary and grammar in context, unit goals, essential questions, authentic resources, measuring students’ performance, and much more with our French and Spanish programs as our guide.

Authentic resources: Where to find them, how to use them
June 13, 2:30 p.m. ET
Authentic resources can be used to build vocabulary and language structures. We'll share some strategies on how to use these resources to teach vocabulary and grammar in context and keep instructors and students in the target language.

Beyond traditional testing: IPAs and rubrics
June 25, 2:30 p.m. ET
Explore types of formative and summative performance-based assessments, and holistic and analytic rubrics. Connections will be made to how assessments can evaluate student language usage in culturally authentic contexts.

Integrating technology: Online tools to support your instruction
June 27, 2:30 p.m. ET
Digital textbooks, grading and feedback tools, online classroom forums and more—take our Learning Site for a spin and receive free access for further exploration after the webinar.

Register early for all four webinars with just one click!

National Foreign Language Week was first celebrated in the spring of 1957 by Alpha Mu Gamma, the first and largest national collegiate foreign language honor society. 

President Dwight D. Eisenhower endorsed the event in 1956, and each succeeding president has added his support. An even greater contribution to the success of NFLW was made by the posters of the late Bruce Russell, who received not only the Pulitzer Prize but also recognition from President Eisenhower for his efforts toward greater world understanding through his timely cartoons. He offered the Society a cartoon each year until his death in 1963, and even left one finished drawing and an unfinished sketch that were used in 1964 and 1966 respectively. 

Read more about the history of National Foreign Language Week

Celebrate this week by helping your students stay in the target language in your Spanish classroom. Download our free poster for helpful words and expressions! 

We had a chance to speak with some students during Language Advocacy Day recently. Here is John Neumann from Naples, Florida, talking about the importance of language learning and advocacy: 

University of Florida student Taylor Doyle talked about how learning Spanish changed her life: