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New York State World Languages Design for Global Proficiency - June 6, 2019

On June 6th, the Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages of the New York State Education Department in collaboration with Queens College, CUNY held the New York State World Languages Design for Global Proficiency conference.  This event, attended by 422 World Language educators and administrators, mostly from the New York City area, offered 28 concurrent workshops given by 34 presenters on a variety of topics from pedagogy and assessment to technology integration.

Dr. Jennifer Eddy, Principal Investigator for the NYSED-OBEWL World Language Standards and Professional Development Initiative and Professor at Queens College, welcomed the large crowd of attendees to the opening session of the conference.  Lissette Colón-Collins, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages at the New York State Education Department, then addressed the audience, giving an update on World Languages in New York State, including the ongoing revision of the World Language Standards.   Dr. Eleanor Armour-Thomas, Chairperson of Secondary Education and Youth Services at Queens College, then briefly welcomed attendees to the college and to an inspiring day of professional development.  The opening session was then capped off by brief remarks by John Carlino, Executive Director of the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers and the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

Greg Duncan, president and founder of Interprep, delivered the keynote address of this conference with a presentation entitled “Motivating Learners . . . Through Assessment!”  This presentation explored the possibilities for assessment in today’s World Language classroom, moving beyond traditional ideas about assessment and on to its promising dimensions for students.  Greg, a former high school Spanish teacher and administrator, worked as the Coordinator of Foreign Languages and International Education for the Georgia Department of Education before launching a career as an independent consultant with Interprep, Inc.

“The world conference was incredible and you guys did an amazing job to provide us with high quality professional workshops.”

“It was truly wonderful professional development which focused on World Language teachers.”

“This conference was such an excellent opportunity for growth and networking. Especially for those teachers that are a department of one.”

“Thank you for doing this for us.  Please keep bringing inspiring speakers and topics.”

“These conferences are great because they validate the work that foreign language teachers are doing.”

“This was a wonderful PD, one of the best I have attended.”

Workshop Presenters

  • Allison Astor-Vargas, Nikaury Rodríguez and Alfonso Ramírez - Theatre Accessibility and Cultural Relevancy in the Classroom
  • Dr. G. Anthony Benners  - Summative Assessment of World Language Skills in the 21st Century
  • Tracy Brady - Project-Based Language Learning in the World Language Classroom
  • Christina Buck - Google Classroom and Virtual Collaboration Made Easy
  • SooJin Choi-Kim, Janet Chen, Yangrou Chen and Lingling Xie - Backward Design and Implementation of Articulated Performance Tasks
  • Greg Duncan - Performance-Based Assessment—What Should it Look Like?
  • Dr. Jennifer Eddy  Designing Articulated Assessment Transfer Tasks with the NYS Seal of Biliteracy in Mind
  • Maria Fenton, Ingrid Hatt and Tanya Rosado-Barringer – New York State Seal of Biliteracy
  • Francesco Fratto and Denise Hannaoui - Change Agents Needed! Please Apply!
  • Francesco Fratto - AAPPL Power: How well do they know the language?
  • Jessica  Fu - Technology for Assessments in World Language Classrooms
  • Victoria Gilbert - Completing the Cycle - Using Authentic Resources & IPA Structures
  • Bill Heller - A Primer on Proficiency
  • Bill  Heller - Can-Do Culture
  • Dr. Patricia Lennon and Adriana Mendrinos - Engage and Motivate Your Students with Culturally-Based IPAs
  • Sushma Malhotra - Developing Performance Assessment for the Backward Design Units
  • Marisol Manríquez-Weiner - 5 Step Meta-Cognitive Student Writing Portfolio for Self-Assessment and Peer-Editing
  • Marisol Marcin - Language in Context:  Advancing Proficiency Through Content Learning
  • Dr. Eleni Natsiopoulou - Can Do, “Not Greek to Me” After All
  • Dr. Joanne O'Toole - Learning Strategies as Scaffolds and Performances
  • Dr. Joanne O'Toole - Make the Most of Authentic Resources
  • Dr. Maureen  Owens - Critical Thinking in Assessment
  • Pamela Russell - Inspiring Proficiency in Novice Learners
  • Dr. Roser Salavert - Fostering Advanced Literacies in the World Language Classroom,
  • Cristina Santiago-Campbell - Aligning Assessment and Instruction:  Creating Authentic Read-to-Write Tasks
  • Cristina Santiago-Campbell and Marisol Manríquez-Weiner - Preparing Our Students for the NYS Seal of Biliteracy
  • Susan Wicht - An Arabic Articulated Curriculum: Do our homes shape our lives?
  • Rosanne Zeppieri - Critical Thinking to Build Language Proficiency