Do I Still Teach Grammar
Presenters: Dr. Joanne O’Toole, Bill Heller, and Dr. Lori Langer de Ramirez
Original webinar date & time: Tuesday, November 18th, 2025, 4:00-5:00 pm via Zoom
Webinar description: The eternal question for many teachers transitioning to proficiency-based instruction is, "Do I still teach grammar?" In the proficiency-oriented classroom, grammar structures continue to play an important role. That role, however, is in support of specific language functions aligned to performance indicators for each learning standard. In this session, the presenters will share several approaches for developing students’ increasing levels of control of grammatical structures. These strategies will be embedded within the frame of communicatively and culturally contextualized lesson sequences. Participants will learn how to build their grammar toolbox for instruction at Checkpoints A and B.
Click here to access the webinar flyer.
Click here to access the Handouts folder from this webinar.
Click here to access the recording of this webinar.
Post-assessments (Coming soon!)
To receive a certificate of completion (including a CTLE certificate), NYS educators must view the recording of the webinar (see link above) in its entirety and then answer at least seven out of ten questions correctly on the post assessment. If the minimum required score (7 out of 10) is achieved, the educator will receive a certificate via email within an hour. For the convenience of our World Language educators, there are multiple versions of the post assessment available, should the required score not be achieved on the first attempt. Educators may take each version of the post assessment once.
Important notes:
- Educators may take each version of the post assessment once. Credit will not be given for taking a single version of the post assessment more than once.
- Credit will not be given for more than one passing score on any of the post assessments for a webinar (listed below) in a single academic year.
- Educators may receive credit for viewing the webinar recording and passing a post assessment once in each academic year and are encouraged to take a different version of the post assessment on a yearly basis to review and test their knowledge of the webinar's content.
- It is the responsibility of the individual educator to keep track of the information on the professional learning they complete each year, including the number of CTLE hours.
- Questions about this webinar or the post assessments, should be directed to nysworldlanguages@gmail.com.
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Webinar Summary
# of attendees: 335
# of CTLE certificates issued: 268
# of certificates of attendance issued: 67
# of organizations represented by attendees: 230
299 participants from district schools
10 participants from non-public schools
6 participants from charter schools
13 participants from colleges and universities
1 participants from government agencies
6 participants from BOCES/RBERN
Webinar presenters:
Dr. Joanne O'Toole is a Professor of Modern Language Education in the Curriculum and Instruction Department at SUNY Oswego. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the NYSED World Languages Content Advisory Panel and the Principal Investigator of the NYS World Language Standards Initiative. Joanne has served in several world language leadership positions including NYSAFLT President and NECTFL Director, and is a regular presenter at national, regional, state, and local conferences. Joanne is a certified teacher of Spanish and taught Spanish for 16 years prior to entering post-secondary education.
Bill Heller has taught in public elementary, secondary, community college and undergraduate classrooms for 40 years, including 24 years teaching Spanish at Perry High School. He has been a methods and Spanish instructor at SUNY Geneseo since 2001. He is a frequent presenter of workshops, webinars and keynotes. Bill served as Conference Chair for the 2018 Northeast Conference (NECTFL) and is currently a member of the Executive Board and Content Advisory Panel for World Languages at the New York State Education Department (NYSED).
Dr. Lori Langer de Ramirez began her language teaching career as a teacher of Spanish, French and ESL. She holds a Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics and a Doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently the Director of World and Classical Languages & Global Language Initiatives at the Dalton School in New York City. Lori is the author of books, texts and articles about language teaching and learning and multicultural education. She presents workshops at local, regional and national conferences and works with teachers in schools throughout the U.S. and around the world. Her website (www.miscositas.com) offers free materials for teaching Chinese, English, French, and Spanish.
For more information on professional learning webinars for world language educators, please visit our professional learning website.
Webpage last updated on December 2, 2025