Spice up your spring at the Voces Spring Conference, happening March 5-7 in a Zoom room near you! This is a free, virtual event open to all World Language teachers.
Looking to add some fresh ideas to your classroom? Well, you're in luck! Some of our favorite educators and authors are coming together to bring you new ideas and approaches on topics they're most passionate about! This conference is a chance for you to deepen your understanding of Comprehensible Input and Acquisition-Driven Instruction, learn new techniques and tools, and be inspired to engage your students in new ways! Plus, come early at 5:15 pm ET (each day) and partake in some trivia for your chance to win prizes!
Daily Schedule
March 5-7 (evenings only)| Tuesday, March 5 | ||
| 5:15pm ET | Opening | Greetings, trivia, and spin to win opportunities! |
| 5:30pm ET | Bryan Kandel An Interactive Mystery |
Can your class help catch a criminal? Bryan will use a yet-to-be published Spanish novel to demonstrate techniques for engaging readers in a mystery thriller. Students will be so lost in the clues and the alibis that they will forget they are even reading. Strategies demonstrated in this session can be applied to other texts. |
| 6:00pm ET | Justin Slocum Bailey A Stroll through The Hub |
Justin will give a guided tour of The Hub, a free collection of video tutorials and other resources to help you save planning time while infusing your class with input and interactions rich in comprehensible input. |
| 6:30pm ET | Adriana Ramirez Teaching with Easy-to-Read Novels |
Reading in the language classroom is a powerful way to expose our students to comprehensible input. We can start reading books with our students from the very beginning of their language journey. In this workshop, Adriana will share some easy-to-implement strategies for preparing your students to successfully read and enjoy the easy-to-read books designed for this stage of the process. |
| 7:00pm ET | Heidi Edel and Alicia Hynes The Create & Collaborate PLC |
The Create & Collaborate PLC is for World Language teachers who use the Voces Our Story series - or for those who want to use it! From creating new materials to use alongside Voces, to coming up with ideas for planning and pacing of the material, to getting moral support, this PLC is meant to be an additional resource for those new to Voces and those who have been using Voces for many years! |
| Wednesday, March 6 | ||
| 5:15pm ET | Opening | Greetings, trivia, and spin to win opportunities! |
| 5:30pm ET | Margarita Pérez Garcia Teach reading? Try this! |
Beginners can find joy in exploring novels with accessible language at their level, making reading an enjoyable and attainable adventure. In this workshop, Margarita will explore low-prep strategies designed to engage students more deeply and creatively with easy-to-read novels while developing students' reading comprehension skills. |
| 6:00pm ET | Hannah Meinecke Discovering the 3 P's in Voces Interviews |
Discover the wealth of products, practices, and perspectives that the Voces interviews bring to your language class. Hannah will look at a few of our favorites and discuss best practices for using these insightful yet simple resources. |
| 6:30pm ET | Alicia Quintero Upping the Ante: Reading (FVR) & Speaking in Upper-level WL Courses |
This session will focus on strategies for reading and discussing novels with upper-level students. A.C. Quintero, a highly experienced author of comprehensible input (CI) books with 18 years of practice, will guide teachers through her approach to reading and making language acquisition visible in the WL classroom. She will delve into topics such as conversation circles, prompts, and assessments utilized alongside Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) sessions. |
| 7:00pm ET | Erica Peplinski Burge & Valentina Correa Games in the World Language Classroom |
The right game can support language acquisition, build classroom culture, and bring joy to your students' faces! Join Erica and Valentina, two highly experienced elementary-level teachers, as they share ideas for games that come from the elementary world but that work with all levels and all students. |
| Thursday, March 7 | ||
| 5:15pm ET | Opening | Greetings, trivia, and spin to win opportunities! |
| 5:30pm ET | Eric Richards Engaging Students through Reading |
Dr. Bill VanPatten said it best: "For maximum vocabulary development, learners need to read all along the way." But, for educators, the question is, "How can we make reading enjoyable so they will, in fact, read 'all along the way'?" Find out as we look at simple, practical activities that help increase student engagement and understanding. We will use excerpts from Eric's level 1 book, "Das Dokument / El documento," and in fact, you will receive a coupon code to use towards the purchase of "Das Dokument / El documento" if you attend this session! We also recommend having a pencil and paper on hand when you arrive. |
| 6:00pm ET | Chef Marie Daphney Joseph with teachers, Allynn Lodge, Hannah Meinecke, & Melisa Ferguson Teaching Language and Culture with Food and Cooking |
Join us and let's talk about how we can use food in the classroom not only for calorie acquisition but for language acquisition and cultural discussion too! Chef Marie (Voces marketing guru by day) will be preparing guacamole while a team of teachers will discuss ways to use food and cooking with students. |
