Month: August 2019

Saturday starts with registration, refreshments donated by VOCES of Teacher’s Discovery, a little entertainment and then a keynote by Jim Wooldridge!!

Participants will have the opportunity to choose from four different workshops during each of the four sessions throughout the day. Exhibitors will be available during the lunch break. Below is a list of options for Saturday!

Here is the conference website: www.comprehensiblecalifornia.com

Click here to head straight to the registration page! Be sure to sign up before September 1st when the price goes up! Remember, discounted prices for Friday if you also attend on Saturday!!

When Kids Are The Curriculum: Circling with Cards with Clarice Swaney

Circling with cards is a wonderful way to get to know students, build community and provide compelling and comprehensible input! 

Make the Most of Your First Year/Student-Teaching Experience with  Bryce Hedstrom

     There are so many things to think about and prepare for.  Let’s focus in on the most powerful way to get started!

Theory and Research for the Win!  (Krashen and BVP) with Scott Benedict

     A concise yet in-depth look at the power of CI according to Drs. Stephen Krashen and Bill Van Patten.

(Almost) One Hour Readers’ Theater with Karen Rowan

     A fifty-five minute look at bringing sections of a novel to life with your students.

Structuring CI for Success in The Classroom with John Piazza

     Ways to set up your plans so that CI is a crucial yet compelling force in your teaching.

The Special Person Treatment with Bryce Hedstrom

     How to set up, utilize and follow through with the Special Person interview that Bryce has made famous!

Creating Community in the Heritage Speakers’ Classroom with Marcela Kerns

     Join Marcela as she passionately shares ways to cultivate community in the classroom and on campus with heritage speakers.

Setting Up A Crime Scene Mystery with Scott Benedict

     Do your students like to solve mysteries?  This session will help you set up a crime to be solved right in your own classroom!

Getting CI Started (Even if the Year Already Has!) with Laurie Clarcq

     Wondering if you can make changes even if the year has already started?  Stop in and hear how to add a more Comprehensible Input-focused touch to a program that is already started!

Life Hacks: CI Teacher Edition with Kelly Ferguson

     Ideas to make a teacher’s life easier?  Yes please!!! Ideas specially created for CI teachers?   Just what you are looking for!

Powerful Reading with Novice Learners with Clarice Swaney

      Their reading level may be “low” but the ideas Clarice brings will prepare these students to be  active and interested! 

How to Pull Off Free Voluntary Reading with Bryce Hedstrom

     You’ve heard of it, but now you can find out exactly how to make it happen!  Join Bryce as he outlines his ideas on how to create a successful FVR program in your classroom.

Creating Comprehensible Cultural Input with Kelly Ferguson

     Compelling Comprehensible Cultural Input is just a few steps away!  Join Kelly as she outlines how to keep the target culture central to your program.

Creating (A) Room For Success with Scott Benedict

     Explore an actual Comprehensible Input-based classroom as Scott shares what he uses, when, where and why!

Easy Interaction & Input (For Teachers Just Starting with CI) with Laurie Clarcq

      Let Laurie introduce the simple steps to success that she and Haiyun Lu have developed and shared with teachers who are new to the process.. Come and see that CI is easy and all the world is a story!

The Power of The Password with Bryce Hedstrom

      What is this mysterious “password” and how does it win buy in and create community?  Come find out as Bryce explains the power of the password!

WARNING: Graphic Content! with Jim Wooldridge

     Sr. Wooly’s passionate new foray into reading: Using Graphic Novels in the World Language Classroom!   

CI in the Upper Level Classroom with Clarice Swaney

    Teachers often wonder….what does Comprehensible Input look like in levels 2, 3, 4 and above?   Clarice uses her experience and insight to share the possiblilties with you!

Interaction &  Input Ideas (For Teachers Already Using CI!) with Laurie Clarcq

     Already using Comprehensible Input-based instruction but looking for new ways to create the interaction you are hoping for?  Join Laurie in this session as she shares a new way to look at the Input/Interaction connection.

 Circling to the Beat with Jim Wooldridge

     Lots of innovative ways to increase repetition AND keep it interesting!  Come see Sr. Wooly circle all of the opportunities!

Personalizing/Stories On Your Feet with Karen Rowan

     Karen brings her own special expertise to this session.  Join her and practice ‘working on your feet” with interesting and easy techniques.

Top Tips for CI Success with Marcela Kerns

     There is a lot of advice out there and Marcela will share what have become her Top Tips for creating and maintaining a Comprehensible Input-based program.

From Reading to Writing: Turning Input to Output with Laurie Clarcq

     Let’s look at ways that carefully chosen or created reading selections get a new life as powerful writing samples created by your students! 

Comprehensible CA is only three weeks away!   This conference, like CI Iowa, CIMidwest and CIMitten is a shorter conference than the intensive summer opportunities which are so positve and powerful.  These conferences happen during the school year! They are a great way to recharge enthusiasm, ask pertinent questions, solve problems that may have popped up and refocus on new goals.   

Comprehensible CA has a unique line up this year!  We begin with a Friday Pre-conference line up of offerings!  We are very pleased to be offering the first regional administrative training in the country on Friday, September 13 at W.T. Eich Middle School in Roseville, CA.  This training, which goes from 9:00-2:30 to accomdate administrators’ schedules, will be led by Bryce Hedstrom, Laurie Clarcq and Marc Buljan.  Both Bryce and Laurie have over 30 years of classroom experience each and national and international experience in training teachers and administrators.  Marc is the Director of Personnel Services for the Roseville City School District. He has been the administrator for a highly successful CI-based program in an IB school and has worked for several years with administrators who are interested in bringing Comprehensible Input-based Instruction to their schools.  

Friday  3 hour Pre-conference options for teachers:

:

Beginning Basics with Laurie Clarcq

This highly interactive workshop is designed for teachers who desire a foundation in Comprehensible Input-based Instruction.  The goal is for participants to understand how acquisition theory becomes reality in the classroom! We will examine how to develop skills, set norms, keep language comprehensible and activities compelling.  All of the secrets you need to know to get started and stay strong throughout the year.Come join us for a fun and powerful three-hour experience.

Picture Talk Your Way to Movie Talk with Clarice Swaney

Picture Talk your Way to Movie Talk is an innovative approach that can be used at every level to bring comprehensible input  (99-90 % comprehended input to your classroom by using images, video clips and films to connect to the lives and interests of your students. In this half day session, you will experience interactive lessons that demonstrate scaffolded, differentiated questioning techniques with compelling input that will hold student interest by using images, video clips, and film. Participants will practice demonstrated skills, discover and develop your own resources in order to create lessons tailored to your students and curriculum.  

101: How to Engage Your Students in a Crime Scene MysteryMurder .  with Scott Benedict

Is the ordinary getting boring for your students? Do your students like mayhem and intrigue? Do you enjoy a good crime mystery? Then this session is for you! I will teach you how you can create your own crime mystery in your classroom and engage your students like never before.

Friday Afternoon Options for Teachers:

Classroom Management with Care and Respect with Bryce Hedstrom

Learn or be refreshed on the best practices that will build a sustainable culture of respect, kindness and equity in your classroom… and do it without burning out, including:

• How to infuse lessons with culture naturally
• The surprising effectiveness of call-and-response prompts… and how to use them in multiple ways
• Why you need to start assigning classroom jobs
• How to read and send body language signals to encourage subconscious engagement and acceptance.
• How rejoinders build fluency, camaraderie and buy-in… how to teach them and keep kids using them.
• How to do questioning differently  including tiered questioning for on-the-spot differentiation

Beyond the Play Button Jim Wooldridge aka Sr. Wooly!

Although music and videos are essential vehicles for providing language input, it can be challenging to figure out how to properly implement them in the classroom.  We all know how to click play, but isn’t there more? In this session, Jim Wooldridge, a.k.a. Sr. Wooly, will demonstrate a variety of practical activities that will give you the confidence to use music and videos in the classroom (and with none of the guilt!).  Plus, he will model how to win the class over so you have more class singalongs and fewer class eye-rolls

Setting up for Success: classroom layout, posters, and gradebook  with Scott Benedict

Setting your students up for success is more than lesson plans and expertise.

Learn how your classroom layout, what’s on your walls, and setting up your grade book can spell success for all your students. They’re more important than you think!!

Reader’s Theater:  From Reluctant Reader to Pleasure Reader with Karen Rowan

Reading has to be 98-100% comprehensible for language to be acquired.  98%! When your students read, do they automatically create visual images in their minds or are they decoding and translating word-by-word?  Bringing reading to life for all students through Readers Theater and strategic, effective use of movie clips builds visual images that bring reading to 98-100% comprehensible, increasing the chances that our students will become lifetime pleasure readers. This session contains instructions and a demo so that you can begin using Reader’s Theater in your classroom immediately with whole class novels or as a “sales presentation” to make readers in your classroom library fly off the shelves during FVR. (Bringing possible readers in any language, for any level is encouraged.)

A full day of training for teachers for only $99!  If you also attend Saturday’s conference (see next post!) then there is a reduced price!  

Here is the Comprehensible California website for more information!  www.comprehensiblecalifornia.com  

Click here to go directly to the registration page!

Special thanks to our exhibitors and donors!!