Description

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CASLT’s Virtual PL Days provide a platform for teachers to connect with colleagues, engage in interactive professional learning opportunities, and share best practices. Our experienced team of professional learning facilitators will explore research-informed teaching approaches and strategies to inspire, motivate, and challenge teachers to improve their practice.

Registration Options

Multiple registration options are available to accommodate scheduling and budgetary constraints:

*Includes a one-year CASLT membership.

Schedule

Each Virtual PL Day will include two streams of three 90-minute workshops. Each workshop will be offered once in English and once in French. Full day registration includes access to all three workshops, and half day registration (either AM or PM) includes access to two workshops.

* Eastern Daylight Time

Session Descriptions

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Using a Structured Literacy Approach in the FSL Classroom

Facilitator: Lindsay Cochrane

Discover the Science of Reading and how to use a Structured Literacy approach to reading and writing in your FSL classroom (Tier 1) as well as in small reading remediation groups for struggling readers (Tier 2). This session will explain how to adapt evidence-based strategies from Orton-Gillingham for FSL students. In this workshop, Lindsay will share the What, Why, and How of adapting a Structured Literacy approach in the FSL language classroom. Teachers will leave this workshop with practical, high yield strategies for each of the six elements of a Structured Literacy approach — oral language, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, listening and reading comprehension — as well as strategies to support student printing and spelling skills. Most importantly, teachers will leave this workshop feeling confident in their ability to help struggling readers in FSL and inspired to learn more about the Science of Reading to support second language learners!

Linguistic Security: How to Develop Oral Confidence for All FSL Learners

Facilitator: Denis Cousineau

Learning an additional language is always a challenge. It makes us vulnerable and requires a willingness to take risks. This often frightens us because we want to understand and be understood. What happens if I make a mistake or use the wrong word? Will I look ridiculous? Millions of people face these questions every day when they put their language skills into action, starting with their listening, production, and interaction skills. For some researchers, the focus is on that anxiety known as linguistic insecurity. Others, like Monica Tang, focus on the construction of a legitimate bilingual or multilingual identity. This workshop will look at a pedagogical approach that aims to develop a greater sense of security, identity, and even confidence in speaking. Like any good swimming instructor, let’s help our students learn to float without worrying about drowning! Some may go on to swim in the Olympics while others play in our wonderful Canadian lakes, but let’s allow everyone to have fun. Confident bilingualism is within everyone’s grasp!

Shifting Perspectives in FSL: Centring Student Voices, Identity, and CRRP

Facilitator: Karen Devonish-Mazzotta

To better engage FSL learners, educators must shift their attention to centring student voice, student interest, student agency, and student identity. When students have more opportunities to see themselves in the FSL classroom and to make meaningful and relevant connections with their lived experiences, second language learning becomes an opportunity to explore and apply language in transformative ways. During this workshop, participants will engage in a deep dive reflection on their social identities and how these inform their practice, FSL pedagogy, and learning. A juxtaposition between Culturally Relevant and Responsive Pedagogy, Intercultural Understanding and Awareness, and French as a Second Language curriculum will provide an opportunity to explore anti-oppressive teaching strategies and to highlight the importance of critical consciousness in all aspects of FSL policy, practice, teaching, and learning.