Calendar

Saturday, November 1, 2014      8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
University of Puget Sound, Tacoma
Location: Tahoma Room, Commencement Hall, University of Puget Sound
http://www.pugetsound.edu/about/campus-the-northwest/visiting-puget-sound/directions/ (See to the East Side of the Campus: Commencement Hall)

Thematic Planning:
Meeting the Needs of the World Language Learner
Dr. Helena Curtain

World language educators increasingly need to organize their curricula to meet the needs and interests of students with diverse learning needs, and to maintain student interest and motivation. THEMATIC PLANNING can free language teachers from the limitations of traditional materials, and can lead to lessons that are cognitively challenging and emotionally engaging for students. Thematic planning also can make second language instruction more comprehensible, as themes can create meaningful context, and change the instructional focus from the language itself to the use of language to achieve meaningful goals. In this workshop, Helena Curtain will demonstrate examples of thematic units that provide rich context (and content) for instruction. In addition, teacher participants in the workshop will participate in the process of designing a thematic unit.
This workshop is open to all K-16 World Language Educators!

Dr. Helena Curtain has varied experience as a foreign language educator, having taught at elementary through university levels. She is Associate Professor Emerita at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, directing the Foreign Language and ESOL teacher preparation programs. Helena also served as Foreign Language Curriculum Specialist for Milwaukee Public Schools. She is the author (with Carol Ann Dahlberg) of the seminal text Languages and Children: Making the Match as well as many articles on foreign language learning.

Washington State Clock Hours will be available with Advance Registration
This CLTA-WA workshop is offered with the generous support of the Confucius Institute of the State of Washington (CIWA), the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), and the University of Puget Sound.

Dear teachers and friends,

We are pleased to announce that the third annual Why Learn Chinese Competition is open for submission now. Contestants in 6th through 12th grade are invited to submit entries. This event is organized by Washington Chinese Education Association and co-sponsored by Chinese Language Teachers Association- Washington (CLTA-WA).

2014-2015 Prompts:

– What role will China play in your future?
– Compare Chinese and American culture, and explain how this relates to you.
– Choose a Chinese idiom and explain what it means to you. You may come up with your own, or choose from the list provided.

What? Contestants may submit original responses in English or Chinese to the above prompts in either of the following formats:
– A written entry: essay, poem, or song etc. (450-650 words)
– A video entry: song, poem, speech etc. (2-5 minutes)
Where? Submit responses digitally using the entry form on this page. Send video entries directly to waceducation@gmail.com, or upload to an online sharing service and submit the link. Limit one entry per contestant.
When? Submissions open November 24, and are due no later than January 19. Submission is free.
Why? Share ideas on the importance of China, and win cash prizes!            Winners (3 from each category):                – First Place: $200                – Second Place: $150                – Third Place: $100
Finalists (top 15%): – Certificate of Excellence

It is a wonderful opportunity for students to know more about China and its language & culture. It also helps promote Chinese program in WA. There is a great video for you on the web site below: http://waceducation.weebly.com/wlc-2014-2015.html

For more information, please visit waceducation.weebly.com or email waceducation@gmail.com 

Thank you for your interest!

2015 CLTA-WA Spring Workshop

Empowering students with Well-designed and successfully-implemented tasks and rubrics
 

Presenter: Dr. Miao-fen Tseng (曾妙芬)

Co-sponsors:

CIWA (Confucius Institute of the State of Washington) East Asia Center, Jackson School of International Studies, UW, Seattle
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, WA

Date: March 28, 2015 @ 8:00 am – 4:00 pm

Location: Thomson Hall Rm 101, UW

Cost: Free for members           $20.00 for non-members
(CLTA-WA annual membership fee:  $30.00 )

Registration: http://goo.gl/ip4u5Y

The participants who attend the workshop in its entirety will receive six clock hours. No partial clock-hours will be given.

Workshop Description: Inspired by the Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) featuring student-centeredness and authenticity, the presenter has pilot-tested a series of authentic and pedagogical tasks along with task-specific checklists and rubrics in light of empirical research projects at the regional and national levels since 2008. In this presentation, the presenter will synthesize the common features of the TBLT based on multiple definitions in the literature, analyze field-tested sample tasks, and identify, discuss, and critique best practices for creating the feasible framework for task-supported language teaching through the illustration of different types of tasks and rubrics for general and specific purposes. The presenter will also showcase useful and appropriate authentic materials and summarize effective principles for material selection to help create formative and summative assessments in authentic learning settings for world language and CFL learners. After the presentation, teacher participants will be able to:

1. Understand the advantages of incorporating tasks in instruction; 2. Distinguish exercises from pedagogical and authentic tasks; 3. Get familiar with different types of tasks and rubrics for assessments; 4. Identify and apply strategies for effective task implementation; 5. Incorporate a wide array of authentic materials to create single and well-sequenced tasks across three communicative modes.

Presenter Bio:

Dr. Miao-fen Tseng (曾妙芬) is the Inaugural Director of the Institute of World Languages and Associate Professor of Chinese in the Department of East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Virginia (UVa). Since 2008, she has received approximately $70,0000 from the US federal government to develop and direct the Virginia STARTALK Chinese Teacher Academy and the Virginia STRATALK Chinese Student Academy. She has been invited by the National Foreign Service Center to serve on STARTALK Task Force in 2014-15.  Her enduring passion in Chinese language education has driven her to proactively involve in extensive services such as serving as the K-12 program evaluator, OPI certified tester, advisor for guest teachers from Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), and offering graduate level courses in teaching Chinese as a foreign language in the US, China, and Taiwan under the auspices of various collaborative initiatives and professional development programs. Many of her trainees are now teaching at secondary and post-secondary institutions in the U.S. and abroad. She has also actively played different roles in the national development of AP Chinese since 2004, including, but are not limited to, AP Chinese consultant and academic advisor for AP Chinese and Japanese course audit. She has actively promoted Chinese language and culture nationally and internationally and is the founder and president of the Chinese Language Teachers Association of Virginia (2009-2013) and a member of the CLTA Board of Directors (2011-14). Her Intermediate Chinese was recognized as one of the top ten undergraduate Chinese language courses in a nationwide study of Chinese courses completed by the Educational Policy Improvement Center in Oregon in 2007. She also received the Ron Walton Presentation Prize and the Jiede Empirical Research grant awarded by the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA) and is the author of numerous articles and three books: AP Chinese Language and Culture Teacher’s Guide, Promoting Professionalism in Teaching AP Chinese (推動專業化的AP中文教學: 大學二年級中文教學成功模式的探討與應用), and The Handbook of Tasks and Rubrics for Teaching Mandarin Chinese (Volume I).

Schedule:

8:00-8:30 Registration

Morning

8:30-8:45: Opening

8:40-10:15 Presentation   10:15-10:30 Break

10:30-12:00: Presentation

12:00-12:45 Lunch(on your own)

Afternoon

12:45-2:00 Presentation

2:00–2:15: Break

2:15-3:45: Presentation

3:45-4:00: Closing

Details about the AGM will be sent out in a later message.

CLTA-WA 2015 Summer Workshop

Task-based Learning

Presenters:
Nyan-Ping Bi, University of Washington
Alice Flores, Annie Wright Schools, Tacoma
Jingwen (Vivian) Li, Beacon Hill International School, Seattle

Co-sponsors:
Sunny World, Child Care and Early Learning, Bellevue, WA
East Asia Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Date:              Sunday, August 23, 2015

Time: 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Location:        Sunny World, 16007 NE 8th St, Bellevue, WA 98008.
Butterfly Room

Cost:               Free for members
$10.00 for non-members
(CLTA-WA annual membership fee:  $30.00 for 07/01/2015—06/30/2016)
Registration:    https://goo.gl/pjNKPG

This workshop is in part funded by Professional Development Grant from CLTA USA.The participants who attend the workshop in its entirety will receive 3 clock hours. No partial clock hours will be given.

Refreshments will be provided.

CLTA-WA Homepage: https://jxi.ywi.mybluehost.me/

Workshop Program:

12:30 –1:00 Registration and social time
1:00 — 3:15 Task-based Learning presentations by three speakers
3:15 — 4:00 Breakout discussion and sharing session with three presenters

Parking and Direction: http://goo.gl/nMMRth

Please park at the garage and take the elevator to the 2nd floor. The workshop will be held at Butterfly Room. You may refer to the map in the next page or by click the link above.

WAFLT Fall Conference is October 8-10, 2015 at Wenatchee Coast Hotel and Convention Center, Wenatchee.

Here it is the link to the key note speakers, workshops  and registration information:

http://waflt.net/conferences.html

Dear members and friends of CLTA-WA,

On behalf of the Board of CLTA-WA, I would like to invite you to attend our annual fall workshop, to be held on November 14, 2015 at University Puget Sound.  Professor Cynthia Ning from University of Hawaii will lecture on the topic of “Task-based Instructional Activities to Maximize Language Learning with Authentic Material and Reading Aloud“.  Dr. Ning is a distinguished scholar and educator of Chinese language and we are very honored to have her leading our workshop.

The workshop will be free to our members and for non-members, a modest fee of $20.00. You’ll be able to sign up for membership at the workshop. Our annual membership due is $30.00 and the cycle runs from July 31 to June 30 the following year.

We would like to acknowledge our co-sponsors, Confucius Institute of the State of Washington (CIWA) for its generous financial support, University of Puget Sound for providing the workshop venue and Washington Association for Language Teaching (WAFLT) for providing the clock hours.

Workshop registration: https://goo.gl/7Sruha

Please see the attachment CLTA-WA Fall Workshop 2015 Announcement for more information. Please mark the date on your calendar and spread the word.

See you at the workshop!

Best,

Cheyenne Matthewson

President, CLTA-WA

Eastside (Kirkland): Making Taiwanese Lumpia (润饼)

Coordinator: Sarah Yao
Date: Sunday, 1/31/2016
Time: 5:00pm – whenever
Location: Sarah’s house in Rose Hill, Kirkland
Activities: Networking, making Taiwanese Lumpia (润饼) and idea sharing. For those who would like to stay longer after the main activities, Sarah has planned a Taiwanese movie viewing.
Number of participants: 20

Sign-up: https://goo.gl/egNyE1

West Seattle:  Potluck

Coordinator: Meitsu Chuang-Mendel

Date: Saturday, 2/20/2016

Time: 11:00am — 4:00pm

Location: Meitsu’s house in West Seattle

Activities: Networking, idea and food sharing, walking in Lincoln Park, tea/coffee time

Number of participants: 15

Sign-up: https://goo.gl/8ph86V