STARTALK Summer 2014 – Become an Effective Online Language Teacher

This STARTALK program is designed for K-16 world language instructors who have prior knowledge and experiences related to blended/online teaching. The program emphasizes the STARTALK TELL Alignment (STELLA), an evolving framework to increase Teacher Effectiveness in Language Learning (TELL). It is particularly valuable to integrate the teaching strategies, self-assessments, and tools available in STELLA within blended/online teaching contexts, to increase the quality of instructional content, student assessments, and connected engagement. This training will enable participants to design more effective blended/online experiences for students.

In order to “sustain” blended/online language instruction, our training program focuses on two domains under the TELL Advance Student Learning heading: The Learning Experience, and Performance and Feedback. A number of TELL concepts and tools will be incorporated in our training, providing a framework for teachers to structure and evaluate their online teaching as a part of their ongoing professional growth. We believe strengthening trainees’ self-awareness and development in these TELL areas is a valuable step in fostering highly effective and capable online language educators.

This innovative workshop is delivered entirely online. It involves asynchronous work (self-paced tasks) as well as some synchronous interactions (live, coordinated) with instructors and peers. There is no face-to-face meeting or residential component requiring travel. You can participate from the comfort of your home or office, provided you are highly motivated, set aside the required time to stay on schedule, have the necessary computer hardware and accessories, and have the needed degree of technology/computing skills. All training is provided in English, but tasks and lesson design activities will address the languages participants teach.