Extension
Workshop Program to Address
The
“Twin” Engines of Standards-Based Reform:
Instruction and Assessment as the “Thrust” behind the Learning.
Judith
Fowlkes, 2003 CW/EW Chairperson
The Central States Conference Extension Workshop (EW) Program is the
oldest foreign language outreach program in the country. Since
its inception in 1982 some 15,000 persons have participated in one of the
workshops generated by the program.
This year’s speakers are Deborah Wilburn Robinson, from the Ohio
Department of Education, and Laura Terrill, from the Parkway School District in
St. Louis, Missouri. Deborah’s
topic is “Front-End Alignment for Back-End Comfort:
Test What You Teach in the Way It Was Taught.”
Laura’s is “Rev up Your Rubrics, Ratings, and Real-Life Tasks:
Teaching to the Test!”
Each year some twenty-five participants are selected to attend the
Conference Workshop (CW) during the annual meeting of Central States, where they
receive information and materials about recent trends in foreign language
teaching. Participants are then
asked to conduct a similar Extension Workshop (EW) in their local area in order
to bring the Conference and its new ideas to a greater number of teachers.
Annually, hundreds of foreign language educators benefit from these new
theories and techniques, presented in workshops throughout the Central States
Conference region.
The CW is the training session during which participants learn to conduct
their own workshops. Participants receive a set of materials from each of the
presenters, giving them the content information that they can copy for their own
EWs. They also receive guidelines
and ideas for organizing, publicizing, and presenting a workshop.
The emphasis in the CW is on the practical application of new ideas for
the classroom. At the end of the
six-hour CW, participants are ready to conduct one or more EWs for foreign
language educators in their own state. They
can adjust the format, time frame, and material selection to their needs.
The topics for the CW/EW Program vary from year to year but always
reflect current trends in foreign language instruction.
The speakers are considered specialists in the topic of the CW.
Often they are former participants in the EW Program.
The ultimate goal of the CW/EW Program is to improve the quality of
foreign language instruction by providing up-to-date information to teachers
unable to attend the Central States Conference.
Participants in the program cite other benefits as well.
The CW/EW program offers participants the opportunity to learn how to
organize and present a workshop, to meet other foreign language educators
throughout the CSC region, to strengthen ties with teachers in their local area,
and to serve as resource people in their foreign language community.
People wishing to apply for the 2003 CW/EW Program must complete a one-page proposal form describing their plans to conduct their own EWs. Selection will be based on the following criteria:
a) ideas with regard to workshop format, support, and publicity;
b) ideas for attracting teachers who do not regularly attend foreign
language
conferences and/or workshops;
c) geographic distribution and local impact.
For further information and a proposal form, send in the request form below or
DEADLINE
FOR COMPLETED PROPOSALS: January
15, 2003
Selected participants will be notified by January 31. After participants have completed the CW, have given their own EW, and have filed a brief report, they will receive a small honorarium.