We know these students! They are the ones who have discovered the joy of communicating with others in the language(s) they are learning. They may report that they had a meaningful conversation with a customer or co-worker at their part-time job, or that they communicated with someone from another country as they competed in an on-line interactive game. They may have had a conversation with a grandparent in their first language, or used their language skills on a family vacation. They are discovering that their emerging language proficiency is playing a role in shaping their personal success or dreams for their futures.
The student series, “Ask Away: Questions.” from ACTFL is now more than 70 profiles strong and growing. This weekly series interviews a K-16 student, educator, or counselor about how language skills have contributed to personal or professional growth. Sharing this resource with your students and other stakeholders will broaden understanding of the benefits of language learning and intercultural communication.
Following this example, we are beginning a new feature in the EVoice that will make it possible for us to highlight stories of our Wisconsin students in their own words. Brian Wopat, our current WAFLT Teacher of the Year, has already developed a showcase for his students in Onalaska by featuring “Leading with Languages in Wisconsin” by displaying former student’s profiles outside the World Language classrooms.
Brian has developed resources and documents that make it simple for you to submit your students’ stories to the WAFLT EVoice. The short time it will take to complete the documents will pay immeasurable advocacy benefits for your program and for learning languages in general.
Let’s get to know our outstanding Wisconsin language learners!
Just follow these easy steps:
Share this Google Form with students who are exemplary language learners in your school.
Once the student had filled out the form, we will send the parent/guardian permission slip using Google forms. Once we receive permission from the parent/guardian, we will create the student’s profile for publication.
As an incentive to kick off this series, we are offering a notepad of “Great Thoughts for a Day” for 365 days with quotes to inspire you all year long to the first THREE teachers who share their student’s stories with the EVoice.
