AP World Language and Culture Interactive Online Modules

Narrated by AP Spanish Language and Culture teacher Ken Stewart, this module explores strategies for aligning and articulating all levels of instruction to build an effective and cohesive world language program, including: designing essential questions; spiraling language skill development and content across levels; setting appropriate proficiency targets; planning instruction that will lead to enhanced student performance; how to succeed on the AP world language and culture exams.

(~ 40 min)

Narrated by world language and culture educator and curriculum coordinator Greta Lundgaard, this module explores strategies to help you set learning targets and use formative assessments to give students feedback. Topics include: the importance of learning targets, how to develop and apply them, and how to connect learning targets to formative assessments; why formative assessment is important to both teachers and learners; how to tell students about their progress towards learning targets and empower them to own their learning; how to make consistent progress moving students along the proficiency continuum; the benefits of descriptive feedback in teaching and learning.

(~ 60 min)

Narrated by AP Japanese Language and Culture teacher Yo Azama, this module explores strategies for motivating and engaging students in their world language and culture courses, including: helping students persist and stay motivated when facing challenges or setbacks throughout their language learning experiences; exploring the concept of students' mindsets and how mindsets can affect motivation; a variety of ways to extrinsically motivate and engage students; tapping into students' abilities to motivate themselves.

(~ 40 min)

Narrated by AP Spanish Language and Culture teacher Clarissa Adams-Fletcher, this module explores strategies for developing students' abilities in interpersonal speaking communication, including: evaluating, selecting, or designing appropriate activities with accompanying print and audio resources; developing students' confidence and skills in producing spontaneous speech; incorporating a variety of speaking tasks throughout students' course of study to build skills for success in AP; increasing proficiency by providing appropriate scaffolding and support when needed; applying rubrics and using peer evaluations to measure performance and give meaningful feedback.

(~ 40 min)

Narrated by Mandarin language educator Nyan-Ping Bi, this module explores strategies for developing students' abilities in interpersonal written communication, including: using themes as a foundation for writing; selecting and using authentic print and audio materials; having students collaborate to produce stronger written work; integrating cohesive devices and transitions to enhance a final written product.

(~ 40 min)

Narrated by AP German Language and Culture teacher Angelika Becker, this module explores strategies for developing students' abilities in presentational speaking, including: designing and selecting level and age appropriate activities for presentational speaking and presentational writing; incorporating a variety of presentational speaking activities throughout students' courses of study to build skills for success in AP; scaffolding activities to help students learn; diagnosing and measuring students' progress as defined by the ACTFL Performance Guidelines; applying rubrics to measure performance and give meaningful feedback.

(~ 40 min)

Narrated by Italian language educator Federica Santini, this module explores strategies for developing students' abilities in presentational writing, including: connecting the requirements for presentational writing in each AP world language and culture exam to best practices for teaching presentational writing; reflecting on students' engagement and direct involvement in class writing activities; analyzing different resources to enhance presentational writing skills; integrating creative and collaborative writing in the classroom.

(~ 40 min)

Narrated by AP Spanish Language and Culture teacher Ann Mar, this module explores strategies for increasing students' abilities to develop written arguments beginning with the earliest encounters with the target language. Topics include: explaining the rhetorical underpinnings of effective argumentation (pathos, ethos, and logos); incorporating close reading and listening strategies to enable students to effectively engage with sources; integrating strategies for teaching effective argumentation (such as crafting strong claims, citing relevant and thorough textual evidence, helping students to effectively incorporate their own viewpoint in written arguments, considering audience and purpose); building students' academic vocabulary and their ability to organize arguments through effective use of cohesive devices.

(~ 40 min)

Narrated by AP French Language and Culture teacher Ed Weiss, this module explores strategies for: identifying the types of listening materials best suited for student interaction aligning listening materials to assessments that require students to infer, as well as select main ideas; using a model audio resource; scaffolding resources for various language levels.

(~ 40 min)

Narrated by AP Spanish Language and Culture teacher Lou Baskinger, this module explores strategies for: evaluating and selecting appropriate print and visual authentic resources; integrating authentic text resources throughout a student's course of study; supporting student learning by integrating activities that occur before, during, and after reading; increasing student proficiency in reading by going beyond comprehension questions.

(~ 40 min)

Narrated in Spanish by AP Spanish Literature and Culture teacher Ceida Fernández Figueroa, this module explores strategies that enhance students’ abilities to read critically and analyze literature effectively. The presenter demonstrates how the use of close reading techniques (activating students’ prior knowledge before reading, engaging actively with a text through questions, selecting and annotating textual evidence) develops a deeper understanding of a text, allows students to identify appropriate evidence to support their analysis, and will provide them with skills needed for success on the AP Spanish Literature and Culture Exam. Sample literary texts are drawn from the required reading list and some sample exam tasks are provided.

(~40 min)

Narrated by AP Latin teacher Dawn LaFon, this module explores strategies for developing students' Latin literacy and analytical writing throughout their courses of study, including: helping students acquire, retain, and use vocabulary over time; evaluating and selecting appropriate reading resources for all levels of Latin instruction; preparing students to engage with sight-reading passages and required readings for AP Latin; increasing students' reading proficiency by focusing on the comprehension, translation, and analysis of Latin texts; developing students' skills in writing effective essays that analyze Latin texts.

(~ 40 min)