Institutional and Group Workshops

These workshops can be scheduled by institutions or groups of individuals

On this page:

ACTFL offers institutions and groups a variety of workshops catered to language educators at all levels. These workshops are grounded on a foundation of proficiency and standards-based teaching practices, all targeted toward providing educators with the tools to guide their learners to the next level. We are always working on launching new workshops covering a wide range of topics – be sure to refer back to this page for updates!

“The workshop has influenced me to reflect on my teaching style and strategies to a great extent. I envision to implement a paradigm shift in my classroom. I would increase the use of authentic materials in class and speak more in the TL.”
Emi Home
Chicago Public Schools

“I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was able to apply what I learned immediately.”
Christy Williams
ReDefiners World Languages

“The workshop was great! The pace was perfect and didn’t seem as if I was being lectured to. The presentation was interactive and provided opportunities to implement and think through how they could be applied in our own classrooms.”
Leonor Salas
High School Spanish Teacher, Chicago Public Schools

Requesting a Workshop:

Before submitting your workshop request to ACTFL, it’s important to review all of our offerings to ensure that you identify the most appropriate workshop for your institution’s context. You’re ready to submit a request if you know:

The title for the specific workshop you wish to arrange (see options below)
The dates that you have available to schedule PD
Who your participants are or have a plan to recruit them
Your budget and/or administrative process for funding approval

Submit Request

Check out our latest half-day workshops!

Perfect for grounding your teachers with critical ACTFL principles and publications, convenient for virtual delivery and limited PD scheduling availability!

Workshops Available By Request

Click on a workshop title to expand it for details and complete descriptions.

What is proficiency and how can I focus my instruction on helping my learners continuously develop and strengthen their proficiency? Examine the characteristics of the major levels of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and identify what changes as learners move through the Low, Mid, and High sublevels across the Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced ranges of proficiency. Apply that understanding to analyze and adjust classroom tasks to guide learners to demonstrate the targeted level of proficiency.

Maximum Participants: 30
Language of Delivery: English

Please see our detailed agenda here.

Hours: 3.5 (including 15 min break)
Delivery Options:
1. Synchronous on Zoom
2. In-Person
Request this workshop.
The World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages provide the framework for designing curriculum, planning instruction, and guiding learners. Standards put the focus for language programs on what learners should know and be able to do (and how well). Experience the process for using the standards to develop a unit of instruction. Reflect on how these standards can help develop “world-ready” learners.

Maximum Participants: 30
Language of Delivery: English

Please see our detailed agenda here:

Hours: 3.5 (including 15 min break)
Delivery Options:
1. Synchronous on Zoom
2. In-Person
Request this workshop.
Foundations of the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements

The NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements capture the key elements of proficiency to guide educators as they design tasks for learning or assessing language performance and to guide learners as they monitor their progress along the proficiency continuum. Unwrap the components of the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements and discover how they are connected, linking language and culture. Identify specific strategies to help learners develop and apply what they need to raise their language performance to a higher level. Support your learners by focusing on what they can do!

Maximum Participants: 30
Language of Delivery: English

Please see our detailed agenda here:

Hours: 3.5 (including 15 min break)
Delivery Options:
1. Synchronous on Zoom
2. In-Person
Request this workshop.
What really counts to move along the proficiency continuum (from Novice, to Intermediate, and towards the Advanced level of proficiency)? What strategies are effective for developing proficiency using each Mode of Communication? Through the lens of the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements, unpack the elements of proficiency and what they mean for planning effective tasks. Experience and analyze a variety of examples from one sample unit of instruction. Identify one class you are teaching and use that as a lens through which to apply your learning. Guide your learners to develop the language functions and confidence to move to higher levels of proficiency.

Maximum Participants: 30
Language of Delivery: English
Please see our detailed agenda here.

Delivery Options:
1. Synchronous on Zoom
  Can be scheduled as one day or split over two days
  Hours: 7.5 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
2. In-Person
  Scheduled as one-day/full-day workshop
  Hours: 7.5 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
Request this workshop.
Begin by developing a shared understanding of what language proficiency is across levels and how to support learners’ progress towards proficiency goals. Develop a toolbox of strategies to design purposeful units and performance tasks in the three modes of communication (Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational) and identify day-to-day learning activities that support language goals. Apply the principles of backward design and the use of authentic resources to effectively plan meaningful learning experiences in the target language. Explore the assessment of language skills in each mode of communication as well as strategies for involving learners in self-assessment for ongoing proficiency growth.

Maximum Participants: 30
Language of Delivery: English
Please see our detailed agenda here.

Delivery Options:
1. Synchronous on Zoom
  Can be scheduled as one day or split over two days
  Hours: 7.5 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
2. In-Person
  Scheduled as one-day/full-day workshop
  Hours: 7.5 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
Request this workshop.
This workshop is an introduction to the AAPPL. The AAPPL is a web-based proficiency and performance assessment of K-12 standards-based language learning. It assesses tasks across the three modes of communication as defined by the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. Participants will learn the traits of learners at Novice, Intermediate, or Advanced as well as strategies for moving students along the proficiency continuum. Additionally, participants will work together to develop a student-friendly rubric (K-12) and prompts appropriate for each proficiency level.

Maximum Participants: 30
Language of Delivery: English
Please see our detailed agenda here.

Delivery Options:
1. Synchronous on Zoom
  Can be scheduled as one day or split over two days
  Hours: 8 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
2. In-Person
  Scheduled as one-day/full-day workshop
  Hours: 8 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
Request this workshop.
This workshop familiarizes participants with the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, ACTFL Rating Scale, and the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). The OPI is a valid and reliable means of assessing how well a person speaks a language. This workshop includes presentations by ACTFL staff or facilitators, examples of ACTFL OPIs conducted by our certified testers, as well as activities that will solidify your understanding of each major proficiency level.

Note: Participants who complete this workshop are not eligible to apply for Limited (Novice Low – Intermediate High) or Full (Novice Low – Superior) OPI Tester Certification. This workshop is appropriate for language educators who do not wish to pursue OPI Tester Certification.

Maximum Participants: 30
Language of Delivery: English
Please see our detailed agenda here (this applies only to synchronous and in-person deliveries).

Delivery Options:
1. Synchronous on Zoom (conducted fully by facilitator)
  Can be scheduled as one day or split over two days
  Hours: 8.5 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
2. Asynchronous via on-demand modules (no facilitator)
  Course can be open for up to one month maximum
  Hours: 12 (estimated for completion of modules)
3. Hybrid (on-demand modules and two 1.5 hour Zoom discussion sessions with facilitator)
  Course can be open for up to one month maximum
  Hours: 15 (estimated for completion of modules and discussion sessions)
4. In-Person
  Scheduled as one-day/full-day workshop
  Hours: 8.5 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
Request this workshop.
ACTFL offers institutions and groups of individuals the opportunity to host an ACTFL workshop intended as the first step toward OPI Tester Certification. These intensive, multi-day OPI and Modified OPI Assessment Workshops are conducted in several delivery formats to meet the needs of institutions in a variety of contexts. For complete details, agenda, delivery options, or to determine which course is right for you. Please visit Certification Workshops.
Intended as an introduction to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 – Writing, this workshop introduces participants to the major and minor level descriptors and the criteria for assigning a global writing proficiency rating. Participants explore a variety of writing tasks across levels of proficiency, evaluate language samples based on the criteria as described in the guidelines, and design appropriate writing activities and writing assessment prompts at the four major levels.

Maximum Participants: 30
Language of Delivery: English
Please see our detailed agenda here.

Delivery Options:
1. Synchronous on Zoom
  Can be scheduled as one day or split over two days
  Hours: 7 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
2. In-Person
  Scheduled as one-day/full-day workshop
  Hours: 7 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
Request this workshop.
This workshop focuses on how to approach grammar from a functional, proficiency-oriented perspective. After exploring a framework for addressing grammar functionally, participants will be guided through hands-on activities to evaluate their existing materials, rethink the treatment of grammar inside individual courses and across the curriculum, and design activities intended to help students acquire grammatical structures at various levels of proficiency.

Maximum Participants: 30
Language of Delivery: English
Please see our detailed agenda here.

Options:
1. Synchronous on Zoom
  Can be scheduled as one day or split over two days
  Hours: 8 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
2. In-Person
  Scheduled as one-day/full-day workshop
  Hours: 8 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
Request this workshop.
This workshop provides an overview of the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Rating Scale and a description of the functions, contexts/content areas, discourse type and accuracy features appropriate to each level. Participants discuss the curricular implications of the proficiency scale and explore strategies and activities that enable students to cross proficiency level borders (i.e., Intermediate to Advanced, Advanced to Superior).

Maximum Participants: 30
Language of Delivery: English
Please see our detailed agenda here.

Delivery Options:
1. Synchronous on Zoom
  Can be scheduled as one day or split over two days
  Hours: 7 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
2. In-Person
  Scheduled as one-day/full-day workshop
  Hours: 7 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
Request this workshop.
Integrating Skills and Modes for Curriculum Design

This workshop focuses on how to build a curriculum that is designed to keep students making steady progress in terms of overall proficiency. ACTFL facilitators will focus the workshop on achieving Intermediate, Advanced, or Superior levels of proficiency in various skills (Speaking, Writing, Reading and Listening) and modes (Interpersonal, Presentational, Interpretive) depending on the needs and aims of your program, faculty and students.

Maximum Participants: 30
Language of Delivery: English
Please see our detailed agenda here.

Delivery Options:
1. Synchronous on Zoom
  Can be scheduled as one day or split over two days
  Hours: 7 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
2. In-Person
  Scheduled as one-day/full-day workshop
  Hours: 7 (including 1.5 hours of breaks)
Request this workshop.

Not ready to make a request and have questions?

Submit Your Inquiry!

Resources by Topic

Free Public Education Resources

Multilingual Testimonials

Institutional and Group Workshops

Requesting a Workshop:

Check out our latest half-day workshops!

Workshops Available By Request

Not ready to make a request and have questions?