Creating Meaningful Communicative Contexts
Presenter: Michael Travers
Original webinar date & time: Tuesday, April 8th, 2025, 4:00-5:00 pm
The Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages (OBEWL) of the New York State Education Department (NYSED) presents this next webinar in its 2025 Professional Learning Series: Creating Meaningful Communicative Contexts. This webinar is offered free of charge for world language educators and administrators working and studying in New York State educational institutions. One (1) hour of CTLE credit offered.
Webinar description: In teaching, we talk about how everything we do in our classrooms needs to have a purpose. But is that purpose to practice language or to really get our students communicating about something that interests them? In this webinar, we will look at ways to transform lessons in the 3 modes of communication into tasks that compel students to learn and communicate in the target language. We will examine ways to construct prompts and scenarios to engage our learners and also simple changes that can be made to existing lessons to provide meaningful contexts that allow our students to communicate in the target language.
Click here to download webinar flyer.
Click here to access the handouts folder from this webinar.
Click here to access the link to the recording of this webinar.
Post-assessments (Coming soon!)
To receive a certificate of completion (including a CTLE certificate), NYS educators must view the recording of the webinar (see link above) in its entirety and then answer at least seven out of ten questions correctly on the post assessment. If the minimum required score (7 out of 10) is achieved, the educator will receive a certificate via email within an hour. For the convenience of our World Language educators, there are multiple versions of the post assessment available, should the required score not be achieved on the first attempt. Educators may take each version of the post assessment once.
Important notes:
- Educators may take each version of the post assessment once. Credit will not be given for taking a single version of the post assessment more than once.
- Credit will not be given for more than one passing score on any of the post assessments for a webinar (listed below) in a single academic year.
- Educators may receive credit for viewing the webinar recording and passing a post assessment once in each academic year and are encouraged to take a different version of the post assessment on a yearly basis to review and test their knowledge of the webinar's content.
- It is the responsibility of the individual educator to keep track of the information on the professional learning they complete each year, including the number of CTLE hours.
- Questions about this webinar or the post assessments, should be directed to OBEWL at (518) 473-7505 or nysworldlanguages@gmail.com.
- Post assessment version #1
- Post assessment version #2
- Post assessment version #3
- Post assessment version #4
- Post assessment version #5
- Post assessment version #6
- Post assessment version #7
- Post assessment version #8
Webinar Summary
# of attendees: 430
# of CTLE certificates issued: 359
# of certificates of attendance issued: 71
# of organizations represented by attendees: 213
383 participants from district schools
15 participants from charter schools
12 participants from non-public schools
10 participants from colleges or universities
2 participants from a government agency
Quotes from participants
"Great session, very practical and easy to apply in the classroom." ~ Deborah D.
"This was wonderful! Can’t wait to put these examples to use." ~ Monica L.
"Amazing and motivational webinar - always love learning from this forum." ~ Elaine H.
"Thank you so much for this, it has been super helpful! I am excited to practice with this over the summer as I prepare for next year." ~ Jennifer M.
"I really appreciate how you prepare the class and how you explain. I'll be using this material very soon." ~ Josué O.
"EXCELLENT webinar, Mike!!! All your ideas have been very, very useful. These very practical ideas are exactly what educators need and ask for." ~ Marisol M.-W.
For more information on professional learning webinars for world language educators, please visit our website.
Webinar presenter: Michael Travers is a teacher at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts and has taught Spanish and French at the novice and intermediate levels. He is an active presenter at MAFLA, NECTFL, and ACTFL, and currently serves on the MAFLA Board of Directors. He is also the co-author of the recently published book Teaching For Proficiency: Teaching Grammar for Proficiency. Mike has a true passion for working with districts and teachers as they make the shift to a student-centered, proficiency-based approach in their world language programs.