World Languages, encompassing Spanish, French, and German, are a popular and significant component to American education. Yet languages face similar challenges of other content areas when it comes to transitioning from high school to higher education - including as it relates to students take dual or concurrent enrollment courses. These events are coordinated by the Wyoming School-University Partnership and funded by support from the Qwest Foundation.
Past Events
2012 World Languages Institute
Held April 12, 2012 in Casper, Wyoming.
Number of participants: 37
15 K-12 educators
7 University of Wyoming educators
10 community college educators
5 other
Conference focus: Deepening the secondary to postsecondary horizontal and vertical articulation
Conference materials:
Agenda
Advising flow chart
2010 World Languages Institute
Held April 18-19, 2010 in Casper, Wyoming
Number of participants: 35
18 K-12 educators
5 community college educators
11 University of Wyoming educators
1 state education organization
Conference focus: general transition challenges, examining student work, discussing 1010 language learning expectations
Conference materials:
Conference agenda
Scoring guide for student samples
Conference evaluation responses
World Languages Work Group
Over the summer, a small work group met for a series of conference calls to develop recommendations for common learning expectations for French, German, and Spanish 1010 and a statewide placement process.
This work is an outgrowth of the April 18-19, 2010 statewide World Languages Institute hosted by the Partnership and supported with funds from the Qwest Foundation. At that meeting, those in attendance agreed that one way to move forward as a state would be to share common expectations for the three major languages' 1010 courses and agree, in principle, to placement procedures for admittance to college and university level work. The 1010 course seemed to be an important starting point as faculty at the high school, community college, and university levels teach the course, with dual and concurrent enrollment options available to most Wyoming high school students.
The group participated in the Wyoming Foreign Language Teacher Association's annual conference, October 22, 2010 in Casper, to present the three draft 1010 learning expectation documents and request feedback and buy-in from the group. The support from the group was overwhelmingly positive. See below for the draft documents, survey letter explaining the project and process, and survey results.
Spanish 1010 Learning Expectation Draft
French 1010 Learning Expectation Draft
German 1010 Learning Expectation Draft
Survey letter
Survey results
The group is continuing to meet to discuss statewide placement processes as well as Spanish, French, and German 1020 learning expectations.
Members of the continued work group include (October 2010-present):
Juan Antonion Bernabeu, Laramie County Community College;
Leslie Boaz, Wheatland High School (Platte #1);
Diane Chamberlain, Laramie High School (Albany #1);
MaryEllen Ibarra-Robinson, Northwest Community College;
Carol Kirkwood, Laramie High School (Albany #1);
Brandee Mau, Gillette High School (Campbell #1);
Kevin Larsen, University of Wyoming;
Mark Pearson, University of Wyoming;
Scott Underbrink, Natrona County High School (Natrona #1).
Members of the summer work group include (April-September 2010):
Leslie Boaz, Wheatland High School (Platte #1);
Diane Chamberlain and Carol Kirkwood, Laramie High School (Albany #1);
MaryEllen Ibarra-Robinson, Northwest Community College;
Brandee Mau, Gillette High School (Campbell #1);
Kevin Larsen and Duane Rhoades, University of Wyoming;
Scott Underbrink, Natrona County High School (Natrona #1).
