Workshop and Staff Development Offerings

Professional Development | Teacher Training | Workshop Offerings | Consulting | Site Visits and Department Reviews
for World Languages, ESL/EAL/EFL, and Multicultural Education

Dr. Lori Langer de Ramirez
email: lori@miscositas.com | Lori's curriculum vita | books by Lori


Training novice monks in Thailand; Curriculum and materials development for English teaching	Lecturing graduate students at Teachers College, Columbia University	Presenting a technology workshop for FLES language teachers in New York City

Below is a shortened list of professional development and consulting topics.
For a workshop tailored to your school's particular needs, please contact Lori directly.

Assorted workshops

Tell Me a Story - Folktales, Fables, and Stories in ESL and World Language Teaching

In this workshop, participants will be exposed to techniques for incorporating folktales, fables and stories into the language curriculum. A brief rationale for the use of stories will be presented, as well as activities, lessons and thematic unit ideas. Participants develop a story and an accompanying activity for their own classroom.

Teaching Reading in the ESL and Language Classroom

This presentation will demonstrate a web-based resource with virtual picture books in English and other languages. Integration of this resource into the language curriculum and pre-reading and post-reading activities will also be discussed.

Thematic Units - Development and Use for ESL and World Language Educators

Teachers will be exposed to a rationale for using content-based thematic units with language learners. After viewing and evaluating several teacher-created thematic units, teachers will design a lesson template for creation of their own materials.

Identity and Multiculturalism - Creating Diversity Awareness

Participants explore issues surrounding diversity, identity and multicultural education. Through a series of activities, film clips and short readings, participants will have the opportunity to become more aware of the complexities and layers of a diverse society.

Products, Practices and Perspectives - Culture in the Language Classroom

In this workshop, participants explore dimensions of culture - products, practices and perspectives - as they apply to the teaching of languages. Participants will discuss the dimensions of culture and brainstorm cultural activities for their own classes.

Turn It Up! - Music in the Language Classroom

A rationale for the use of music in the language classroom will be presented. Participants have the opportunity to hear songs a variety of languages and to explore ways to incorporate music into the teaching of language. Sample grammar and vocabulary-based activities will be shared.

Virtually There - Planning, Designing and Taking a Fantasy Trip in the Language Classroom
Teachers will discover the potential of fantasy trips for incorporating language, culture and content into the language classroom. A sample fantasy trip will be shared as well as resources and lesson plans for the development new virtual trips tailored to the needs of the participants.

Consulting topics / issues

Departmental needs assessment - determine the efficacy of your department's language program
Curriculum mapping - develop an articulated curriculum map for your program across grades
FLES for Success - advocate, design, start and maintain elementary foreign language programs
Thematic and target language teaching - support teachers to use the L2 consistently in the classroom
Technology infusion - connect language programs to web-based resources, digital language labs, iPods
East meets West - help teachers of Chinese and other LCTLs to work effectively with western students
ELLs in Crisis - improve the sucess of your ESL program, emphasis on academic reading and writing

What people are saying...

"Lori Langer de Ramirez is one of the few outstanding educators who can apply thoughtful and innovative pedagogical concepts to educational technologies in a way that results in highly practical, student-centered applications. Her work with students and the web not only demonstrate her dedication as an educator but also a playful use of technology for teaching and learning purposes. The way she was able to turn students into web publishers shows a thorough understanding of web design and publishing concepts on the one hand and solid teaching experience on a variety of levels on the other. Her dedication as educator is apparent in both her teaching and her work with technology."

-- Dr. Kurt Fendt, Research Associate in Foreign Languages and Literatures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"Lori is one of the most gifted persons I have worked with during my thirty years at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has a superb instinct for gathering ancient stories from around the world and then retelling and illustrating them so that they come alive in the classroom. She is especially skilled at presenting stories in a digital format - her sense of design and color are magical on the screen. Added to these research and artistic skills is her capacity to work creatively with teachers. Over the years at Teachers College, she has been a warm and caring mentor to many teachers, inspiring them to be more innovative in curriculum design and teaching methods."

-- Dr. Clifford Hill, Arthur I. Gates Professor of Language and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

"Looking for multicultural stories to use in the ESL classroom? Dr. Lori Langer de Ramírez provides fantastic thematic curriculum units that integrate language, culture, and content. From teaching strategies to using technology, her dynamic staff development workshops are hands-on and interactive and give teachers experience writing and teaching through thematic units."

--Dr. Mari Haas, Options for Language Education, Santa Fe, New Mexico