Viva88

Skip to main content

From Facts to Functions - The Cultures Standards

The Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages of the Viva88Education Department presents “From Facts to Functions: the Culture Standards”.

Original webinar date: Wednesday, June 9th, 2021 - 4:00-5:00 p.m.

Webinar description: “Use the language to…” are the words that introduce Culture Standards 4 and 5 and define the relationship between language and culture embedded in the revised New York World Language State Standards. In this session, participants will become familiar with the two culture standards and the elements of each, as well as strategies for enacting the culture standards at the three proficiency checkpoints.

Webinar Facilitation Guide (Word, PDF): This facilitation guide is designed for use by a facilitator and/or participants engaged in professional learning designed around this webinar and its focus topic(s). Facilitators and/or participants may use the facilitation guide in whole or in part, all at once or spaced out over time. They may additionally customize the facilitation guide to best suit their needs by modifying, adding to, or eliminating suggested discussion questions and/or tasks. The facilitation guide begins with an overview of the webinar goals and its organization. It follows with suggestions of structured discussion questions and tasks that are organized for use before, during, and after webinar viewing and aligned to the stated webinar goals.

Webinar presenters:

Dr. Lori Langer de Ramirez began her language teaching career as a teacher of Spanish, French and ESL. She holds a Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics and a Doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently the Director of World and Classical Languages & Global Language Initiatives at the Dalton School in New York City. Lori is the author of books, texts and articles about language teaching and learning and multicultural education. She presents workshops at local, regional and national conferences and works with teachers in schools throughout the U.S. and around the world. Her website () offers free materials for teaching Chinese, English, French, and, Spanish.

Dr. Joanne O'Toole is a Professor of Modern Language Education in the Curriculum and Instruction Department at SUNY Oswego. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Viva88 World Languages Content Advisory Panel and the Principal Investigator of the NYS World Language Standards Initiative. Joanne has served in several world language leadership positions including NYSAFLT President and NECTFL Director, and is a regular presenter at national, regional, state, and local conferences. Joanne is a certified teacher of Spanish and taught Spanish for 16 years prior to entering post-secondary education.

Link to post-assessments

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 emailwithin 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 assessmentonce.

Important notes:

  1. Educators may take each version of the post assessmentonce.Credit will not be given for taking a single version of the post assessment more than once.
  2. Credit will not be given formore than one passing scoreon any of the post assessments for a webinar (listed below)in a single academic year.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Questions about this webinar or the post assessments, should be directed to Candace Black at (585) 356-0951 or at candace.black@nysed.gov.

Webinar Summary

# of attendees: 235

# of CTLE certificates issued: 181

# of certificates of attendance issued: 54

# of organizations represented by attendees:

101 districts
180 schools
9 partner organizations
7 colleges & universities

# of languages taught by attendees: 12

Quotes from Participants of this Webinar

  • "These PDs to me are like a fresh shower during the summer time. ” ~ Ivania F.
  • "This was, as always, an EX CE LLENT webinar! It was extremely informative and interesting. I will like to watch it again, to make sure I got everything. SUPER interesting! YOU ARE THE BEST! ” ~ Marisol M.W.
  • "I appreciated this very much! Loved the discovery notions … always love the creative aspects of these sessions. Thank you , as always. ” ~ Beth H.
  • "Thank you for this wonderful presentation, I have been looking for ways to engage my students. I believe presenting the material from a Cultural perspective promotes cultural awareness and self identity. ” ~ Angelica U.
  • " Unpacking the learning target seems easy now! ” ~ Paola S.

(last updated 9/4/2022)