Core Offerings

SAILN Core Offerings (Strands)

SAILN Strands provide 40 hours of sustained professional development, giving participants the opportunity to explore a specific topic in depth and apply their learning over time. Each strand includes four days of instruction and a culminating day featuring participant presentations and a guest speaker. The Summer Institute is offered over four consecutive days in early June, with an additional day later in the summer. while the Fall and Spring strands meet on five Saturdays, typically once a month. Participants may also earn one or two units of university credit.

Strand A guides language educators in designing a standards-aligned and proficiency-based lesson plan. The Strand follows a clear progression: the first three sessions each dive deep into one of the three modes of communication, Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational, giving participants the time to understand what authentic communication looks like in each mode, explore concrete classroom strategies and activities, and practice designing tasks appropriate to different proficiency levels. Along the way, participants also get hands-on experience with AI-powered planning tools such as Diffit, Roxxem, Brisk, and ChatGPT to support lesson planning and differentiation. The fourth session brings everything together through the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework, guiding participants in assembling their final project: a cohesive, classroom-ready lesson plan that aligns all three modes with clear learning goals and evidence of proficiency. The fifth and final session is dedicated to presentations, where participants share their completed lesson plans with the group, celebrate their growth, and leave with both a finished product and the inspiration of their peers' work. Throughout all five days, the emphasis is on practical application. Every session balances theory with hands-on work, peer feedback, and structured practice time, so participants leave not just with new knowledge but with a lesson plan and strategies ready to use in their classrooms.

This strand focuses on instructional practices that help teachers develop students’ interpretive skills through authentic texts and purposeful reading experiences. Grounded in standards and multiliteracy-based practices, participants learn to design instruction that moves learners beyond comprehension toward interpretation, analysis, critical literacy, and intercultural understanding. Topics include selecting authentic and culturally relevant resources, developing thematic text sets, designing effective before-, during-, and after-reading activities, fostering text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections, and creating proficiency-oriented assessments. Through collaborative planning and reflection, participants develop a classroom-ready interpretive reading unit that incorporates authentic resources, scaffolded learning experiences, critical literacy practices, and formative and summative assessments to support proficiency growth across face-to-face, hybrid, and online learning environments.

Strand C focuses on the effective classroom assessment of world language learners through standards-aligned, performance-based practices. Participants explore key assessment concepts and backward design through the lens of the California World Languages Standards and Framework. They will also learn how to integrate interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational tasks to create meaningful summative assessments of the students’ ability to use the target language in real-world settings. The strand also addresses authentic texts, Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs), process- and product-oriented assessment, rubrics, feedback, and standards-based grading. Throughout the strand, participants also examine how AI can serve as a design partner for developing and refining assessments, supporting feedback and grading, and creating meaningful communicative tasks, while considering its limitations and promoting ethical, purposeful AI use among students.

This strand, conducted in Spanish, equips Spanish teachers with practical strategies for differentiating instruction to meet the diverse linguistic, cultural, and academic needs of second language (L2), heritage language, and native Spanish-speaking learners. Grounded in standards and proficiency-based instruction, participants examine student profiles and proficiency levels and learn to differentiate content, learning activities, and assessments to support individual growth. Through hands-on activities, collaborative planning, and reflection, participants develop a classroom-ready differentiated lesson plan and practical strategies they can apply directly in their teaching.

The Leadership Strand supports language educators in developing the knowledge and skills to design and lead effective professional learning for SAILN and within their schools and communities. Grounded in principles of adult learning and practitioner-centered inquiry, the strand prepares participants to grow as teacher leaders, mentors, and facilitators across K–12, higher education, and community-based programs. Through interactive sessions, applied tasks, and reflection, participants learn to design purposeful and engaging professional learning, align objectives with meaningful activities, structure sessions for active participation, and respond to the needs of adult learners. Participants also explore how to connect individual sessions into a coherent sequence of professional learning that supports sustained growth and ongoing professional practice.

The Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) Strand equips educators with the knowledge and practical strategies needed to effectively support heritage language learners (HLLs) in advancing their language proficiency and developing literacy skills. Participants explore the diverse linguistic and cultural profiles of heritage learners and learn to identify their existing strengths, proficiency levels, and instructional needs. The strand examines task-based approaches to instruction, strategies for teaching formal language structures through a heritage language lens, and practices for developing reading and writing skills while building on learners’ existing oral language abilities. Participants also explore culturally responsive instructional strategies and lesson-planning approaches that leverage students’ linguistic and cultural resources while promoting continued growth across the interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational modes of communication.

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