2011 Chapter Reports Midwest Region - American Association of ...

Overall we had a very successful year, and we look forward to a great 2012!
Submitted by: Karen Calvert, Chapter President
016 Southern Illinois
The Southern Illinois Chapter held its annual spring meeting on Saturday, April 2, 2011 at Illinois
State University in Bloomington‐Normal, Illinois. The business meeting was followed by an
exciting afternoon program on the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview. Prof. Karl Otto (University
of Pennsylvania, Emeritus) led an informative question‐and‐answer session devoted to the OPI.
Chapter members Christiane Eydt‐Beebe (Eastern Illinois University) and Cori Crane (University
of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign) followed with short presentations on preparing students for
reaching advanced levels of oral proficiency.
In fall, several AATG members from Central and Southern Illinois took part in state and national
foreign language teaching conferences. For the Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages (ICTFL) held in Tinley Park on October 22, 2011, chapter member Eric Koeppel
(Springfield High School) helped to organize sessions on German language teaching and led a
hands‐on workshop on developing critical thinking skills in FL high school instruction. Christiane
Eydt‐Beebe organized a roundtable discussion on new NCATE requirements for FL teacher
candidates concerning the OPI, involving fellow chapter members Cori Crane and Belinda
Carsten‐Wickham (Southern Illinois University) as respondents. Also presenting at ICTFL were
Cori Crane and Jackie Sterling (University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign) with their talk on
teaching emotional language in the FL classroom.
The very popular biannual “Deutscher Tag” took place on November 5, 2011 in Springfield, IL.
The event, which was organized by Vicki Oldani, Eric Koeppel, and Torsten Schweickart, was
another big success with fun activities organized for high school learners of German including a
Kaffeeklatsch, games, songs, dances, crafts and a dinner. The event was co‐sponsored by
Springfield Southeast High School, Springfield High School, Lanphier High School, and DANK.
Our annual spring meeting is scheduled to take place April 28, 2012 in Urbana‐Champaign. The
afternoon program will consist of a hands‐on workshop on the Common European Framework
of Reference with Dr. Dagmar Schalliol from Langenscheidt Educational Services serving as
presenter.
Submitted by Cori Crane, Chapter President
019 Kansas
• Revamping the culture quiz for the Schülerkongress into a team effort in the form of an
awesome power point presentation (that we could share with other chapters....)
refining it this year and putting it into use in 2012 with great input from Anke Wells and
others.
• Implementing a video contest for Schülerkongress (the details of which we could share
with other chapters...)