Join us for the 2026 VOCALE Spring Conference at Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, VT on Friday, April 10th, 2026. Registration/check-in begins at 8:15am.

This year's theme is Beyond the Page: Novel ideas for reading in the classroom. 

We are excited to welcome our key note speaker, Cécile Lainé! Cécile is a student-centered and equity-minded French educator with over 17 years of experience across K–12. She specializes in teaching for proficiency and intercultural competence through storytelling, personalized instruction, and comprehension-based strategies. As the author of several language-learner books and co-author of the monthly publication, Le Petit Journal Francophone, she provides accessible and engaging content for learners worldwide. Beyond the classroom, Cécile is deeply committed to supporting, mentoring, and collaborating with World Language teachers, while continuing her own learning journey.

Cécile will kick off the day with her keynote, Beyond the Page: Could Reading Save the Human Race?, exploring how reading shapes students’ sense of self and their understanding of others, inspired by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s “windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors.”

She will also lead two practical, classroom-ready workshops:

• Teachers as Librarians: Establishing a Free Reading Program — Learn how to build an inclusive classroom library, support emerging literacy, and spark a lifelong love of reading.

• Reading Our First Class Novel: Centering Student Choice and Voice — A clear, step-by-step approach to successfully implementing a whole-class novel with novice learners while maximizing engagement, comprehension, and retention.

Afternoon Session Descriptions

Session 1 & 2

Reading Our First Class Novel - Centering Student Voice and Choice

Cécile Lainé 

Teaching a first class novel to novice students can feel daunting. This session will explore a simple yet powerful approach to implementing class novels in ways that center student voice and choice while supporting comprehension, engagement, and retention.

What Felix the Cat Can Teach Us About Teaching Languages to Elementary Students- Alana Considine 

Felix the cat teaches us several ways to survive and thrive as elementary language teachers. From his catchy theme song to his bag of tricks, to his flexibility, there's lots for us to learn. We'll have time to swap ideas and lessons learned. I will create a Padlet for the session where participants can share their ideas and access mine.

Personalized assessment: Your students are your best content

Emily Smith 

Want to look forward to scoring your students’ assessments? Explore strategies that center students’ identities, experiences, and opinions to promote meaningful communication and build class community. Participants will gain assessment templates to adapt for their own classes and see strategies for building students’ communicative skills. Activities discussed will include Card Talk, Picture Talk, Write and Discuss, Listen and Draw, Storyasking, and Clip Chat.

Swap Shop 1 

Taylor Chase, VOCALE

A perennial favorite in the past, we invite all World Language teachers to come to this session to be enriched with new ideas. Bring one of your favorite units/activities/games/you name it, where we will break into small groups to share our favorite ideas. There will be a padlet for all participants to upload their resource to have access to after the session.

Zumba, Snacks, and Networking! Please check out our exhibitors:

Notch Above Tours

Middlebury College

Gogi Abroad

NECTFL (Northeast Conference of Teachers of Foreign Languages

Session 2

Camino de Santiago for Spanish Educators & Classrooms

Jennifer Luck & Colleen Birner

This workshop is specifically designed for Spanish teachers who wish to walk part of the Camino de Santiago in Spain as a language and cultural immersion experience and bring their journey to life in their classrooms. Presenter Jen Luck offers a 3-credit course through Center for Schools (VT State University) that allows educators to customize their Camino (start/end date, duration, route, etc.) and supports them in relevant coursework to bring that experience back into their classroom.  If you've ever considered walking the Camino as a professional development opportunity (that your district should support with tuition reimbursement) to be immersed in language and culture AND connect it back to your classroom, this session will get you on a path to do it!

Teaching a Story from Start to Finish: What It Actually Looks Like

Melanie Tupaj

We teachers want to use magazine articles, short stories, novels, and other texts in class to engage our students and build proficiency. But how do we actually do this with a whole class? What does it look like? In this workshop, Melanie will share one way she has used a story in class with her students and walk you through the entire process from start to finish. Attendees will observe recordings from her classroom that show the steps she follows. They will be able to see in action the activities that she used to read, reread, and review the story with her students. There will be time to try out some of the ideas shared in a small group and opportunity to ask questions. You will leave with a framework to use for a short story and practical ideas for how to transfer that framework to other materials. 

Swap Shop 2

Erin Welch, VOCALE

A perennial favorite in the past, we invite all World Language teachers to come to this session to be enriched with new ideas. Bring one of your favorite units/activities/games/you name it, where we will break into small groups to share our favorite ideas. There will be a Padlet for all participants to upload their resource to have access to after the session.