By Jingran Wan
On August 22, 2026, CLTA-WA successfully hosted its Summer Professional Development Workshop, bringing Chinese language educators together for two inspiring sessions focused on creating meaningful, engaging, and authentic learning experiences for students.
Ms. Zhiling Hu, Mandarin Dual Language Program Teacher and Department Lead in the Bellevue School District, presented How to Make Complex Social Studies Fun? – Comprehensible Input and Engaging Activity Design in Dual Language Class. Through practical classroom examples, Ms. Hu demonstrated how teachers can use hooks to build connections, annotation to deepen reading comprehension, and authentic tasks to encourage meaningful language output. Her examples showed how even challenging Social Studies content can become accessible, relevant, and engaging when students are given the right scaffolds and opportunities to create.
In the second session, Ms. Lusi Hong, Mandarin Dual Language TOSA in the Issaquah School District and CLTA-WA Vice President, shared Enhance Language Learning Opportunities at Middle School – Language Exchange Program. Using Westside School as an example, she introduced a thoughtful progression from building students’ technology and communication skills to developing meaningful partnerships with students in Taiwan. Her presentation reminded us that some of the most powerful language learning happens when students have a real audience, a real purpose, and a genuine reason to communicate.
The workshop concluded with an engaging Q&A, during which participants raised thoughtful questions about curriculum design, annotation, technology tools, language exchange, time differences, and simplified and traditional Chinese characters. The lively discussion reflected our educators’ shared commitment to continually improving learning opportunities for students.
We sincerely thank Ms. Hu and Ms. Hong for generously sharing their expertise, classroom practices, and resources, and we thank all participants for spending part of their summer learning together.
This workshop reminded us that effective language teaching is not simply about teaching vocabulary and grammar—it is about helping students connect, think, create, and communicate through language. We look forward to carrying these ideas into our classrooms and continuing to learn from and inspire one another throughout the new school year.
The workshop was well organized and offered a strong balance between practical classroom strategies and broader program ideas. Both presenters shared authentic examples, student work, and resources that teachers could adapt to their own classrooms. The two topics also complemented each other well—one focused on engaging students within the classroom, while the other explored how to extend language learning beyond the classroom through meaningful exchanges.
The Q&A session was another strength. Participants asked many practical questions about annotation, curriculum pacing, technology, language exchange, and simplified and traditional Chinese characters, showing strong engagement and interest in applying the ideas to their own teaching.