Welcome to your Color Vowel Journey.
Color Vowel® started its own journey twenty years ago as this thing we called the Color Vowel Chart. In 2010, we formally started training teachers in a powerful set of instructional strategies known today as the Color Vowel Approach.
We are proud to provide you with the Color Vowel® Journey for Teachers, a comprehensive training program that promotes life long learning and curiosity around the topics of effective teaching, phonological awareness, brain-based learning strategies, and the English language itself.
Where along the Journey are you?
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Are you new to teaching with Color Vowel?
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Our Level 1 program provides you with a foundation for teaching English that has been missing from our field: a simple yet robust way to teach the rhythm and sounds of English. Combining the content of Color Vowel Basics with practical explorations of our mobile app, Blue Canoe, and a video-based technique practicum, our Level 1: Color Vowel Basics Online course satisfies all three requirements of the Level 1 certificate.
Our Level 2 program guides you through a deeper exploration of concepts introduced in Color Vowel Basics, and invites you to apply Color Vowel in settings relevant to your own teaching context. Level 2 involves completing three prescribed Core workshops, three Elective workshops, and a two-stage Practicum.
Three Core Workshops
Your Level 2 journey starts with three Core workshops, each one engaging a different part of the brain. Core workshops may be completed in any order.
View upcoming workshop dates and times.
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Color Vowel Yoga is a collection of simple movements that parallel the movement of the jaw, lips, and tongue when producing the vowels sounds of English. These movements serve as physical anchors for producing sounds that the learner may not yet be able to perceive. In this Core Workshop, participants gain confidence in leading Vowel Yoga and will develop a clear understanding of when to use Vowel Yoga as an instructional intervention.
Spelling Exploration is a sound-based exploration of spelling patterns that ignite learners’ optimism and curiosity about words in their spoken and written forms. In this Core Workshop, participants will gain practical familiarity with each step of the process and explore pedagogical implications.
Rhythms & Chants is a workshop in which participants learn how chants support brain-based language learning; view authentic footage of learners engaging with chants; practice pre-viewing, leading and closing a chant with clear gestures; and master three Color Vowel chants and their variations.
Three Elective Workshops
Elective workshops vary in topic and theme. All workshops are practical and are designed around a performance-based outcomes. Elective Workshops titles include:
Coaching & Teaching Practicum
Apply what you learned in Color Vowel Basics while gaining teaching experience with guidance from a Color Vowel Master Trainer.
1. CV Coaching Practicum: Receive direct mentoring while coaching participants in one of our pronunciation lab courses. Your coaching practicum may be completed at any time during your Level 2 journey.
2. CV Teaching Practicum: Like any conventional teaching practicum, the Color Vowel Teaching Practicum involves collecting recorded footage of yourself teaching either online or in a face-to-face setting. Practicum assignments outline specific criteria for demonstrating your effective, integrated use of the Color Vowel Chart and related techniques. All other Level 2 components must be completed prior to your Teaching Practicum.
Level 3 qualifies you to train other teachers in the Color Vowel Approach and provides you with opportunities to deliver Core and Elective workshops for ELTS. Level 3 involves successful completion of our Trainers’ Seminar of a two-part Apprenticeship.
The Color Vowel Training Seminar is our capstone course. Topics include:
To fully prepare the Color Vowel Teacher Trainer, we have created a two-part apprenticeship consisting of:
Both apprenticeships include the support of a Master Trainer.
Color Vowel FAST© is an self-paced introduction to the Color Vowel® Approach. FAST training entails completing four video-based modules and taking companion quizzes for each module that you complete at your own pace. FAST training fulfills one of three requirements for Level 1 certification. Learn more about Level 1 certification requirements here.
Gain pronunciation coaching experience and insight throughout this 6-week experience as you support participants in our Pronunciation for English Teachers workshop. Working closely with your practicum mentor and coaching cohort, you will lead select class activities and provide feedback to between 1-3 participants enrolled in our 5-week Pronunciation for English Teachers (PET) workshop.
Prerequisite: Coaching Practicum candidates must have completed all three Level 2 Core workshops, including Color Vowel Yoga, Spelling Exploration, and Rhythm & Chants.
Learn how to preview, lead, and close chants with learners using existing chants and modified chants. Workshop participants will:
In this 4-week online workshop facilitated by Shirley Thompson, co-author of The Color Vowel Chart, participants will learn about and exchange ideas related to:
Color Vowel Complete combines live training with asynchronous learning to immerse you in the use the Color Vowel® Approach and our pronunciation app, Blue Canoe. During this 5-week course, you will learn how to use powerful, brain-based strategies to teach learner pronunciation, vocabulary development, and oral fluency. Color Vowel Complete fulfills ALL of the requirements for Level 1 certification.
Color Vowel Complete combines live training with asynchronous learning to immerse you in the use the Color Vowel® Approach and our pronunciation app, Blue Canoe. During this 5-week course, you will learn how to use powerful, brain-based strategies to teach learner pronunciation, vocabulary development, and oral fluency. Color Vowel Complete fulfills ALL of the requirements for Level 1 certification.
Readers Theater (RT) is a group read-aloud in which individuals perform level-appropriate scripts to tell a story cooperatively. Participants will learn how RT supports development of the learner’s external reading voice (rate, vocabulary, and pronunciation/ comprehensibility) as well as their “internal” reading voice (the voice they “hear” when reading silently), thereby strengthening both oral fluency and reading fluency.
Discover how Readers Theater brings the written word to life while supporting English learner comprehensibility and speaking confidence. In this Level 2 elective workshop, Master Trainer Jennifer Campion will introduce participants to Readers Theater and guide them through the steps and strategies involved in implementing RT in the ESL/EFL classroom.
Instructor: Jennifer Campion
English has 24 distinct consonant sounds. It’s easy to think that we should teach all of them, but what if you discovered that some consonants just don’t matter so much?
Research shows that some consonants are more important than others when it comes to being understood. Which consonants matter most? Which matter least? Join Karen Taylor as we explore consonants in this light. We’ll listen to examples of English L2 accentedness and comprehensibility while taking in the highlights of functional load research and practicing strategies for teaching tricky consonant sounds.
This Level 2 workshop is open to Level 1 certified teachers and is recommended to those who have completed at least one Level 2 Core workshop.
Instructor: Dr. Robin Barr
Increase your phonological awareness and gain confidence in the use of this powerful brain-based instructional technique.
Color Vowel® Yoga is a collection of simple movements that parallel the movement of the jaw, lips, and tongue when producing the vowel sounds of English. These movements serve as physical anchors for producing sounds that the learner may not yet be able to perceive.
In this practice-based workshop, participants increase their own phonological awareness as they gain confidence in leading Vowel Yoga and learn when to use Vowel Yoga as an instructional intervention.
Instructor: Karen Taylor
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