A Time of Gratitude for FILL
Soaking up FILL excitement at the ACTFL Convention
Happy Thanksgiving!
I launched this FILL Substack on “Interdependence Day for Language Learning” back in July, and now four months later, I’m feeling full of gratitude. As we’ve prepared for Thanksgiving this week, I’ve been savoring the memories from the annual ACTFL Convention that took place last week (November 20-23) in New Orleans. We got to meet up with our growing FILL Community, and celebrate some of our FILL superstars.
I’ve shared stories about Ryan Allen, a teacher of Facilitated Interdependent Language Learning in Delaware.1 At the ACTFL Awards Ceremony on Friday night, Ryan was the recipient of the Leo Benardo Award for Innovation in K-12 Language Education:
Established in 2014 and generously endowed by his former student Stella Economou, the Leo Benardo Award for Innovation in K-12 Language Education recognizes an educator whose work reflects innovative instructional practice supporting programs with of a majority of underserved students in a variety of educational settings—including public and private schools in urban, suburban, and rural districts.
Needless to say, we were excited to see Ryan’s innovative work with FILL recognized with this prestigious award.
The next day, Tom Welch and Ryan Allen co-presented their session, FILL the Future: Theory in Action.2 The audience sat in amazement as Ryan helped them imagine Facilitated Interdependent Language Learning in his Delaware classroom:
-One classroom, one certified Spanish teacher, no set curriculum.
-Twenty-three students learning one of ten languages, and the teacher isn’t teaching any of them directly.
-Students working interdependently using resources tailored to them.
-In one semester, nearly half of the students scored well enough on the STAMP test to fulfill Delaware’s World Language Requirement.
Tom, for his part, helped us visualize a FILL classroom as a kind of community garden, where community members each get their own plot, but have the freedom to choose what to plant. Here’s how Google AI defines it:
A community garden is a shared space where people cultivate plants like fruits, vegetables, and flowers, either by working together on one large plot or by managing individual assigned plots. These gardens foster a sense of community, provide opportunities for recreation and education, and can improve local food security and environmental health. They can be organized and maintained by various groups and are found in urban, suburban, and rural areas.
Perhaps an image would help:
Ryan’s FILL class truly is like a community garden, and Ryan is a master gardener. His role is not to micromanage each garden plot (each student’s learning path), but to be available as a resource on plant selection (choosing language learning resources), watering schedule (ensuring a healthy learning environment), weeding the garden (helping students evaluate what’s working, what’s not), and enjoying the harvest (celebrating the successful proficiency results).
Later on Saturday afternoon, we got another treat, a poster session by our Wisconsin colleague, Claudine Clark, Facilitated Language Study: An Innovative Approach to Language Learning.3 Facilitated Language Study (FLS) is the course in their district that “uses the FILL approach where students learn multiple languages in one classroom.” I reported on the Wisconsin FLS program in my Substack posts, How FILL Began (8/7/2025) and FILL: Innovation and Inspiration from Wisconsin (10/16/2025).
Ideas shared and questions raised at both sessions will provide us lots of material for upcoming FILL Substack posts. Stay tuned…
In the meantime, thank you for taking the time to read this FILL Substack.
https://micheleanciauxaoki.substack.com/p/fostering-a-family-of-language-learners
Quotes from Ryan Allen:
“As soon as I learned about it [FILL], I knew I wanted to bring it to Delmar. Historically, we had been a one-language district, but many students over the years had expressed a strong interest in learning languages beyond Spanish. FILL seemed like the perfect opportunity to meet that need.”
“After a single semester [block schedule], 73 days of class, many students demonstrated enough language proficiency to earn two high school language credits. Their skills were validated through the STAMP (Standards-Based Measurement of Proficiency) test.”
Ryan Allen and Tom Welch were kind enough to share their slides:
FILL the Future: Theory in Action. The goals for the session were:
-Articulate what the FILL approach is and is not
-Advocate for bringing FILL to your district
-Plan how to implement FILL in your district
-Incorporate FILL ideals in your existing language courses
Claudine Clark from Madison Metropolitan School District also shared her slides: Facilitated Language Study: An Innovative Approach to Language Learning. With ten years of FLS experience behind her, Claudine is an invaluable resource for educators interested in implementing FILL.