Workshop Series & Professional Learning Community
In response to findings from focus groups with teachers from traditionally underrepresented and marginalized groups in language education, CARLA is offering a workshop series on the theme of adapting existing instructional materials and practices to teach for social justice. Each workshop treats a different social justice topic and is followed by a professional learning community (PLC), where language educators discuss the topic in more detail, puzzle through questions of implementation, and share experiences.
Workshop 1: Disability in our World Language Classrooms: Adapting Mindsets and Materials
Facilitator: Tammy Berberi, Associate Professor of French, University of Minnesota-Morris
This workshop focused on developing skills for creating more accessible, inclusive, and socially just language classrooms by centering the strengths and perspectives of disabled people. Attendees defined disability as an opportunity for creative adaptation and meaning making that supports everyone’s learning and growth. They also developed navigational skills to implement universal design for learning in world language classrooms and to create activities to supplement textbooks and other instructional materials. This workshop served as an introduction to strategies and resources that can foster equity and participation for disabled students and, by introducing new ways for encountering differences in target cultures, global citizenship skills for all students.
Resources
+- Workshop slide deck (PDF, includes bibliography and links to additional resources)
- Disability and world language learning: Inclusive teaching for diverse learners (Scott & Edwards, 2018)
- Ungrading:
- How to ungrade (Stommel, 2018)
- Ungrading (Blum, 2017)
- Ungrading: Why rating students undermines learning (and what to do instead) (Blum, 2020)
- Accessibility:
- Making your document or presentation more accessible (Google)
- Start with the 7 Core Skills (University of Minnesota)
- CARLA’s Social Justice Bibliography
Workshop 2: Be Like Water: Amplifying Asian Voices in Language Education with Flexibility and Resilience
Facilitator: Kaishan Kong, Associate Professor of Chinese, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
This workshop developed skills to integrate and amplify Asian Voices in world language education. Participants co-constructed the definition and constituents of Asian Voices, and navigated when, where, what, who and how to strengthen Asian representation in teaching. The presenter discussed research findings in recent publications to address some concerns and challenges encountered by world language teachers, and then shared a framework to inspire language teachers to enhance Asian representation with pedagogical flexibility and emotional resilience. Participants examined examples and developed their own teaching plans using backward design.
Learn more about some of these ideas from the pre-workshop webinar recording above right.
Resources
+- Workshop slides (PDF)
- General Resources
- AAPI Multimedia Textbook
- Assessing Classroom Climate: Critical Incident Questionnaire
- The Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters
- Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones: Understanding and Integrating Social Justice in Chinese Language Class (Kong, 2022)
- The Making of Asian America: A History (Lee, 2016)
- Manual for Developing Intercultural Competencies: Story Circles (UNESCO, 2020)
- NBC Asian America Presents: A to Z
- #OwnVoices: Diversity in Children’s and Young Adult Books
- Language Teaching Resources
- Mini-database of resources collected by the Spring 2023 PLC from the workshop
- Asian American Voices (in multiple languages)
- Chinese Children’s Stories
- Chinese Studying Resources & Websites from Brandon Lee
- Mandarin for Me: Books and Stories
- Onigiri Action (website in English and Japanese)
- Seeking Asian Female (film)
- Tusanaje Podcast (Spanish)