CARLA X132 - 4.22: Creative Language Teaching at the Post-Secondary Level
Description
In this workshop, participants will explore how creativity can increase the quality of language instruction at the post-secondary level. This session will focus on how creativity elevates relationships, rigor, and retention in the language classroom. In this workshop, participants will engage with specific practices, various instructional moves, and multimodal strategies to improve their learner’s target language proficiency and to support creative thinking and learning.
After this workshop, participants will be able to:
- identify key ideas to support the use of creativity to promote learning and language development at the post-secondary level;
- describe meaningful strategies to promote relationship building that leads to increased risk taking by students and allows for differentiation for diverse learners;
- recognize literacy strategies that support increased rigor and “leveling up” for all students in the language classroom; and
- list strategies focused on retention of form and functional language through multimodal supports (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile).
Presenters:
Anne Cummings Hlas is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where she teaches methods courses for future language teachers and Spanish language courses. A veteran teacher, she regularly incorporates improvisation and creative thinking techniques in her classes to promote interpersonal communication and collaboration. She is the author of Practical Creativity: Activities and Ideas for your Language Classroom (2019).
Amy Young is the English Language Specialist for School Support at the Minnesota Department of Education. Previously she was the EL/Migrant Education Coordinator and a principal in Owatonna, MN. Dr. Young worked at New York University in their Multilingual Multicultural Studies program, and lived for over 15 years in Mexico where she founded and was the national director of a creative problem-solving organization. Her research interests include strategies for facilitating learning in multilingual settings through collaborative dialogue, peer interaction, and integrating language and content.
Anne and Amy co-teach the CARLA Summer Institute titled Creativity in the Language Classroom.
Target Audience: This workshop is designed for post-secondary, adult basic education, and collegiate international programs.