Convener: Bridget Swanson, CTL Fellow, Gemanic Languages and Literatures
Location: Max Kade German Culture and Media Center, 3401 Walnut St, Room 329 A
Summary: Authentic communication is key to effective pedagogy. But if students don’t feel comfortable to fully interact with their peers and instructor, authentic communication may remain elusive at best. How can an instructor foster inclusivity from the start? What activities best create a supportive learning environment? Finally, how does an instructor reach the many members of his/her diverse student body? In this year’s first departmental CTL workshop, Associate Professor Kathryn Hellerstein and DAAD Visiting Professor Yasemin Dayioglu-Yücel will lead a discussion of the various strategies they employ to cultivate inclusivity, acceptance, and a supportive learning environment in both language and content courses. Specifically, they will provide us with examples from classes they have taught on sensitive subjects – such as gender, racial, cross-national and political identities – in order to help us develop our own tools for creating classroom community.
All graduate students are welcome. This event grows out of concerns in the Germanic Languages and Literatures department and so may be most useful to students in related fields.
Counts toward the CTL Teaching Certificate.