“Voices of UMBC”
I am pleased to share a short film called “Voices of UMBC” that was made entirely by students in my Fall 2015 graduate seminar, “Language in Diverse Schools and Communities.” Our goal in making the short film was to celebrate UMBC’s linguistic diversity and to highlight it as a cultural resource. Everyone who helped make the film, as well as everyone who appears in it, is a UMBC student! Response to the film has been tremendously enthusiastic, from students and faculty on campus to linguists who have praised the film as an example of cutting-edge linguistic outreach/engagement work in higher education. We are very grateful to all of the students who participated in making this film! This project was approved by the UMBC Institutional Review Board, Protocol #Y16CM27049.
Eight videos on language and culture now available
The test site is live! Check out a brand new series of eight videos on language and culture, sponsored by the Virginia Department of Education and the National Science Foundation. The videos, based on my research with Dr. Anne H. Charity Hudley, cover the following topics:
1.) Language & Culture in the classroom: a general overview of linguistically and culturally responsive teaching (30 minutes)
2.) Sharing the burden of communication with your students: How language impacts school climate, instruction, and classroom management (30 minutes)
3.) Language and Culture in Virginia Classrooms: Specific Knowledge Matters: Grammar and Sound (30 minutes)
4.) Language and Culture in Virginia Classrooms: Specific Knowledge Matters: Discourse (30 minutes)
5.) Language and culture in the elementary language arts classroom (30 minutes)
6.) Language and culture in the elementary STEM classroom (30 minutes)
7.) Language and culture in the secondary language arts classroom (30 minutes)
8.) Language and culture in the secondary STEM classroom (30 minutes)
Workshop on Engaged Scholarship in Linguistics: Partnering with Educators to Communicate about Language Variation
Photo (l-r) of Adryan Flores, John R. Rickford, Anne H. Charity Hudley, Michel DeGraff, me, and Erin Berry — the lead team at the Engaged Scholarship in Linguistics: Partnering with Educators to Communicate about Language Variation workshop, part of the Linguistic Society of America Summer Linguistic Institute. 
Learn more here: https://lsa2015.uchicago.edu/events/engaged-scholarship-linguistics-partnering-educators-communicate-about-language-variation
This 2-day workshop is designed for both novice and seasoned researchers who are interested in learning more about working to apply linguistic insight to educational and social change. The positioning of linguistics as a discipline that lies at the intersection of the humanities, social sciences, and STEM sciences provides scholars with numerous possibilities for applying our research findings to address persistent the opportunity gaps that often face culturally and linguistically diverse students. The workshop will introduce participants to important theoretical, ethical, and logistical considerations when working with educators, students, parents, administrators, and local communities in order to maximize our impact as linguists and promote collaborative, sustainable models of engaged scholarship.
We Do Language is available!
Dr. Anne H. Charity Hudley’s and my book, We Do Language: English Language Variation in the Secondary English Classroom, is now available on Teachers College Press, on Amazon, and on Barnes & Noble. It is also available on Kindle! Click here to view our book website and click here to “like” our page on Facebook!
Those Who Can… Teach!
Anne has been featured on With Good Reason radio on NPR about our NSF-funded work on language and culture in STEM classrooms. There’s also a great interview with Dr. Freeman Hrabowski at UMBC about educating all students to succeed in science and engineering and why it matters!
Listen at: http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2013/06/those-who-can-teach/#sthash.JaiVX0GG.dpuf
“Much bigger than technology or classroom space, the most important factor in determining student success is having a good teacher. In two 15-minute sessions, Bob Pianta (University of Virginia) can tell whether a teacher is good or bad—regardless of their subject matter. Plus: Heralded by Time as one of the ten best college presidents, Freeman Hrabowski (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) has helped build UMBC’s reputation as a top school for students of color in STEM fields. And: Surprisingly, sometimes the problem in math class is not with numbers, but with words. Anne Charity Hudley (College of William and Mary) believes teachers need to be more aware of how cultural language differences can put some students at a disadvantage in the classroom.”
