PACE Project Workshop: Advanced Oral Proficiency & Communities of Practice

Thursday, September 3, 2015
9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Northrop, Founders Room
Register Online by Tuesday, August 24, 2015


All CLA language instructors are invited to a two-part Professional Development event during the Thursday of Welcome Week. This event is co-sponsored by the PACE Project and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

Oral Proficiency at the Advanced-Level: 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m
Judith Liskin-Gasparro, recently retired from the University of Iowa, will lead a workshop on targeting oral proficiency at the advanced level, especially in content courses. Her examples will be in Spanish, but the content will be beneficial to instructors of all languages. This workshop is especially recommended for instructors who currently teach upper-division courses or are interested in doing so in the future.

Lunch: 12:00 to 1:30 p.m.
This will be an opportunity for graduate students, P&A instructors, and faculty to mingle and talk about the workshop and the PACE Project.

Communities of Practice: 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Kris Gorman from the Center for Educational Innovation (CEI) will guide us through the formation of Communities of Practice among language instructors. The goal of this workshop is to provide a space where instructors can brainstorm areas for investigation and inquiry regarding the practice of language teaching, and to create “Communities of Practice” around specific themes. The groups will set expectations and schedules for pursuing their common interest throughout the year.

The deadline to register online is Tuesday, August 24. we hope that you can come! If you have any questions regarding the workshop, you can contact Caroline Vang at cevang@umn.edu.

The PACE Project is funded by a grant from The Language Flagship.