Virginia Diversity Network

Friday, November 15, 2013

10:00am - 3:00pm    

St. Catherine’s School

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How we speak and what we hear shapes our relationships with those around us.  This workshop will examine language variation within English as an important facet of how we perceive ourselves and others in schools and communities. Dr. Anne H. Charity Hudley, Director of the Scholars Program and Professor of Community Studies at the College of William and Mary and class of 1994 St. Catherine’s graduate will lead you through activities that explore issues of language diversity in independent schools.

 

We will focus on questions including:

• What does it mean when African-American students who attend independent schools are told they are no longer “Black”?

• How to best deal with bullying related to language difference in schools?

• How to help students strengthen their respect of dialects and accents as part of a multicultural experience?

 

Dr. Charity Hudley will share how independent school educators in Virginia and Maryland have worked with her to include discussions of language diversity within English into their curriculum. You will work on your own models of how language is tied to identity in both schools and communities.  Participants will walk away with knowledge about language variation in Virginia English and the start of language diversity materials that are relevant for students of all backgrounds.  This workshop is for teachers and school leaders of all areas.  According to Dr. Jaqueline Joynes Royster, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology, “Charity Hudley’s approach has the capacity to open pathways by which students can learn, not only about the lives and practices of others, but also interrogate and integrate their own lives and practices within the company of these various others.”