Institute Flyer (English version) (Chinese version)
-- Please distribute this flyer to colleagues

About the STARTALK: Mentoring, Leadership, and Change in the K-12 Chinese Classroom Institute:

A dynamic team of world language educators will be leading a 5-day, residential institute for teachers of Chinese. During the institute the participants explore key concepts and principles of effective language pedagogy, mentoring, and advocacy.

Participants will observe a master teacher teach a daily one-hour, upper elementary Japanese demonstration class during the institute. This demonstration class will clarify key pedagogical concepts including effective use of the target language; developmentally appropriate, centered, thematic, culturally rich, and standards-based curriculum; and performance-based assessment. The demonstration class will help participants to think more deeply about pedagogical issues from a learner's perspective and will form a shared basis for discussions of critical issues in the teaching of less commonly taught languages. It will also serve as an instructional model to emulate as they refine their own teaching skills through preparing and teaching demonstration lessons in front of their peers, and as they train other teachers.

Additionally, participants will participate in daily Chinese demonstration lessons taught by apprentice leaders. During the week, participants will use a layered approach to progressively develop and teach their own standards-based, culturally rich lessons in Chinese, and these lessons will be published on the institute wiki. They will also explore a variety of other social technologies they can use to support students' learning and provide mentoring and leadership to their colleagues.

Before leaving the institute, they will develop proposals for expanding their professional involvement beyond their local schools by sharing what they have learned at local inservices, professional conferences, and through mentoring and leadership at the district, state, and national levels. During the fall, participants will field test the lessons they have created. Supported by the project leaders, apprentice leaders, and the network of colleagues developed at this institute, participants will use social technologies to reflect on changes in student learning; adapt, enhance, and expand their lessons and conference proposals; and disseminate their efforts to colleagues. They will support one another in implementing their plans for expanding their professional influence by assuming expanding roles as mentors and leaders in their school districts and states.

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