Summer 2024 Instructional Conversation Foundational Institutes

Overview

The Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education (CLASE) at The University of Georgia offers a 30-hour, interactive, foundational professional learning institute focused on a collaborative, conversation-based pedagogy for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) classrooms and its application

• The linguistics of second language acquisition

• Strategies for integrating language goals into content teaching

• Tools for encouraging collaborative conversations

• Ways to make content and language standards real and relevant for all learners while maintaining rigor

• Our Online Professional Learning Platform

The power of this system is that it provides a structure for teachers to integrate focused language goals with rigorous content instruction, rather than creating "one more thing" that you have to find the time for. The Instructional Conversation (IC) System is a "way of teaching" and conceptualizing teaching and learning that positively impacts student language development and opens the space for formative assessment and differentiation. To get a better idea of what we are talking about, the research base behind ICs, and what an IC looks like, take a few minutes to view:

• A short video example of a real classroom enacting an IC. As you watch, notice the kinds of academic and social language that the students are using. Also, note that this is a mixed ability group with ELs (including one child who arrived in the US with no English only 4 months before this video was filmed):

  • Short Video Example of an Instructional Conversation (IC)

• A 30-minute video with an overview of the Instructional Conversation System:

  • Instructional Conversation Overview (IC)

• An interview of students talking about what they gain from ICs and how they perceive IC lessons impact their learning:

  • Students talk about Instructional Conversations

Cost

$850/person

Cost includes training materials provided electronically and physically via mail. Included amongst the materials is the course book, With a Little Help From My Friends: Conversation-Based Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Classrooms (Mellom, Hixon, & Weber, 2019). Additional copies can be purchased at Teachers College Press or Amazon.

Payment Options

You have the option to pay via Credit Card or Invoice.

If your school or district is paying for your registration or you would like to pay via Invoice using a PO or check, make sure that you have the Registration Discount Code needed to waive the registration fee ready. If your district contact doesn't have this code or you would like for us to create a code for you, you can contact Jodi Weber (jodiweb@uga.edu) for help.

If you are paying with a Credit Card, please fill out the registration form and then follow the link to our Secure Payment Portal to process the registration fee.

Format

We are offering three different format options.

1. Completely Virtual

   • 4 Days Virtual (Zoom)

2. Completely Face-to-Face

   • 4 Days Face-to-Face (in Person)

3. Multi-Modal

   • 2 Days Virtual (Zoom)

   • 2 Days Face-to-Face (in Person)

Certificates

Participants will receive a CLASE Certificate of Completion which may be used for continuing education credit.

Policies

Refund Policy

No refunds for cancellation of registered participants. Even if payment is collected at a later date (i.e. via purchase order or check), completion of registration serves as confirmation of your attendance. Payment will still be collected if you choose to cancel before payment is processed.

Substitution Policy

Substitutions are permitted up to 1 week in advance in order to ensure sufficient time to complete the pre-course assignments and to make the necessary administrative adjustments. Districts and individuals are responsible for transferring course materials, both physical and digital, from the original registrant to the substitute registrant. If your materials include a t-shirt, and the size is incorrect, substitute registrants may return their shirts to CLASE (at their own shipping costs) in exchange for a different size.

COVID-19 Policy & Procedures

With regards to the face-to-face days for our multi-modal Institutes, CLASE is following the safety guidelines and protocols of the University System of Georgia, the Centers for Disease Control, and the State of Georgia, as well as those of the various venues who are hosting us this summer. As of March 18, 2022, we are implementing the following protocols:

• Masks: We strongly encourage the use of face masks when inside the venues on the face-to-face Institute days, based on preference and assessment of personal risk. We will provide free face masks at our registration table.

• Sanitizing Stations: We will provide multiple hand sanitizing stations within our meeting space. The venues may also be providing additional sanitizing stations throughout the building

• Cleaning & Disinfecting: Our venues are doing their part in cleaning and disinfecting high touch areas, but we will also be disinfecting our “shared” Institute materials daily and providing disinfectant wipes for participant use throughout the day

• Personal Responsibility: If you are exhibiting any COVID-19 symptoms or have been exposed to someone who has tested positive, please do not come to the face-to-face venue until you have a negative COVID-19 PCR test (not a rapid test). If you test positive, you will still be able to participate virtually. Contact Jodi Weber (jodiweb@uga.edu) for further instructions

We are closely monitoring the community levels of COVID-19 for each of the multi-modal institutes and could potentially modify this policy. Please note that these protocols are subject to change depending on these community levels, as well as the local and government health guidelines closer to June and July 2022.

Additional Questions?

You can contact Jodi Weber (jodiweb@uga.edu) with any additional questions you may have about this registration form.