#10 - Element 7: Inclusive and Community Oriented Spaces | 10 Elements of Proficiency-Oriented World Language Instruction

In this episode, we discuss a list of the people I enjoy learning from to further my journey into equity-driven education. These are the trusted speakers, writers, and teachers to follow and keep in your feed!

Head here to the accompanying blog post for the list of DEI speakers and leaders in the world language space. 

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Transcript

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What's up, kelo k e. Salut, world language teachers. Welcome to the Practical Proficiency podcast, where we make the transition to proficiency oriented instruction in your world language class in a way that works for you, your unique context and teaching style, and doesn't sacrifice your well being along the way. I'm your host, Devin Gunning, the teacher author, conference host, curriculum creator, and consultant behind La Libre language learning. This podcast is for the creative world language teacher like you, who's ready to ditch the overwhelming pressure of switching to acquisition driven instruction and CI overnight, you're ready to discover how using more target language in class can actually bring you and your students more joy. Instead of adding to your plate with practical, authentic, and down to earth strategies that don't require reinventing the wheel or more training, we'll work together towards the magic of a community target language rich classroom rooted in the power of community and comprehensible input. Let's go. We are talking today about element seven of the ten elements of world language proficiency instruction, and y'all this one. In element seven, we are talking about an element that will set the foundation for everything else that happens in your classroom because it sets the safety parameters. And you and I both know that since world language is something that really makes your students put themselves out there in front of their peers at a difficult age group, this is something that we need to address, and that is the environment. Element seven has everything to do with the social, emotional learning of your students, as well as how your students feel when they walk into your room. It's all about whether they feel seen and whether they also feel comfortable enough to explore different ways of being a human in the world in your class, which that's what we do, right? So element number seven is community oriented, inclusive classroom. You can't do anything in your classroom without this practice. We are all actively trying to grow in this area, and part of that means that we are also trying, trying to be reflective, understand our own identities and how our worldview is projected into our learning spaces and how that shapes the outcomes that our students experience. So let's dive a little bit deeper into this in a community oriented, inclusive classroom that we are all striving for. In world language, you create and preserve a community, community learning environment through relationships, effective communication and leadership. And these practices are rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion. Let's talk about a little bit about how you can do this. Although I know many of you are diving into resources on your own, but more than spending time on things like how to do this in, in the diversity, equity and inclusion space. I'm going to give you a list of resources and people that you should be listening to and following who are experts in this field and have presented at my annual conference across the years. And I trust to give you the best advice possible. Because world language is, even though we do teach a lot about culture in our. And, you know, even that can be a problematic phrase. But even though we work a lot with culture in our rooms, we also have a lot of work to do with Dei. so let's talk a little bit about the community aspect of your classroom. First, you are not concerned with whether your students like you. You want your students to know and demonstrate every day that you like them. This is the foundational piece of having a good relationship with your students, a good rapport with them, and building that trust. Because trust is not automatic in a classroom. Trust is earned from daily, consistent, fair action. An important piece of this, too, is that although you won't be personally perfect at this, you are both a strong leader in the classroom who views every student and their stakeholder as valuable to the class. That person is bringing a lot of stories with them, and each of those stories is important and affects everything that happens in that classroom. And your students are contributors to the classroom. They have knowledge, they have experience, they have skills, and all of them belong. And we want to see those skills, highlight them and amplify them. You also are actively reflecting on your impact and role as a teacher. You're investigating decolonized teaching practices and investing in that training. You are also referring reflective in your own identity and culture, and you're deeply invested in growing in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion. But I would say that the biggest way that you can make an impact on your students in this realm is that you are seeking out diversity, equity and inclusion instruction for world language teachers specifically. There are now books out there for you. There are leaders in this space who can help you specifically with the area of world language because there's a lot of help out there for you and I don't want you to miss it. So without further ado, here are the people I would recommend that you go and look up right away and wherever applicable, you will find in the show notes, a website, a link, or a social handle of some kind so that you can get these people in your sphere as soon as possible. Here are the people that I work with to provide trainings, presentations, and all kinds of materials and trainings for community oriented and inclusive classroom spaces, both in my own membership for the practical proficiency network and for my annual conference. Practical and comprehensible. So, this is not an exhaustive list, but these are people that I know are going to steer you in the right direction and that you're going to learn so much from. We have Kia London, Jesse Felice from spanish swag, Tracy Rucker, John Bracey, Jocelyn Hubbard, Doctor Camille Anderson, Ben Tinsley, Jennifer White, pav of fle avec Madame de and Alexia Cruz, as well as others that I'm sure that if you search, you can find more. So this is just a place to get you started. And I also want you to note that an important area that we can grow in as a world language community is choosing their voices and authentic voices for our CI novels. So if you are a novel user, this is one of the biggest places that you can make the biggest impact. So these are two authors that care deeply about this subject and are writing novels that are along these lines. So for novels for, honestly a lot of languages, but Spanish for sure, and then it's also translated into several others. I would highly, highly recommend to you Margarita Perez Garcia, as well as AC Quintero. And there are many others, but those are two authors to start looking at right away. And I know that they also partner up with great authors as well. And you can find their books in a lot of different places, so I will put links below so that you can check them out. But this is a space. Community oriented, inclusive class is something that will be a ripple effect for everything that happens in your classroom and how your students perceive that you like them and that you are invested in them. So go check out that list in the show notes, or you can just start searching and scrolling from the names that I gave you here and be sure to attend practical and comprehensible where we dive into these trainings. Thank you so much for being here for this episode, and I will see you in the next one where we get to element eight. Bye for now.