Thanks to a grant from the Russkiy Mir Foundation, the Language Learning Center and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Washington, and with the support of the Consul General of Russia in Seattle, all teachers of Russian language in Washington State may participate at no cost in a professional development program and receive a certificate upon completion of the program.
The main objectives of the course Russian Classroom are to support programs for learning Russian language in the State of Washington and to support the training of teachers of Russian language in Washington State and motivate teachers to pursue further professional development.
The complete course consists of 40 hours. Classes will be held in two formats: face-to-face and online from December 2014 to May 2015 and will conclude with a two-day workshop.
Face-to-face classes will be scheduled twice a month in community schools where Russian language is taught, in groups of 6-12 people. Groups of up to 6 people will be able to join groups in other schools. The training schedule for each group will be set up according to the wishes of the participating teachers and the availability of the school and will be posted on our website to be available to all participating teachers.
Course instructors are Svetlana Abramova (Candidate of Pedagogy, Lecturer in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Washington) and Valentina Zaitseva (Ph.D., Lecturer in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Washington). Michele Anciaux Aoki, Ph.D., International Education Administrator for Seattle Public Schools, is providing consulting support for the project.
In addition, textbook authors and experts in the field of Russian language teaching from Moscow State Pedagogical University (Moscow, Russia) Olga E. Drozdov Evgenjevna, Candidate in Pedagogy, and Elizabeth Alexandrovna Khamraeva, Doctor of Pedagogy.
Upon the completion of courses 1 and 2 in May 2015, there will be a two-day workshop for course participants, representatives of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Language Learning Center at the University of Washington, and experts in the field of teaching Russian from Russia. The workshop program will includes lectures, master classes for teachers, demonstration lessons by textbook authors, open classes in the Russian language schools, and a reception with refreshments.
The working languages of the course are Russian and English, but the classes will be held in Russian. Some training materials will include excerpts of English (for example, some of the terminology, US websites, and other resources).
Example Course Topics:
1. What does it mean "to know a language”? How do we learn a language in the classroom? A competence-based approach to determining the level of language proficiency; various scales for representing proficiency (European system, the TRKI, ACTFL).
2. How do you set a learning goal and achieve it? How to plan the learning process. How to combine the teaching of language and culture. National and state learning standards. Standards for teaching Russian language in the United States and Russia. Common Core State Standards. Up-to-date templates for developing lesson plans and long-term planning for learning.
3. Special requirements for teaching heritage language learners. Methods and techniques that work well with this audience. Textbooks, manuals, and other resources for Russian heritage speakers. The UW summer Russian STARTALK Student Program as an example of a successful program for Russian heritage speakers: planning learning outcomes, teaching based on thematic content, summative assessment as a way to check the level of language proficiency.
4. Motivating students to study Russian. How to validate students' knowledge and give them the opportunity to earn competency-based high school credits for their knowledge of Russian as a world language? Tests of Russian language proficiency (TORFL, AAPPL, AP Russian, ACTFL OPIc and WPT and others): where to take them and how to pass them, examples of tasks.
5. How to come up with engaging tasks and where to find the materials for them. Competitions, contests, and programs for studying Russian in our state ("Russian Bear", Olimpiada of Spoken Russian, an essay contest in Russian and others.) Possibilities for studying Russian language at the university level.
6. Professional development of teachers (certification, seminars, TELL, conference for teachers of world languages). Resources to improve the professional competence of teachers.
See
here for more information.
Svetlana Abramova, Administrator of the Russian Classroom
