From CARLA, the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition at the University of Minnesota:

Goodspeed, L., Menke, M., Paesani, K., & Ruf, H. (2021, September 28). "Bringing Social Justice into Language Classrooms: Templates to Guide Instructional Planning."

This presentation describes the process of developing research-based curricular unit and lesson plan templates that support language instructors in the teaching of social justice themes. The templates merge frameworks grounded in multiliteracies (Kalantzis et al., 2016), social justice (Hackman, 2005; Learning for Justice, 2018), and career readiness (Regents of the University of Minnesota, 2018), to promote development of students’ language proficiency, intercultural understanding, and career competencies. Presenters explain the collaborative and iterative process that informed this work, including affordances and constraints encountered during the template-creation process. Next, they introduce the templates and illustrate how they are being used to create intermediate-level curricular units in nine languages. Finally, presenters address implications of this social justice project, including its national dissemination plan and its contribution to the professional development of teachers across languages and institutional contexts.

Presenters:
Lauren Goodspeed is a Lecturer in the Department of French and Italian and Director of the French Language Program. Her research centers on applications of multiliteracies pedagogy for the foreign language classroom, particularly in regard to second language writing.

Mandy Menke is an Assistant Professor and Director of Language Programs in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese Studies. She is currently involved in projects related to the development of syntactic and lexical complexity in written second language Spanish and teacher learning around multiliteracies pedagogy.

Kate Paesani is Director of the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) and affiliate Associate Professor in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on literacies-oriented curriculum and instruction and language teacher development, couched within the frameworks of multiliteracies pedagogy and sociocultural theory.

Helena Ruf is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Language Instruction in the Department of German, Nordic, Slavic and Dutch. Current and past research projects focus on implementation of multiliteracies pedagogies and second language writing.