Global Education Cohort UOttawa

Workshop on Global Literacies Led by 3 Recent B.Ed. Graduates

Linley, Alex, Romina workshop global literacies

On October 5th, we were fortunate to have three recent B.Ed. graduates, who are members of our Global Education Cohort, lead two workshops on Global Literacies for more than 30 first year teacher candidates as part of the PED3150 Cohort PLC. This professional development event was designed to give teacher candidates an opportunity to participate in workshops sponsored by all five cohorts in our Teacher Education Program.

Linley Maher, Alexandria Campagna, and Romina Donnini spent three weeks in the month of April doing research on global education as their final Community Service Learning project. During this time, they gained expertise on Canada-based resources and initiatives relevant to Ontario elementary teachers interested in integrating global perspectives into the curriculum. They are bringing their findings together in an article on global literacies for teachers in the Canadian context that will be submitted for publication in an education journal. We sometimes refer to these as as “global connect” projects because most rely on digital technologies to connect teachers and students to other classrooms and/or resources locally, in other provinces, and abroad.

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Participants in the workshops were first asked to reflect on and share their own definitions of global literacy. This led to a lively, in-depth conversation on the many possibilities available to educators across the curriculum.

Romina, Linely, and Alexandria then drew upon examples from their own work to illustrate some of the ways they meaningfully integrate global perspectives into their teaching based on their backgrounds, experience, and personal interests.

Romina, Linley, and their colleague Debra Shapiro created a resource for Ontario elementary teachers at the junior level entitled, Fearless Females, which they published on Smore. This inspiring literature anthology of global women includes: The Diary of Anne Frank, Who is Jane Goodall, I am Malala, These are my Words: The Residential School Diary of Violet Pesheens, and The Story of Ruby Bridges.

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Alexandria also created a global literature collection of interest to Ontario teachers, which she compiled with her colleague, Laura Weedon.
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In the following excerpt from their flyer, Laura and Alexandria explain why it is important to bring global literature into the classroom:
Global literature is important because it helps our students who may have never been out of the country they were born in to gain a global perspective of the world through literature. These global resources can help our students understand different ways of life, cultures, religions, cuisine, and languages. As teachers we can tie these global literature titles into our teaching plans through cross-curricular activities that get our students thinking about what other people’s lives are like in different places of the world and how that may differ from their own life. These perspectives are so valuable for our students to understand so they can can grow up to be a global citizen in their own community.
*For more practical ideas on introducing global perspectives into your classroom, check out this teacher resource that Linley put together: Global Literacies Workshop
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Linley, Romina, and Alexandria also allowed a few minutes at the end of each workshop for first year teacher candidates to ask them general questions related to the Teacher Education Program, the practicum experience, and work/life after graduation. Given the level of engagement in the room, this was much appreciated!
In addition to these sessions on Global Literacies, a number of other interesting workshops were offered by each of the cohorts. Thank you to Tracy Crowe for organizing this unique professional development opportunity for our first year teacher candidates, and to the cohort leaders, professors, and graduate students who helped to make this event a huge success.

 

PED 3150 Cohort PLC Program, October 2018

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