NEW!  Trauma-Informed Teaching Methods:  EdWeek put together a downloadable Spotlight containing several excellent articles by teachers sharing practical methodologies and strategies to help students learn while coping with trauma or chronic emotional stress. A large percentage of our students have trouble learning because their minds are focused on stresses and anxieties that we can help lessen or address by adapting our some of our strategies. And ALL students can benefit from these methods.

NEW! An Autistic Classicist in the Labyrinth. Hear Dr. Cora Beth Fraser speak about her educational experiences growing up and as a rising Classicist with autism. Our thanks to CCA South who houses this presentation and shares it with NCLG, with Dr. Fraser's permission. Cora Beth Fraser is an award-winning Associate Lecturer with The Open University in the UK, and an Honorary Research Associate in Classical Studies. She is a founder and director of Asterion Neurodiversity Hub, and winner of the 2022 Classical Association Prize. She has dozens of blogs for her students at https://classicalstudies.support/ during the pandemic and supports initiatives which make Classics more accessible to everyone. 

 The Inclusive Latin Classroom, an excellent blog with extensive posts on current issues in teaching Latin, focuses on how to increase accessibility, inclusivity and outreach in your language program. The Comprehensible Input philosophy is the keystone of their varied and effective approach to teaching and learning. This site is edited by Bob Patrick, Miriam Patrick, Rachel Ash, Justin Slocum Bailey, Kevin Ballestrini, John Bracey, David Maust, Lance Piantaggini, John Piazza and Keith Toda. In addition to articles and lesson resources, they also offer personal mentoring and support. They explain their philosophy and mission HERE. 

Blog posts in Bob Patrick’s series That Problem Class, applying some principles from Christopher Emdin’s writings. More information on Emdin follows.

Reality Pedagogy:  Christopher Emdin on his website states “Drawing on his own experience of feeling undervalued and invisible in classrooms as a young man of color and merging his experiences with more than a decade of teaching and researching in urban America, award-winning educator Christopher Emdin offers a new lens on an approach to teaching and learning in urban schools. For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education is the much-needed antidote to traditional top-down pedagogy and promises to radically reframe the landscape of urban education for the better…..He begins by taking to task the perception of urban youth of color as unteachable, and he challenges educators to embrace and respect each student’s culture and to reimagine the classroom as a site where roles are reversed and students become the experts in their own learning.”

Diversity and Inclusion in the Latin Classroom: Cambridge University Press now has a Diversity and Inclusion blogsite, with specific, topical information and resources from around the world on issues of diversity and inclusion in Latin, Greek, and Classics, HERE. These are posted daily and you can sign up to receive email notifications.

“Comprehension-based Language Teaching and Social Justice” is another good resource on the importance of balanced content and inclusivity. It is a webinar hosted by ACTFL’s Critical and Social Justice Approaches SIG and Comprehension-based Communicative Language Teaching SIG. They teamed up to offer a Q and A discussion with five experienced elementary through university level teachers of Latin, French, Spanish and Chinese, each of whom spoke about how they perceived the need for greater equity and how they created opportunities to teach issues of Social Justice within their curriculum.

Why Students of Color Don’t Take Latin, by John Bracey (Eidolon.pub 2017). Bracey explores the realities of biased recruitment and explains why BIPOC students don’t feel welcome or comfortable in the typical Latin and Greek classroom. 

Designing for Equity (Why I am (maybe) never teaching Cicero again). Here is a video presentation by Elizabeth Manwell of Kalamazoo College, MI, given at Res Difficiles Conference 2021. You can scroll down on the conference website where she shares her video and  handout about how we can (re)design college classes and course content to better serve the actual needs and goals of many of our students.

‘Spoken Latin as Outreach and Inclusive Pedagogy,’ an ACL 6/2020 video shared by Gregory Springer, (begins at 5 minutes into this conference video) addresses issues in some pedagogical and enrollment methods that exclude many students from achieving success. In the first half, he offers rationale for moving away from exclusive use of grammar translation methods and toward a hybrid of reading strategies and offers positive data showing a resulting increase in retention, achievement, and fluency among diverse student communities. In the last half, he outlines many very practical steps for implementing methods in your classroom allowing students to reach higher fluency. If you wish to study charts more closely and see all of the pages of suggestions, please see the shared version of the Google slide presentation. In the end, slides detail how our process should not be a matter of "either-or,' but rather 'both-and.'

Toda-lly Comprehensible Latin is a site where Keith Toda offers many practical resources for increasing the accessibility of Latin to a full spectrum of students by using the Comprehensible Input philosophy. Because no language can be learned or internalized without comprehensible input, he outlines countless practical strategies and lesson plans for implementing it within your curriculum. These methods have proved effective in teaching Latin to students who might have otherwise been excluded or counseled away from language study. Check out “Resources” and “CI Teaching Strategies.” 

It's Time to Fix Your Pedagogy: Why now is the best time to embrace CI practices: John Bracey's Eidolon article highlights the need to match your pedagogy to the needs of your students to ensure their success and how Comprehensible Input techniques may be a big part of the answer. He offers a simple step-by-step reasoned approach to answer common questions about making such changes.

Removing Barriers is a resource site created by Miriam Patrick. She states that it “is dedicated to my research, work, and resources on making language accessible to all types of learners.” It contains pages on Assistive Technologies, Data, Ideas, Research, and other valuable resources relevant to building an inclusive classroom. The Presentations link offers a webinar with insight into numerous practical strategies and resources for Removing Barriers to Success in the FL Classroom.

NEW!  Maureen Lamb shares a long slideshow presentation, Actionable Steps Towards Increasing Inclusivity in which she explains and shares a full array of technology resources, alternative assessment ideas, and countless tools and ready to use classroom activities. These are ways in which you can meet your students WHERE THEY ARE and offer them pathways to success! This was presented at ACL 2021 Institute, hosted by NCLG.

 **Look for ANOTHER  upcoming live webinar in which Maureen will go into more detail - COMING SOON! 

Explore a folder of materials HERE, describing studies showing that college students, diagnosed with language processing issues, achieved a high level of success in Latin when taught with their modified teaching methods. (All materials are provided with permission from Barbara Hill.)  Hill, Downey and Snyder, in the Foreign Language Modification Program of the University of Colorado - Boulder, conducted studies revealing that students were successful when Latin and Spanish classes were taught with modified language teaching and learning methods adapted to dyslexia and certain language processing difficulties, such as difficulties with active phonemic analysis and coding, working memory, and orthographic-syntactic coding (2000). Their principles and teaching methodologies are simple, and are beneficial for ALL students in ANY classroom, as their goal was to ensure equal access to second language education.  (Contact us if you can not access the folder.)

The Indwelling Language website, edited by Justin Slocum Bailey, offers valuable advice on using the principles of second language acquisition along with other techniques in order to develop strategies for effective teaching and joyful learning in the Latin classroom. He describes many effective methods that facilitate real language internalization, so that learners can successfully and joyfully build language skills and benefit from study. 

Some Further Reflections...

Physical accessibility modifications and various accommodations for a range of disabilities are also important considerations within the area of inclusivity. According to the IDEA regulations, schools are required to assure accommodations to address each individual students’ needs, so that they can participate fully in classes. In addition, when setting up websites, online classes, assignments and classrooms, for example, instructors can use features such as text to talk and text captions for all photos, color and design choices that can help visually impaired or dyslexic students read more easily. They can also liaise to help their students obtain services that might specifically help in the language classroom.

Disability

Exploring Dimensions of Disability in the Classics Classroom; This presentation was one of those given at ‘Our Voices: A Conference for Inclusive Classics Pedagogy’ (February 2020, Session 2A) and is relevant here. The recording of this talk plus many other conference presentations addressing various issues of accessibility and inclusion facing Classics today, are available HERE and on YouTube.

NEW! SCS Blog:  A Brief Guide to Disability Terminology and Theory in Ancient World Studies | Society for Classical Studies. Included in this blog are some reflections and advice on appropriate and preferred language and phrases to use when referring to various disabilities or differences recognized medically and socially today and in ancient cultures and described in works of ancient literature.  

NEW! Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) Webinar: Digital Equity for Students with Disabilities(8/21). “Our speakers discuss how schools, families, and communities are engaging students with disabilities in effective digital learning experiences for first and second languages. They will also discuss policy recommendations to address these issues.” Also and see a webpage of resources for language teaching.

NEW!  Are images of people of all body types, appearances, and levels of physical ability visible to students in your educational setting? This is one aspect of DEI discussed in the following library science resource. After finding our NCLG webpages, students of Jennifer Bright who are in a Students for Research homeschool platform, shared the following article. It includes definitions especially appropriate for younger children and cover aspects of addressing inequality and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusivity within libraries and educational settings. See Ensuring Libraries are Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive.

Neurodiversity and Accessibility, Teaching Online, and Web Design 

NEW!  Asterion - Celeberating Neurodiversity in Classics has shared with NCLG some excellent resources on their new blog site about web and document accessibility design tools. These tools are clearly presented in chart form and very easy to use. They are designed for readers who are autistic, dyslexic, or using screen readers. Asterion is a UK organisation set up by neurodivergent people in Classics, striving to raise the profile of neurodiversity, to celebrate the achievements of neurodivergent classicists, and to tackle barriers to inclusion through support and training.

NEW! Color Blindness is experienced by a percentage of students and we offer some features of web design that can make reading and website access better for persons with atypical vision. Very helpful government guidelines can be found here. Writing pages and documents with these concepts in mind can make learning easier for readers. An excellent TGPi analytic tool by Paciello Group for was designed  for quickly gauging the adequate contrast and readability of text and background color. It can be downloaded for free for MAC and PC and is very easy to use. 

Opportunity and Access: Strategies to Support Exceptional Students.  Maureen Lamb shared some effective strategies for reaching all students in an in-person, virtual or hybrid Latin classroom. “As many teachers are transitioning into the world of online and hybrid learning, supporting exceptional students can become challenging. This video course explores strategies to support exceptional students and how they can apply to language classrooms.” 2020 Organized by Idioma. https://www.idiomaconsulting.com/coll...​

Online classes: Teaching and Learning Remotely, an online resource provided by ACTFL, the  American Council on the Teaching of  Foreign Languages, is a valuable source of advice for the coming school year. Many great presentations are offered here to aid your planning and class design to accommodate remote learning and hybrid teaching platforms now in use in many school districts. It is important to keep effective language learning strategies in play so that all students still feel comfortable, receive accommodations with respect to materials as well as technology, and are given equal opportunities for success, even if teachers and students are not in the same classroom.

Some Further Reflections.....

Cultural Competence is also an important aspect of inclusive language teaching, and choosing effective teaching methods and accurate content are pivotal here, as well. Since language curricula always contain many lessons and readings presenting the cultures and histories of target language speakers, it is important that such content is accurate, includes the experiences of all racial, multicultural, societal or economic groups involved, and is examined from various perspectives, especially those of marginalized groups. Content that is inaccurate, does not present all the facts, shows deliberate bias or a single-perspective view can make students feel uncomfortable, excluded or unwelcome as they are asked to participate in a discussion or activity. Issues, such as genocide, sexual violence, or enslavement, that might be difficult for some students to discuss openly can perhaps become a focus of a written reflection or handled in another manner in which students could feel safer in expressing their ideas and feelings. Teachers can also alert students to upcoming content that might be uncomfortable, emotional or traumatic to them so that students can be psychologically prepared or opt for an alternative assignment.   Moreover, a teacher’s approach, tone of voice, or mannerisms may also affect how students relate to the lesson material. We have offered several resources on our Antiracism, Social Justice and Multiculturalism page on the importance of becoming more aware of how our words and mannerisms can show implicit bias towards both content and students.

More and more institutions and websites are beginning to offer resources to address this issue of cultural competence and so that teachers and students can come to a deeper understanding of historical context. You can access more information on this and related topics, such as erasing cultural bias in course content, decolonizing your syllabus, and working against racism, exclusion, misogyny, and other perspectives that marginalize, devalue, and even strive to erase others on our website. 

Go to page: ACCURATE AND BALANCED CURRICULUM  CONTENT  “Changing Perspectives: A Paradigm Shift in Curriculum and the Need for Accurate and Balanced Content.”

Go to page: WELCOMING ALL STUDENTS ND COLLEAGUES    

Go to page: INCLUSION IN THE GREEK AND LATIN CLASSROOM