Participants receive Certificate of Attendance
African American Language and Practical Application
Workshop for Teachers and Speech-Language Pathologists
Organized by Lisa Green, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Brandi Newkirk-Turner, Jackson State University
Presenters
BRANDI NEWKIRK-TURNER
Ryan LEE-JAMES
Brittanee Rolle
Nandi Sims
Chief Academic Officer, Atlanta Speech School
Director, Rollins Center for Language and Literacy & ITS Cox Campus
Associate Provost for Academic Affairs at Jackson State University and Professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders
12th Grade English Teacher
Butler College Prep
Chicago, IL
Assistant Professor of Linguistics
Stanford University
Dr. Ryan Lee-James is an ASHA certified speech-language pathologist, the Chief Academic Officer of the Atlanta Speech School where she directs the Rollins Center for Language and Literacy, and a published author. She has expertise in language development, language disorders, and literacy in the context of linguistic differences and socioeconomic disadvantage.
Dr. Brandi Newkirk-Turner examines issues that are relevant to speech-language assessments of child speakers of African American English; best practices in preparing graduate students to serve culturally and linguistically diverse populations; and barriers, opportunities, and potential impacts in reducing or eliminating equity gaps of underserved student populations in higher education.
Ms. Brittanee Rolle, Fund for Teachers Fellow (2021), received a grant to learn about ways in which professors, museums, and classroom teachers have developed strategies to embrace and explore African American English while teaching Standard American English. Her philosophy of education is not to demand that children of color give up what they are to become to something else, yet to give them the tools to demand the world to make room for them.
Dr. Nandi Sims is interested in language variation and change stemming from situations of ethnic contact in the US. She investigates the variation related to social identities, institutional ideologies, and the hegemonic structure of race. The educational texts in her book series "Words in My World!" provide early elementary students with a basic introduction to linguistics through the lens of variation in the US.
OVERVIEW
This two-day workshop provides an overview of the linguistic structure of AAE and how this information can be used in educational contexts. In addition, participants and researchers work together to compile a list of questions (with answers!) that captures what practitioners want to know about AAE.
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
July 6
July 7
Integrative Learning Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst
during the 2023 Linguistic Institute (see Program for details)
tENTATIVE SCHEDULE
THURSDAY (7/6)
9:00AM - 9:30AM
9:30AM - 10:45AM
11:00AM - 12:15PM
12:15PM - 1:30PM
1:30PM - 2:45PM
3:00PM - 4:00PM
4:00PM - 5:15PM
Welcome and Goals
Vignette #1: This is African American Language
Lisa Green
Working Group: What we want to know
Brittany Rolle
LUNCH
Vignette #2: African American Language
patterns and implications for speech-language assessment
Brandi Newkirk-Turner
Working Group: What we want to know
Brittany Rolle
Vignette #3: African American Language in schools
Ryan Lee-James
FRIDAY (7/7)
9:00AM - 10:15AM
10:30AM - 11:45AM
11:45AM - 12:15PM
Vignette #4: Relationship between language and social identity
Nandi Sims
Working Group: Framing the final document “What Teachers and Speech Pathologists Want to Know about African American Language”
CONCLUSION