informal science learning

OH TESOL 2019 Conference

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The 2019 Ohio TESOL Conference takes place here in Columbus, Ohio on October 11th and 12th. The theme this year is Collaborate! Educate! Initiate! This is an annual meeting of various stakeholders (teachers, researchers, students, community support networks, etc.) who work with English learners and multilingual speakers in Ohio. I am is the featured speaker on Saturday morning. I will talk about the Expanding Repertoires of Practice project and reflect on the power of TESOL professionals and how we amplify our impact and expand our skills and knowledge through our collaboration with non-TESOL partners (students, families, non-TESOL colleagues, community organizations). I am also leading a workshop with COSI colleagues on hands-on and inquiry-based science with English learners.

Webinar for Association of Children’s Museums

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On Wednesday, April 17, 2:00 – 3:00 PM EDT, Rita Deedrick (Director, COSI Center for Research and Evaluation) and I will lead a webinar for the Association of Children’s Museums, Museums in Service to Young Multilingual Learners: Findings from an Exploratory Project. We will share key findings from our NSF-funded project that sought to lay the groundwork for improving informal science learning experiences for preschool dual language learners (DLLs). ACM members are invited to join us to hear about what was learned from the project and how the findings may inform future practice and research.

Ohio TESOL 2018 poster presentation

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Jackie Ridley and Somin Kim will present a poster on the Expanding Repertoires of Practice project at the Ohio TESOL 2018 Conference. The theme this year is Breaking Through Language Barriers: Success Across Content. Our goal is to communicate to practitioners and researchers the power and potential of science education that is hands-on, multimodal, and driven by children’s curiosity, particularly in superdiverse preschool classrooms like those we have studied in Central Ohio.

Graduation Cake at Language Pod

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In the Language Pod we have a tradition of celebrating our students who are graduating and moving on to exciting new endeavors. Cake is central to that tradition. Congratulations to Hannah and Taylor, 2 of my fabulous 5700 students from Spring 2017 who went to to work as Research Assistants in the Pod and who head next to graduate work in Speech and Hearing Sciences!

AAA 2017

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At AAA 2017 in Washington, DC I presented a paper ‘Investigating language practices and ideologies with and within museums and preschools’ as part of a double panel on The Anthropology of Education Matters’ in Informal Learning Contexts. As always, the AAAs were an opportunity to reconnect with far-flung friends. This photo shows me with Dr. Marilyn Merritt, a linguistic anthropologist at George Washington University whose work has inspired me since my graduate student days.

AISLab at SLRF 2017

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OSU is hosting the 2017 Second Language Research Forum! AISLab will present on Friday at 4 pm in Hagerty Hall 062. Our paper ‘Engaged second language research: Supporting dual language learners science and language learning’ describes the Expanding Repertoires project and presents some preliminary findings from the Exploratory Study. Sunday morning I will serve as moderator for the panel discussion by the plenary speakers Patricia Duff, Brian MacWhinney, Kara Morgan-Short, and Lourdes Ortega. SLRF attendees are then invited to visit COSI and the Language Pod from 11 to 2 pm. Photo: Minseok Choi, Brian Seilstad, Leslie, Jackie Ridley, Somin Kim (current AISLab minus undergrad research assistants Andrea and Anisa).

NAEYC 2017 Professional Learning Institute

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I presented on the Expanding Repertoires project at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Professional Learning Institute with my colleague Marie Quisumbing (Manager of Early Childhood Initiative at COSI until recently, now with Columbus City Schools, one of our partners on the NSF AISL grant). The PLI was an amazing mix of early childhood educators – university faculty, center directors, state officials, consultants, etc.

‘Talking Black in America’ screening at COSI

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The new documentary ‘Talking Black in America‘ is coming to Columbus on Tuesday, June 6th. The screening will be at COSI in the Galaxy Theater. Executive producer Walt Wolfram will do a Q&A, in conversation with OSU professors, Dr. Elaine Richardson and Dr. Monique Mills. This event is sponsored by the Buckeye Language Network, the Department of Linguistics, the Department of Psychology, and COSI. Check out the trailer.