- Friday March 20th, 2025 Program Stavanger
Practical Approaches for Interdisciplinary Thematic Learning in Multicultural Classrooms
Ryan Kiesel
Interdisciplinary thematic learning is a child-centered instructional practice where educators integrate subject area disciplines through the exploration of a central, unifying theme. Students pursue interests within that theme through open-ended projects, examination of real-world questions, and the production of public presentations and artworks. Centering student interest allows classrooms to adopt a more culturally- and linguistically-supportive learning environment.
This workshop will offer an overview of interdisciplinary thematic learning in American and Norwegian elementary classrooms and look at practical approaches for choosing highly-engaging open-ended projects using the interdisciplinary topic, Democracy and Citizenship as an example. We will investigate practical approaches for incorporating reading, writing, and speaking along with social studies, natural sciences, and the arts into this student-centered learning approach.
American Immigration: Inclusion, Exclusion, and Ethnicity
Kristin Dawley
This workshop examines the United States as a “nation of immigrants” through the lens of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), highlighting how attitudes toward immigration have shifted over time. Using political cartoons from the late 1800s, participants will explore why the Act was passed and how ideas about race, ethnicity, assimilation, and economic competition shaped its adoption. The session also addresses common student challenges in discussing ethnicity and offers strategies for teaching historical concepts of race while encouraging critical reflection on their power and limitations. Finally, we will consider how echoes of the exclusionary concepts can be heard in modern immigration debates in the United States and throughout the globe. Possible extensions including literature and news articles will be offered as well.
Using Art to Unpack and Discuss Complex Topics in the Classroom
Naitnaphit Limlamai
The classroom can be a space for students to discuss complex topics that matter to them, like racism, sexism, xenophobia, and other injustices. But how can we do so in ways that invite students to explore and ask questions about our world while developing their English vocabulary? In this session, we will work through an example of how we can use art to examine and evaluate systems of oppression and how that examination can help students learn more about and navigate our complex world. We’ll brainstorm different art—visual, music, literary—for use in your classroom and discuss how students can create their own art to learn more about how our world functions.
Authentic Inquiry - Authentic Reasons to Learn
Alison Billman
Student motivation to learn is enhanced when students can see the relationship between school-based learning and their lives outside of school. Interdisciplinary inquiries, especially those that emerge from students’ own curiosities about the world, offer authentic contexts for solving real-life problems while developing proficiency with language and thinking skills. This workshop will help participants understand how to design inquiries that connect to life outside of school while still accomplishing goals of the national curriculum.
Slavery and Indentured Servitude in the early colonial period
David Gerwin
A set of primary sources from the 17th century Chesapeake provides a practical example for teaching students historical thinking, work with sources, and constructing a thesis based on specific evidence from traces of the past. The workshops models the inquiry process emphasizing gaps in our knowledge, hypotheses, and interpretations based upon evidence.
Analyzing Online Information: Bridging Literacy Consumption Inside and Outside of School
Kathrina O’Connell
As consumers of online information, it is important that pupils are able to understand what is stated explicitly and implicitly, what is opinion, and what is true, false, omitted, or exaggerated. This workshop will focus on the analysis of online news reports. In the United States, news channels are businesses that rely on ratings, advertisements, and engaging stories. As a result, the lines between information and entertainment can become blurred.
Driving questions for this workshop include:
- Where do we seek out information about our community, country, and the world?
- How do we consume news critically?
- How do we check for media bias?
Participants in this workshop will compare and contrast news reports and discuss the role of media bias in news reports published in the United States. The critical reading approach will also be connected to students’ leisure online reading practices. Exercises from this workshop will be available for teachers to use in their classrooms.