SDTP (Workshop on African American Dialect and Implications for Educators)
Teachers, speech pathologists, and researchers from around the country participated in the Summer Dialect Teacher Project (SDTP) (July 9-11, 2008), sponsored by the Center for the Study of African American Language (CSAAL) at UMass. One of the goals of the SDTP was to provide a forum to address language use and literacy skills of school-age children who use African American English (AAE) as their major form of communication. The question about the correlation between the use of AAE and the development of literary skills has been addressed separately in disciplines such as linguistics and education for over 40 years. However, the SDTP workshop provided one of the few opportunities for researchers and practitioners, such as classroom teachers and speech pathologists, to come together and discuss research and instructional methods that are beneficial in helping to improve reading and other academic skills. In addition to sharing in interactive presentation discussions, participants got hands-on experience by completing activities and mini projects that they can use in teaching reading and language arts classes.
The workshop presenters were Anne Charity (English and Linguistics, College of William and Mary), Lisa Green (Linguistics and CSAAL, UMass), Sonja Lanehart (English, University of Texas at San Antonio), Terry Meier (Language and Literacy, Wheelock College), Renée Price (St. Catherine’s School, Richmond, VA), Angela Rickford (Education, San Jose State University), and Toya Wyatt (Communicative Disorders, California State University, Fullerton). They conducted sessions related to AAE and education, classroom practice, and dialect and literacy. One of the highlights of the workshop was the presentation by Anne Charity and Renée Price, which featured new directions and insights in dialect research involving collaboration between linguists and teachers. The presentation was a prime example of steps that are being taken to provide more accessible research-based information that teachers and speech pathologists can use in their classes. Tom Roeper and Lisa Selkirk (Department of Linguistics, UMass) also addressed the audience about different angles of research on dialects and implications for education.
Through CSAAL and the Western Massachusetts Writing Project partnership, Site Director Anne Herrington (English, UMass) and In-Service Coordinator Susan Biggs, information about the SDTP was widely disseminated to teachers in Massachusetts and at other sites of the National Writing Project. In addition, due to this collaboration, teachers from Massachusetts who completed the SDTP workshop will be able to receive professional development credit.