Humanities

A free program for secondary English and Social Studies teachers 

This hands-on workshop is designed specifically for middle and high school English and History/Social Studies teachers looking to harness the power of generative AI to enhance teaching and learning while mitigating its potential negative impacts on student learning. Through interactive sessions led by experienced educators, participants will explore the fundamentals of AI, its practical applications in the classroom, and strategies for addressing its ethical implications. Whether you're new to AI or already experimenting with its use, this workshop will provide actionable insights and tools to support diverse learners, foster creativity, and promote critical thinking.

Key Highlights:

• Gain a clear understanding of how generative AI works and its role in education.
• Learn how AI tools can support the design of culturally responsive, differentiated instruction.
• Discover practical applications for increasing student engagement and supporting diverse learners.
• Explore innovative ways to integrate AI into learning activities and creative projects while addressing ethical concerns.
• Develop strategies to minimize the potential negative impact of AI on student learning and academic integrity.

Presenters:

Natasha Heny, Assoc. Professor of Education, UVA

Paul Torrey, Asst. Professor of Astronomy, UVA

Dana Little, Asst. Professor of English, Writing and Rhetoric Program, UVA

Alecia Blackwood, Asst. Professor of Education, Longwood University

Agenda:

• 9:30 Registration Opens
• 10:00-10:15 Welcome & Introductions - Natasha Heny & Natsuko Rohde (Center for the Liberal Arts)
• 10:15-10:55 
• "Demystifying Generative AI: How it Works and Its Role in Education" - Paul Torrey - Explore how generative AI functions, its potential applications for teaching and learning, and the challenges it presents in the classroom.
• 10:55-11:35 "AI-Enhanced Instructional Design" - Natasha Heny - Learn how to use AI tools to create differentiated, culturally responsive instruction and enhance curriculum planning.
• 11:35-11:40  Break
• 11:40-12:20  - "Leveraging AI in the Classroom to Support learning" - Alecia Blackwood - Explore practical ways to use AI tools to foster student engagement, enhance critical thinking, and promote deep learning for diverse learners.
• 12:20-1:20 Lunch
• 1:20-2:00 - "Teaching with AI: Creative Applications and Ethical Considerations of AI in the Humanities Classroom" - Dana Little - Discover innovative ways to enhance learning through the integration of AI into writing assignments, creative projects, and classroom activities.
• 2:00-2:10  Break
• 2:10-3:00  "Addressing AI’s Impact on Student Assessment and Academic Integrity" - Panel Discussion: Blackwood, Heny, Little, Torrey - Discuss how to navigate challenges posed by AI in student learning and the evaluation of learning while promoting academic integrity.

This program is sponsored by The Arthur Vinning Davis Foundations, UVA Center for the Liberal Arts, U.S. National Science Foundation

This event was hosted on March 15, 2024 - 10:00am at the UVA Student Health and Wellness, 550 Brandon Avenue, Charlottesville, VA 22908

As K-12 teachers and students grapple with issues of race and justice in history and society, there is value in bringing in perspectives that arise from two areas of contemporary classical studies. On the one hand, there is the place of Africa in the Greco-Roman imaginary, and how regions like Egypt and Ethiopia are involved in ancient constructions of the Other. At the same time, much exciting work is being done on the varied reception of Greek and Roman literature in African American literature and art, ranging from colonial times to today. This workshop will explore these topics via test cases in artistic and historical reflections on Africa, African-American Culture, and the Classics.

The program will include four 30-minute talks, each followed by general discussion, with an opening gathering and breaks, and lunch together. Presenters will include UVA faculty members along with faculty from Howard University and the College of William and Mary.

There will be two funded opportunities for teachers to develop teaching resources to be shared with all participants as a follow-up to the workshop.

Agenda:

9:00 – 9:45  Coffee and Registration

9:45 – 10:45  Inger Kuin, University of Virginia - ‘What does a (Neo-)Classical Poet Look Like? Race and Recognition in the Life and Works of Phillis Wheatley’

10:45 – 11:00  Break

11:00 – 12:00  Najee Olya, College of William and Mary - ‘Africa and the Ancient Mediterranean World: Re-examining the Scholarly Contributions of 20th Century Black Intellectuals’ 

12:00 – 1:00  Lunch 

1:00 – 2:00  John Miller, University of Virginia - ‘Classical Myth in the Poetry of Rita Dove’

2:00 – 2:15  Break

2:15 – 3:15  Caroline Stark, Howard University - ‘Refashioning the Classical Heroine in the Poetry of H. Cordelia Ray’

Free in-person workshop for teachers

This workshop will share new frameworks and lesson plans for teaching Vietnamese-American literature, particularly in secondary schools.

TLL provides free educational materials to support the teaching of historically underrepresented literatures in K–12 classrooms.

Speakers:

Sylvia Chong 

Sylvia Chong is Associate Professor of English and American Studies and the Director of the Asian Pacific American Studies minor at the University of Virginia. She is the author of The Oriental Obscene: Violence and Racial Fantasies in the Vietnam Era (Duke University Press, 2012), and co-editor of the anthology (Re)Collecting the Vietnam War (a special issue of the Asian American Literary Review, Fall/Winter 2015). She has a Ph.D. in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley and an A.M. in Education from Stanford University, and has previously taught in public high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Helen Min 

Helen Min is a Ph.D. candidate and Dean’s Fellow in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development (UVA) with a research focus on evaluating trauma-sensitive pedagogy, understanding the impact of stress on teacher well-being, and assessing the extent of vicarious trauma on teachers. She taught for six years in Baltimore, MD, Osaka, Japan, and Cairo, Egypt, and received her MS. Ed. from Johns Hopkins University. 

Joseph Wei 

Joe Wei is a PhD candidate in the English Department at the University of Virginia. His research areas include Asian American literature, critical refugee studies, and poetry and poetics.

Sarah Winstein-Hibbs 

Sarah Winstein-Hibbs, PhD, is a high school English teacher at the Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter school, where she teaches IB courses in writing and literature. Before deciding to switch to high school education, she was an Assistant Teaching Professor of English at Penn State University, where she taught courses on The Graphic Novel, The Rhetoric of Public Memory, and freshman composition. Since 2018, she has served as Co-Director of Research and Analysis for TLL - a role in which she analyzed survey data from 1200+ teachers nationwide and made initial curricular recommendations. Her research on race and American literature has been published in scholarly journals such as American Literary History, American Quarterly, and Multi-Ethnic Literature of the US. In 2021, she received her PhD in American Literature from the University of Virginia, where she also served as Assistant to the Director of Writing. Sarah originally hails from St. Louis, MO, where she used to work as an after-school creative writing and art teacher in the St. Louis city school district.

Agenda:

• 9:30-10:00 Breakfast
• 10:00-10:45 Sylvia Chong, Associate Professor, English and American Studies, U. of Virginia  - Introduction and Overview of Vietnamese American Lit and History
• 11:00-11:45

• 11:45-12:45 Lunch break
• 12:45-1:30 Sarah Winstein-Hibbs and Helen Min: Teaching the Graphic Novel The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui: Ch. 1
• 1:45-2:30 Joseph Wei, Ph.D. candidate, English, U. of Virginia  - Teaching Spoken Word Poetry by Bao Phi and Poetry by Ocean Vuong
• 2:45-3:00 Sylvia Chong: Resources for Teaching Vietnamese American Lit. in K-8
• 3:00-3:45 Breakout to small groups:  

• 3:45-4:00 Evaluation/Closing Remarks

This event was hosted on February 25, 2023 - 5:00 am at the University of Virginia Zehmer Hall 104, Midmont Ln, Charlottesville, VA 22903