GlobalThe ICC workshops and teaching activities provide teaching enrichment opportunities that promote integration of our globally diverse student population (this includes all our students!) and facilitate inclusion of global, international, and intercultural elements into course design.
- Format: All workshops are being offered virtually. When invited, our team is happy to attend in-person team/department trainings to introduce content by facilitating any of our offerings.
- Audience: The primary audience for these workshops is faculty, instructors (including teaching assistants), and instructional staff who directly support teaching and learning.
- Frequency: Not all workshops are offered each semester or year. If you don't see an upcoming session of a workshop you would like to take, please contact Ann Smith.
- Cost: All sessions are free of charge to current UMN participants. Participants from outside the University of Minnesota system can register for a fee.
Core Workshops
Interactive and designed to help you create a foundational knowledge on a specific topic. Duration: 1 to 3 hours. These courses can be taken independently or in partial fulfillment of the Teaching in Globally Diverse Classes Certificate.
How can we design a course that will deepen international, intercultural, and global learning for our students? Join us for this interactive online workshop where you will have the opportunity to expand your teaching strategies to prepare global-ready students. We suggest you focus on a semester-long course of your choosing to explore learning goals, assessment techniques, and teaching strategies that can help your students develop the skills, knowledge, and perspectives necessary to understand the world and work effectively to improve it.
How do we as teachers facilitate intercultural learning that centers on the diverse perspectives students bring to our classrooms? Join us for an interactive online workshop where you will have the opportunity to expand and deepen your teaching strategies to engage the global diversity in your classes. Faculty and instructors from all disciplines face increasing demands to help students develop the intercultural skills necessary to thrive in today’s world. During this workshop, you will learn from leaders in the field of intercultural education and practice strategies to facilitate interactions among students in your globally diverse classrooms.
“[This is] an OUTSTANDING workshop: [The facilitators] do such a wonderful job of modeling the skills they are teaching about as they facilitate deep and meaningful discussions about real situations. Regardless of your experience level with this topic it is really worthwhile attending this workshop." — past workshop participant
Let’s talk about how we can leverage all interactive classroom activities for deeper content learning and interpersonal and intercultural development. In this webinar, we will share considerations, strategies, scripts, and tools (including a student handout you can adapt) that can help you and your students realize the full potential of classroom interactions. When you facilitate student interactions around content area learning objectives, students are not only engaging with content, they are also engaging with each other. This affords them an additional learning opportunity to practice critical interpersonal and intercultural skills with intention. Naming these skills for students and providing periodic opportunities for reflection are all essential for building students’ global competence. We can’t assume students are aware of or thinking about these competencies. Just as with subject-area learning outcomes, we need to actively and intentionally facilitate this learning.
“I'm so glad to have a concrete framework to give students a way to think about how they engage with each other in class discussions or group work! I hadn't thought about asking them to put this into words, and I'm really glad to have a way to ask them to think about this in addition to the context we cover in my course.” — past workshop participant
This one-hour interactive webinar is designed to introduce you to the mechanisms in our brains that prevent us from being interculturally inclusive and those that make such inclusion possible. It will include a brief summary of recent findings from cultural and educational neuroscience as well as practical strategies that could help you create more inclusive classrooms. There will be several interactive activities that will help you connect what you are learning from this webinar to your classroom practices. No previous knowledge on neuroscience is required.
Additional Workshops
All of these webinars and workshops can be taken independently or used to fulfill elective requirements for the Teaching in Globally Diverse Classes Certificate.
- Teaching Activities, Strategies, and Approaches
- Conversations Centering International and Multilingual Students
- Certificate Program Group Discussions (certificate participants only)
Teaching Activities, Strategies, and Approaches
Designed to introduce you to high-impact interactive teaching activities, strategies, and approaches that are applicable broadly across disciplines/courses, and easily integrated into curriculum and lesson plans. Duration: 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Join us to learn about this versatile and easy classroom assessment technique (CAT). This activity serves to provide instructors with valuable mid-term information on how students are doing. We will share several ways this activity can be implemented to demonstrate its versatility.
You will experience one quick and easy “check-in’ activity, the 7-Word Story, and discuss others that can be integrated into your course design in order to 1) build and strengthen a sense of community among learners, 2) broaden participation, 3) provide frequent and brief opportunities for students to engage content and practice and develop interpersonal and intercultural skills, and, very importantly, 4) for you to gather valuable information from students about the students themselves and/or about what and how they are processing class content.
This is a fun activity that demonstrates our human tendency to gravitate to the familiar—people who look, think, and act like us, as well as the limitations of this tendency. We observe this in our classrooms all the time. Students self-segregate into their same social or cultural groups, and in doing so miss out on valuable opportunities to grow their networks, broaden their perspectives, and practice intercultural skills needed in our interconnected world.
This 30-minute webinar activity is designed to help you turn your class into a Global Village, where students examine how people in different countries are affected by global issues and trends and deepen their international and intercultural learning. Whether it is for a single assignment, module, or full semester, the Global Village activity asks students to practice representing a point of view from a different country or culture. You will learn about the original activity and its adaptations to different disciplines.
This 30-minute webinar is designed to help you consider the role of cultural communication styles in your classroom, so you can help your students deepen their intercultural communication skills. During the webinar, we will review high-context and low-context communication styles used in different cultures and countries and provide you with an opportunity to reflect on your own communication style. You will also experience a teaching activity that you can do with your students on cultural communication styles.
This one-hour webinar is designed to help you reflect on your cultural identity in teaching. You will have an opportunity to think about how the culture(s) you grew up in and lived in for an extended period of time influence your teaching. We will also discuss several strategies on how you can effectively share your intercultural experiences and lessons learned with your students and what you can do to help your students realize that their culture(s) have influenced their perspectives on self, others, and the world.
This 30-minute webinar will introduce you to the Cultural Values Collage activity, which can be implemented in a single class session or woven throughout the semester. In this activity, students reflect on how their own culture shaped their values and beliefs and deepen their intercultural learning. You will learn about the original activity and its adaptations to different class sizes and teaching formats.
Learn one approach for establishing class or group agreements and expectations. Establishing class or group agreements and expectations sets a tone for the course that reinforces intentionality and collaborative decision-making processes, and the idea that the classroom learning environment is something we all contribute to, are responsible for, and can influence. Making these explicit and clear for yourself and for students is important for all members of the class, and even more so for students who may be new to U.S. classrooms and educational practices in higher education.
In this session, a panel of faculty and staff will discuss ways that they have applied the knowledge or skills developed via this series of workshops about centering international and multilingual students.
Experience an activity that is especially valuable for fostering rapport among students from diverse cultural backgrounds. During this 30-minute webinar, we will model and discuss effective facilitation strategies for how you can help your students "find common ground."
Come experience a fun, interactive review activity. Give one, get one (GOGO) is a great way to get students up and moving and talking to each other while assessing their understanding. Through this activity students can share key takeaways from a lesson, and based on what they come up with and share, you can learn what students are gaining from the lesson and if there are any underrepresented areas of content that you can address in a future class or exam review session. We will demonstrate the GOGO activity’s versatility, as well.
This 30-minute webinar will introduce you to several teaching activities designed to help your students change common misconceptions about the world and think more critically about statistical data on global tendencies. This webinar is based on the book by Hans Rosling “Factfulness: Ten reasons we're wrong about the world and why things are better than you think.” During the webinar, you will be introduced to Rosling's most important research findings, experience one of the teaching activities based on the book, and learn about other activities you can try in your class.
One challenge that many instructors face is a concern about fitting in all the required course content while also engaging students in active learning. A jigsaw activity is a way to do both by partially shifting the onus of teaching content onto the students. Come experience the Jigsaw activity with your colleagues, and consider/discuss course content that lends itself to the jigsaw approach.
In this session, you will learn about and experience an activity called Describe, Analyze, Evaluate (DAE). The DAE is a framework for practicing one’s ability to ‘frame-shift," or to understand a situation from another’s point of view. This involves cultivating a critical skill-set and attitudes for interacting effectively across differences. Nam and Condon (2010) explain, this “exercise is intended to foster self-awareness of personal and cultural assumptions, promote the appreciation of cognitive complexity, and the importance of frame-shifting when encountering the unfamiliar” (p. 81). The DAE can be used daily in a variety of ways by students and faculty alike—join us to learn how! This webinar references the following article: Kyoung-Ah Nam, John Condon. The DIE is cast: The continuing evolution of intercultural communication’s favorite classroom exercise. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 34 (2010), 81–87.
An often-cited reason students choose not to ask questions or contribute to large- or small-group discussions is they are afraid they will “say something stupid.” Come learn a new activity that involves anonymity, and other concrete strategies to alleviate these fears and promote increased participation from all students.
Join a conversation on class participation to learn and share ideas, resources, and tools for establishing broader and deeper student engagement and interaction. We will facilitate this discussion using an activity that invites all voices, the Whip Around.
This 30-minute webinar is designed to help you integrate the UN Sustainable Development Goals into your courses. Integrating the goals can help your students build awareness of global issues and learn about concrete steps they could take to address them on both global and local levels. We will review several methods for and examples of integrating the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals that address various global challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate change, peace, and justice that you can include in your classroom discussions.
Learning and using students’ names, and encouraging students to do the same with each other, is essential for building community in your class. There are many creative ways to encourage students to learn and use names. In this 30-minute session, we will experience two simple activities and discuss others.
Conversations Centering International and Multilingual Students
These webinars are offered as a collaboration between ICC and the Minnesota English Language Program (MELP). Duration: 1 to 1.5 hours
Five of the webinars listed below will follow the book, Fostering international student success in higher education. You can pick and choose to attend any webinar, and there is no requirement to read the book. If you would like to go more in-depth on this topic, these five sessions are also part of the curriculum for a new cohort opportunity in Spring 2024. Learn more about the cohort and the citation for the text.
Xenophobia—fear or hatred of people from other countries—is a real barrier to international community members who come to the University of Minnesota to study, work, and research. This is not a new phenomenon, but it has become more visible due to the global pandemic and has been escalated by incendiary rhetoric. Further, while many international students come to the U.S. with a sense of, and language for, their own identities in the context of their home nations, these are more often than not experienced differently in the U.S. racialized context. Most international students undergo challenges as a U.S.-centric label and identity are imposed upon them by the institution, policies, or individuals, often attaching an experience of minoritization not previously experienced.
In this session, we will raise awareness of these issues and discuss how we can support the international community and understand our complicit role and active anti- racist actions we can take. Our aim is to foster a more inclusive and just campus where everyone—including international community members—can contribute at their highest and best.
This workshop is a collaboration between the Office for Equity & Diversity (OED), Global Programs and Strategy (GPS) Alliance, and the Minnesota English Language Program (MELP).
In this session, we’ll explore the potential benefits of learning in diverse classrooms, as well as strategies that foster a sense of belonging, and establish community and connections among our globally and linguistically diverse students.
This webinar is co-facilitated in partnership between Internationalizing the Curriculum and Campus (ICC) and the Minnesota English Language Program (MELP).
This session is the start of a five-part series based on the text, Fostering International Students Success in Higher Education. We will focus on the first chapter of the book and explore the context of international students in the U.S. and at the University of Minnesota including: reasons why international students are here; relevant policies; data highlighting challenges, opportunities, and successes international students can experience; important terminology; connections to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts; and campus internationalization. We will also introduce asset-based frameworks and pedagogies that will guide future conversations. [No need to read the book prior to attending the webinar.]
In this webinar we will explore ways to minimize linguistic and cultural bias in assignments and assessments. We will also discuss ways to provide feedback on language and consider informal accommodations to help ensure equitable and inclusive assessments and assignments.
This session is based on the text, Fostering International Students Success in Higher Education, and focuses on the second chapter. No need to read the book prior to attending the webinar.
This webinar will explore the role of academic culture in the experiences of international and multilingual students and how we can support transition into common U.S. classroom culture. We will present some typical classroom values and practices of U.S. academic culture that might be new for students and identify some strategies that can facilitate the adjustment.
This session is based on the text, Fostering International Students Success in Higher Education, and focuses on the second chapter. No need to read the book prior to attending the webinar.
This webinar will explore pedagogical approaches that foster a linguistically inclusive classroom where multilingualism and language differences are seen as assets. We will also highlight some second language acquisition (SLA) principles and related teaching practices that can support ongoing language and literacy development, while making classroom content more accessible.
This session is based on the text, Fostering International Students Success in Higher Education, and focuses on the second chapter. No need to read the book prior to attending the webinar.
In this webinar we will explore ways we can be advocates for international and multilingual students beyond our classrooms and help ensure their voices and experiences are considered and included in campus-wide conversations, particularly those related to DEI. We will also discuss ways to help students develop agency and ensure they are and feel integrated on campus.
This session is based on the text, Fostering International Students Success in Higher Education, and focuses on the fifth chapter. No need to read the book prior to attending the webinar.
International and multilingual learners bring their languages, cultures, and diverse perspectives to the classroom. Their unique backgrounds allow them to approach problems in new and creative ways, interact with broader audiences, access more varied information, and engage across more diverse groups. These indisputable assets enrich the learning experience for all and can help foster critical thinking, cultural awareness, and intercultural skills among everyone in the classroom. Via a series of mini-lessons, this online, asynchronous course explores common challenges international and multilingual learners can face when learning in a new educational context and through a foreign language. You will also learn several strategies for making your content and teaching more inclusive and accessible, particularly for international multilingual learners of English.
This is a self-paced asynchronous module that should take 30 to 45 minutes to complete.
International and multilingual students come to our campus with many skills, talents, and perspectives that enrich our university and learning experiences for all. However, sometimes students experience judgment or exclusion based on the way that they speak or use English. This, in turn, impacts their experiences, both social and academic. In this workshop, we will explore what is understood by this language or accent bias, how this connects with DEI efforts, and how we can work to create more linguistically affirming and just classrooms.
This webinar is co-facilitated in partnership between Internationalizing the Curriculum and Campus (ICC) and the Minnesota English Language Program (MELP).
Certificate Program Group Discussions
The Group Discussions are designed to offer participants of the Teaching in Globally Diverse Classes Certificate Program opportunities to meet and talk with facilitators and fellow participants. Aside from establishing broad focus areas, these small-group discussions are largely unstructured. You can bring questions, ideas, and insights related to the focus area from your own experiences and/or from your participation in the various components of the certificate (readings, webinars, reflections, etc). Open to TiGDC Certificate participants only.
The Group Discussions are designed to offer participants of the Teaching in Globally Diverse Classes Certificate Program opportunities to meet and talk with facilitators and fellow participants. Aside from establishing broad focus areas, these small-group discussions are largely unstructured. You can bring questions, ideas, and insights related to the focus area from your own experiences and/or from your participation in the various components of the certificate (readings, webinars, reflections, etc).
Group Discussion A - Community Building: This session provides an informal, fun, and friendly chance to get to know a few of your fellow TiGDC colleagues. We believe that teaching shouldn’t happen in isolation, and that we should build community among us in support of each other in our teaching and our own learning. We will also invite conversation about ways we can intentionally and effectively build a sense of community in our classes.
Note: Only participants of the Teaching in Globally Diverse Classes Certificate Program may enroll in the Group Discussion sections.
The Group Discussions are designed to offer participants of the Teaching in Globally Diverse Classes Certificate Program opportunities to meet and talk with facilitators and fellow participants. Aside from establishing broad focus areas, these small-group discussions are largely unstructured. You can bring questions, ideas, and insights related to the focus area from your own experiences and/or from your participation in the various components of the certificate (readings, webinars, reflections, etc).
Group Discussion B - Required Readings: In this discussion session, participants dig into the certificate's required readings. All six required readings are available on the TiGDC Canvas site.
Note: Only participants of the Teaching in Globally Diverse Classes Certificate Program may enroll in the Group Discussion sections.
The Group Discussions are designed to offer participants of the Teaching in Globally Diverse Classes Certificate Program opportunities to meet and talk with facilitators and fellow participants. Aside from establishing broad focus areas, these small-group discussions are largely unstructured. You can bring questions, ideas, and insights related to the focus area from your own experiences and/or from your participation in the various components of the certificate (readings, webinars, reflections, etc).
Group Discussion A - Webinars and Workshops: This discussion session is an opportunity to reflect on the webinars and workshops included in the certificate program. The majority of your time in this program will be spent participating in them, so we want to make sure you have a chance to share your thoughts, ask any questions you may not have had time to ask, explore ways to apply different teaching activities or approaches in your own learning environments, and dive deeper into and ideas and activities that caught your attention. Prior to participating in Discussion C, you must attend at least 5 webinars or workshops.
Note: Only participants of the Teaching in Globally Diverse Classes Certificate Program may enroll in the Group Discussion sections.