My colleague Dina Roginsky and I were awarded The Instructional Innovation Workshop 2019 by The Center for Language Studies at Yale for our joined  Languages in Dialogue project. The main goal of the  project is to start working on the design of these new parallel classes (Arabic – Hebrew / Hebrew – Arabic) in a way that aligns with a multiliteracy framework by:

• Searching and including multi model resources that tackle the intended shared themes (text, media, audio and visual) and the best ways to integrate them in the course.
• Investigate the use of pedagogical-technological tools that allow for learner collaboration and cooperation.
• Design language learning tasks and activities that use the technological tools mentioned above in a way that maximizes the focus on multimodality.
• Designing language assessment that uses the technological tools mentioned above while also broadening the concept of assessment by ensuring that it is designed to be socially anchored, culturally focused and contextually significant.

The IIW Workshop is a five-day (May 13-17, 2019) intensive opportunity for language faculty to work on projects based on a specific theme that changes from year to year. The topic for this year is Multiliteracies and the focus of the workshop was exploring how literacy- and text-based approaches can be implemented in the language curriculum.