Thursday, November 13: 10-4 in the Howard Thurman Center
Calling all faculty!
We invite you to design assignments that allow your entire class to participate in our Celebration of Multilingual Writing. Engage your students in creative works, oral histories, journalism or personal essays, research-based or analytical writing, and more–anything that reflects their linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This is an opportunity to embrace and celebrate the multilingual voices in your classrooms and to question the dominance of English and standard English ideologies. We encourage faculty to promote participation in this celebration, as it provides a unique opportunity for students to present their work in a public setting, gain recognition for their efforts, and engage with their peers in a meaningful way.
Wondering how to participate?
- Sign up to have your class join our storytelling corner, performing spoken word poetry or prose, at a specific time slot
- Share a class set of your students’ work on poster boards or digital posters
- If your class meets on a Thursday, consider having students meet you in the Howard Thurman Center and attend the Celebration together
Students can share any work that they/you desire; we suggest something personal, something students feel invested in, and something that reflects the many ways that multilinguality manifests itself at BU.
Remember, it’s not only our international students who are multilingual–we are all multilingual, all of us code-switching and code-meshing between home and school varieties of English, between different registers, between different modes of expression. Many of our students are heritage language speakers, and others are foreign language majors or minors, or plan to study abroad. An expansive definition of multilingualism benefits our international students, but the entire BU community. We encourage you to engage students in discussions of language equity, but also the broader effort to foster a more inclusive and equitable academic environment.
You and your students do not need to be available for the entire day of the Celebration, though we would love to have you join us for as long as you can.
If you are interested in having your class participate at the Celebration and you have not yet signed up via the form on this page, please reach out to Abir Ward, and she or another member of the Celebration committee will be in touch to make arrangements for collecting your students’ work to share on the day of the Celebration.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How can my students participate in the Celebration?
The two primary ways students can participate in the Celebration are by submitting writing to be displayed at the event and by attending the event. Students may do either or both, as their schedules permit. In addition, some students volunteer to help set up the Celebration, plan activities for it, and/or participate in the open mic.
- Is there one specific writing assignment required for my students?
No, but we have created some recommended assignments/prompts for different kinds of classes. We encourage you to assign whatever prompt you choose to all your students as a low-stakes assignment or in-class writing activity. You are of course welcome to create your own separate or additional prompt, too! We are very open to classes participating in the event in different ways and sharing different kinds of writing. In general, we find that assigning a prompt as a matter of class expectations, for all students in your class, leads to good student investment in the Celebration.
- Should my students attend the Celebration?
Yes! If your class meets on Tuesday/Thursday, we encourage you to tell students to meet you at the Howard Thurman Center and attend the Celebration in lieu of class that day. Your students will then be able to see their work displayed, interact with other participants, and experience the Celebration for themselves. Alternatively, if your class meets on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, we ask that you encourage your students to attend the Celebration as their schedules permit, but please still consider submitting student work to be displayed at the event.
- Can my students share their work at the Celebration if they/I cannot attend?
Yes! Though we’d love to have you and your students attending the Celebration, we realize (especially for faculty who don’t teach on Tuesday/Thursday) that schedules might conflict. Please consider assigning the following writing prompts to your students anyway, and please share their work with the committee and plan to display at the event.
- Is this event just for international and/or multilingual students?
No. This event is for the entire BU community, and while the WP faculty who teach WR 111 and WR 112 may have a particular investment in this event, we know that the multilingual community at BU is much wider and more diverse than simply these two classes. We encourage all faculty who teach a WR course, and all faculty who teach languages, writing-intensive courses, and more, to consider assigning work that can be shared at the event and to plan on bringing their students.
- When is the deadline to submit student work for the Celebration?
We ask all interested faculty to stay in touch with the organizing committee. Please confirm your class’s participation (numbers, genre, space needs, etc.) by Monday 11/3. If you/your students want to bring the printed-out work to the Celebration yourselves, please arrange that with a member of our planning committee. Alternatively, if you would like volunteers to bring the work over there and set it up for you, just ask your students to print out their work themselves (the FedEx store–formerly Kinko’s–on campus offers inexpensive color printing options if you need that), and then you or your students can drop pieces off at the Writing Program front desk by Monday 11/10.
WR 111 Suggested Prompts
The prompts below were created specifically for WR 111 classes, and connect to the WR 111 Hub requirement (Individual in Community). You may decide to use either prompt with your students, or you may give them a choice. We encourage all faculty to bring your classes to the event, and to ask students to write a post-Celebration reflection as a small assignment for class.
OPTION 1: Multimodal Expression of Cultural Heritage
Objective: Enable students to express their cultural heritage through various modes of writing and media.
Suggested student-facing language: “Create a multimodal project that showcases an aspect of your cultural heritage. This could be a combination of written text and visual art. The project should convey the significance of this cultural element in your life and how it connects to your multilingualism.”
OPTION 2: Collaborative Multilingual Storytelling or Poetry
Objective: Foster collaboration and creativity among students from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
Suggested student-facing language: “Work in a small group with classmates who speak different languages to create a collaborative multilingual story or poem. Each group member should contribute in their native language, and the final product should include translations and/or interpretations that allow the story/poem to flow seamlessly across languages. You may want to explore themes of identity, belonging, or cultural exchange, using the unique rhythms and sounds of each language to enhance meaning. Consider using a combination of text and visual elements to create a rich, engaging narrative.”
WR 112 Suggested Prompts
The prompts below were created specifically for WR 112 classes, and connect to the WR 112 Hub requirement (Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy). You may use either with your students, or you may give them a choice. We encourage all faculty to bring your classes to the event, and to ask students to write a post-Celebration reflection as a small assignment for class.
OPTION 1: Language, Power, and Belonging
Objective: Engage students in critical thinking about language and its impact on social justice issues.
Suggested student-facing language: “Write an essay or create a visual presentation that examines and reflects on the role of language in different communities that you belong to. How does language shape power dynamics, influence public opinion, or serve as a tool for advocacy? Draw on examples from multilingual contexts, including your own experiences or case studies from different cultures.”
OPTION 2: Cross-Cultural Communication Infographic
Objective: Provide students with a visual guide to understanding the complexities and importance of cross-cultural communication.
Suggested student-facing language: “The goal of this project is to create an informative and visually engaging infographic that outlines the nuances of some particular aspect of communication (for example, business communication, etc.), emphasizing the dos and don’ts for Americans communicating with others within a cultural context you know well. This project will not only highlight the importance of cultural sensitivity and adaptability in international communication but also enhance your research, design, and linguistic skills. Your goal should be to illustrate how communication changes depending on language and culture.”
OPTION 3: Words that inspire
Objective: Provide students with an opportunity to reflect on which language is most meaningful to them and to celebrate the beauty of language.
Suggested student-facing language: “The goal is to share your favorite word, phrase, proverb, idiom, or lyrics in a language that is most important/meaningful to you. You should also provide a brief explanation of what it means and why you chose to share it with us.”
WR 120 Suggested Prompts
The ideas below were created specifically for WR 120 classes, and connect to the learning outcomes for all of our courses. You may decide to use any of the following with your students, or develop your own ideas, or leave it up to students to choose. We encourage all faculty to bring your classes to the event, and to ask students to write a post-Celebration reflection as a small assignment for class.
Option 1: “Express yourself orally and converse thoughtfully about complex ideas” (connects to your individual course topic)
Instructors may want to sign their class up for an open-mic slot, in groups or as a full class, to recite a poem, read aloud snippets of their writing (academic or alt-genre), and/or share orally in whatever way makes sense for your course topic.
Option 2: “Produce clear, coherent prose in a range of genres and styles, using different media and modes” (connects to our shared focus on academic language)
Ask students to reflect a bit on the language of the academy and the political dimensions of this. What does it mean, in the words of our learning outcome, to “produce clear, coherent prose”? Who determines what is “clear”? What is standard language ideology, and to what extent does it matter that students across the university are expected to write in a relatively standard voice? Students can share their reflections in any sort of genre or mode that makes sense to you and to them.
Option 3: “Reflect on your own reading, writing, and editing practices” (connects to our shared portfolios)
Ask students to return to their literacy narratives and also reflect on their literacy practices since coming to BU. Where are they now, as speakers/readers/writers? What new literacy practices have they added to their repertoires? How do they enrich the classroom, and the entire university, with their linguistic and cultural practices? Students can share prose, poetry, or visual representations of their thoughts.
WR 15x Suggested Prompts
The ideas below were created specifically for WR 15x classes, and connect to each course’s particular Hub requirement. You may decide to use any of the following with your students, or develop your own ideas, or leave it up to students to choose. We encourage all faculty to bring your classes to the event, and to ask students to write a post-Celebration reflection as a small assignment for class.
WR 151 ideas – Oral and Signed Communication
- Students can bring the writing they completed for the class to share aloud. The writing can include poetry or stories they have written. They can also bring their literacy narratives and read them aloud to the audience during the open-mic.
- As there will be a performance stage area, students can also act out a small skit related to their languages/cultures in a group, play music (if they play instruments), or perform songs in a language of their choice.
- If students are working on podcasts, they can present their podcast promotional material at the event on a poster. Recordings of student work can also be played at the event.
WR 152 ideas – Digital/Multimedia Expression
- Students can remediate an assignment they have already written into a multimodal genre. For example, you may want to ask students to recast their research paper into a poster or an infographic.
- If visual analysis is one of the elements discussed in class, student photographs can be exhibited. Audio and video can also be played if the students have been working on podcasts or TedTalks or making short movies.
- Classes that incorporate graphic elements can also leverage the event to showcase their students’ work.
WR 153 Ideas – Creativity and Innovation
- Ask students to reflect on their “languages” (first, second, third, heritage, dialect. etc) in writing and remediate that reflection into a creative form with fellow students as the audience (a meme, a Tiktok, a playlist). These remediations could also be done in pairs or groups by asking students to make a picture book, a puzzle, a performance, all of which could be displayed or featured at the Celebration.
- Ask students to create a language “self portrait” of themselves either with art supplies or AI generation.
- Ask students to create a visual “map” of their personal history of languages.
- Ask students to pick one “untranslatable” word in a selected language and translate it into English in whatever form they choose (a recording of people saying it and trying to define it, turning it into a poem or song, a poster of it being untranslateable)
- Ask students to visually convey what another language’s important saying or expression means to them.
Post-Celebration Reflection Prompt
Whether or not your students share work at the Celebration, we encourage you to bring them to the Celebration (if your class meets on Thursday) or urge/incentivize them to attend on their own (if your class meets MWF). The following reflective prompt may be assigned for any level of students.
- Attend the Celebration of Multilingual Writing Thursday, November 13, 10-4 at the Howard Thurman Center, spending an hour (or more) at the event. Take a selfie that shows something you experienced there that resonated with you.
- Afterwards, write a 300-word reflection on your experience: What did you learn from attending? How did the event encourage you to think about how your language(s) shape your identity, communication style, and perspective on the world? How can your ability to communicate in different languages or through different kinds of language help you reach different public audiences? Make specific references to at least two different texts that you read or heard while there and also to the selfie, which you should include when you submit your reflection.