Global Literacy Communities: Gateways to Culture and Language

Grants Available for Literacy Communities to Explore Intercultural Understanding

Deadline to Apply:  July 15, 2020

Worlds of Words and CERCLL are excited to announce a second round of grants in the Global Literacy Communities project (one of CERCLL’s Professional Learning Online Network Spaces, or PLONS). These $1000 grants support communities in the use of global literature and world languages to build intercultural understanding. Global children’s and young adult literature provides an opportunity for teachers and students to explore understandings about global cultures that go beyond surface information to explore the values and ways of living as well as languages within those cultures. Public interest in global education creates a potential space for innovation within K-12 classrooms. Engaging in that innovation within a professional community provides support and challenge through dialogue and shared explorations. These grants are funded by CERCLL, Worlds of Words, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Center for Latin American Studies.

Grant period:  August 2020-June 2021

• 8 literacy communities will be funded from August 2020-June 2021.  These communities can be elementary, middle, and/or high school educators. The community can involve university educators but must focus on K-12 classrooms in the U.S.
• Any literacy community of 5-10 educators can apply.  The group of educators can be school-based, district-based, community-based, or a university-school collaboration.
• The literacy community commits to meeting on a regular basis as a study group from August 2020 to June 2021.
• The literacy community commits to engaging in innovation using global literature and world languages with students in K-12 classrooms in the 2020-2021 school year.
• Each community will post regular entries on a members-only forum established for the communities to exchange ideas and share experiences. In addition, an online coordinator from Worlds of Words will offer support, resources, and suggestions and send regular digests about the work of the communities and resources from other communities.
• Each community will complete a short final report that is due on June 30, 2021.
• Each community will create several classroom vignettes about their experiences for a special issue of WOW Stories as a way to share their experiences with other educators.   The vignettes are due on July 30, 2021 and can be created in a range of forms, such as a written story with student artifacts, a podcast, or a video.
• The money from the grant can be used for global children’s and young adult literature, supplies for classroom work or study group meetings, technology support, or stipends for summer work on vignettes.
• Examples of the activities of previous literacy communities can be found here.

Proposals must be submitted by July 15, 2020.

The application form should be submitted online here.