Join us for a roundtable on learning Russian through real‑world, community‑engaged experiences. Colleagues from K–12 and post‑secondary contexts will share course models, project and task ideas that emphasize cultural connections, hands-on activities, and guided reflection as core components of experiential pedagogy. 

The roundtable will include the following presentations:

• Irina Kogel | Boston University | Russian in Boston: An Intergenerational Language Partnership
  
  This presentation will discuss a component of semester long experiential learning course through which students were paired with local Russian speaking elders aging in place in the neighborhoods around Boston University. The presentation will also focus on the importance of students’ self-perception as part of the Russophone community in Boston. 
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• Andrea Lanoux | Connecticut College | Global Russian, Local Diasporas
  
  This community-based learning course offers a flexible model for intermediate and advanced-level students to engage with native speakers of Russian from the Russian Federation and other post-Soviet states now living in New England. Topics include migration, diaspora communities, cultural assimilation, multilingualism, and Russian as a global language.
  
  
• Polina Maksimovich | University of Denver| Gamification in Real-World Contexts: Community Engagement through Play and Reciprocal Learning with Children
  
  This talk highlights practical models of community‑based learning in which students engage directly with children in playful, low‑stakes environments such as language competitions, summer camps, and cultural centers. By employing gamification strategies in real‑world contexts—playing board games, leading activities, and learning from children as much as teaching them—students deepen their own linguistic and interpersonal abilities while contributing meaningfully to the community.
  
  
• Lee Roby | Friends School of Baltimore | Linking Generations: A Project-Based Approach to Bringing Students and Alumni Together for Старый Новый год
  

  This experiential model captures the joy of Старый Новый год by transforming students from passive learners into active hosts of a rigorous, student-led alumni event. This joyful, authentic context facilitates the mastery of advanced grammar and topical vocabulary and assessment across all three communicative modes while simultaneously strengthening departmental alumni stewardship. A roadmap for implementation with task-based exercises and assessment criteria will be provided.

Please note the later start time of this roundtable (7:00 pm), which will allow us to accommodate presenters in different time zones.

If you are a graduate student (non-member) requesting a registration fee waiver, email the committee co-chairs to get your registration code at eroby@friendsbalt.org or ikogel@bu.edu.