Fall 2024 - Spring 2025 Webinars and Roundtables

Join us for other webinars and teachers’ lounges. All events are free and open to ACTR members (you can get or renew your membership here). The recording of webinars and teacher's lounges will be emailed to all registered participants.

Please contact organizers with questions or suggestions for topics. If you are interested in leading a webinar for ACTR, please let us know.

Contact us

Maria Khotimsky
khotimsk at mit.edu
Olga Klimova, Co-chair
vok1 at pitt.edu
Irina Kogel
ikogel at bu.edu
Susan Kresin
kresin at humnet.ucla.edu
Lee Roby, Co-chair
eroby at friendsbalt.org
Alexandra Shapiro

aeshapiro at uga.edu


 



Friday, September 20: Roundtable on Professional Development Opportunities + Open House
5:30 - 7:00 p.m. EST


Roundtable on Professional Development opportunities in the field (45 min) followed by ACTR Open house (45 min.)
This session will provide an overview of several professional development opportunities for teachers of  Russian at all levels, including ACTR-based professional development programs and activities, the American Councils Summer Russian Teachers Program in Almaty, other opportunities, to enhance Russian-language skills, the AATSEEL Certification Program in Diverse and Inclusive Pedagogies (CDIPS) and K-12 Teacher Excellence Program program, STARTALK, various funding opportunities, online courses and resources, and others.

Everything you wanted to know about joining the ACTR Board, but were afraid to ask! 
Have you thought about joining the ACTR Board or one of the committees, but didn't know where to start? Here is the opportunity to get your questions answered! Come to our Open House on Friday, September 20, 2024 to speak with current members of the ACTR Board about the nomination process and to learn about how YOU can become a part of the ACTR Board!

For questions, email Olga Klimova at vok1 at pitt.edu or Lee Roby at eroby at friendsbalt.org

Recent webinars (2023- 2024)

Roundtable: Diverse Voices From the Field
Friday, May 10, 2024, 5:30-7:00 EST

Colleagues from countries other than Russia will each present a Russian-language teaching activity or resources offering an insider’s view, followed by a Q&A and discussion. The framing idea is to offer models of well-grounded teaching activities for  instructors of Russian with less in-country familiarity or experience.

Roundtable participants:

  • Belarus: Olga Klimova, University of Pittsburgh; Jenya Mironova, Harvard University
  • Kazakhstan: Aselle Almuratova, University of Wisconsin
  • Moldova: Doina Grecu, University of Georgia

Roundtable: Student Study Abroad Experiences After 2020
Thursday, April 25, 2024, 5:30-7:00 EST


In the wake of the Covid pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the study abroad landscape for Russian has been radically altered. Please join us for a roundtable in which a diverse group of high school, undergraduate, and graduate students will share their experiences of studying Russian abroad after 2020.   

Roundtable participants’ comments will be prompted by the following questions:

  • Where did you study and what was it like to speak Russian there in your host family and around the city? 
  • To what degree did you feel immersed in the local culture? What did you or the program do to help you to learn about the local country and/or meet locals? Did you feel culturally prepared for your study abroad experience?  If not, what might have helped?
  • What aspect of your study abroad experience had the greatest positive impact on you? What growth did you experience? Did you feel your worldview challenged or reshaped in any way?
  • Has study abroad played a role in building your commitment to study Russian and/or in promoting interest in the country where you have studied? If so, how?
  • What challenges did you experience during study abroad? How did you manage these challenges?
  • What do you wish someone had told you before you went? What advice would you give to those preparing students to study Russian abroad in post-Soviet space?

Roundtable participants:

Caroline Andrews, Friends School of Baltimore
NSLI-Y program in Kazakhstan (summer 2023)
Friends School's SRAS Spring Break Program in Kyrgyzstan (spring 2024)

Katrina Brazhnikov, Bryn Mawr College
CLS program in Kyrgyzstan (summer 2022)
Russian Flagship Overseas Capstone Program in Kazakhstan (2023-2024)

Sasha Hase, UNC-Chapel Hill
University of Georgia, Immersion in the Russian Language, Culture, and Communities in the Baltics, Riga, Latvia (summer 2023)

Joseph Matveyenko, Research Assistant, RAND Corporation
Russian Overseas Flagship Program in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan (2021-2022)

Madelyn Scarlett, Yale University 
American Councils’ RLASP program in Yerevan, Armenia (Spring 2024)

Maya Williams, Friends School of Baltimore 
University of Wisconsin’s Pushkin Summer Institute Abroad NSLI-Y program in Daugavpils, Latvia (summer 2023)
Friends School's SRAS Spring Break Program in Kyrgyzstan (spring 2024)

The Use of Generative AI in the Russian Language Classroom
Thursday, March 14, 5:30-7:00 EST

This webinar will outline strategies and best practices for incorporating generative AI into the Russian language classroom. Presenters will share resources and activities that draw on the affordances of AI to enhance students’ classroom experience. They will also consider the efficacy of using AI chatbots to provide students with task-based conversation practice outside the classroom. The presentation will include samples of student work alongside students’ reflections on their experience using AI to complete Russian assignments. In addition to exploring the benefits of incorporating generative AI into language instruction, presenters will discuss potential risks and drawbacks of AI usage, as well as tips for encouraging students to engage responsibly, ethically, and effectively with AI as they progress in their language learning. Specific topics to be covered include prompt engineering, AI as a tool for providing feedback and assessment, the ethics of AI usage, and the impact of AI on students’ experience and perceptions of language learning.

Kit Pribble
Kit Pribble is an Assistant Professor of Russian at Wake Forest University. Her areas of research are second language acquisition with an emphasis on digital learning technologies, as well as the development of Romantic prose forms in Russia in the 1830s and 40s. Dr. Pribble has published and presented widely on topics within 19th-century Russian literature, Romanticism, and L2 pedagogy, including projects on using Slavic folklore and digital social reading in the L2 classroom. She teaches Russian at the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels alongside courses on literature and culture. 


Doina Grecu
Doina Grecu is a PhD candidate studying TESOL and World Language Education at the University of Georgia. Her research interests focus on teacher language ideologies and their influence on classroom practices, as well as the decolonization of the Russian as a Foreign Language classroom. She is currently teaching Russian at the intermediate level and has previously worked with students at the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels as part of the Russian Flagship Program at UGA.

An Interdisciplinary Partnership: Teaching Russian during the War through Songs and Visual Arts
Friday, February 23, 5:30-7:00 EST


This webinar will outline the methodology, share resources, and present pedagogical strategies for integrating into Russian language instruction products of Russian popular culture created in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Through the analysis of anti-war visual arts and propaganda-serving, pro-war shanson music, presenters aim to equip language instructors with critical lenses and explicit strategies to teach media literacy. The objective is to expand students’ cultural perspectives by heightening awareness of wartime culture, developing their ability to interpret images and song lyrics, and sparking interest in civic and social justice. Presenters will share activities designed to enhance language competencies through scaffolded assignments, which allow students to interpret popular culture in the classroom setting while exploring anonymous anti-war street graffiti, stickers, street art, conceptual art, installations, song lyrics, and videos in a variety of formats.

Julia Denne
Julia Kriventsova Denne is an independent instructor and owner of the “By the Onion Sea” program (www.bytheonionsea.com). She teaches Russian classes for both high-school students, including heritage and bilingual students, and adults in the Chicago area and online. She has also been conducting adult seminars on Russian and world literature, art, history, and culture at the Newberry Library in Chicago for over 15 years.

Anastasia Gordienko
Anastasia Gordienko is Assistant Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at the University of Arizona. Her interests lie in the intersection of Russian and Ukrainian history, culture, and identity. Her monograph Outlaw Music in Russia: The Rise of an Unlikely Genre (The University of Wisconsin Press, 2023) explores a paradoxical quid pro quo synergy among Russian criminal music, the shanson, and Putin’s politics. Gordienko has taught a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses at UA, covering subjects such as Ukraine, fairy tales, criminal culture, and the Russian language.

Past Webinars

ACTR webinars led by leading scholars and teachers of Russian present a unique opportunity for professional development.

Information Session on American Councils' Russian Study Abroad Programs

November 2023

Presenters: Vladka Shikova, Nellie Manis, Angela MacDougall

Meeting the Challenge of Teaching Second Languages to Students with Learning Disabilities 

February 2023

Presenter: Linda Hecker (Landmark College)

Teaching Culture through Film

February 2022

Presenters: Olga Mesropova and Lynne deBenedette

Gender-Inclusive Language and Practices in Teaching

April 2021

Presenters: Devin Browne, Fredrikh Chernyshev, Alexander Pershai

Changes to the Pedagogy at the K-12 Level

July 2020

Presenters: Emily Matts Henry, Paavo Husen, Ken Peterson, Katerina Ratushnyuk, John Rook, Betsy Sandstrom, Jane Shuffleton, Mara Sukholutskaya, Mark Trotter 

Moderator: Nataliya Ushakova

Study Abroad and Flagship Programs and Intensive Summer Programs during COVID-19

July 2020

Panelists: Karen Evans-Romaine, Graham Hettlinger, Jason Merrill, Jeannette Owen, Nana Tsikhelashvili, Irina Walsh

Modernator: Evgeny Dengub

Unlocking Russian Pronunciation

September 2019

Presenter: Kimberly DiMattia

Синтаксис сложного предложения в практике РКИ (продвинутый уровень)

February 2019

Presenter: Anna Alsufieva


Упражнения на практику устной речи: мемы, виммельбухи, кубики историй

October 2018

Presenter: Yulia Amlinskaya


Russian Flagship Practices: Intensive Language Learning for Students of All Majors

January 2018

Presenter: Karen Evans-Romaine

Обучение устной речи в условиях современного иноязычного образования

May 2017

Presenter: Valentina Trufanova

Heritage Speakers of Russian: A Linguistic Portrait

February 2017

Presenter: Maria Polinsky

Striking a Balance: Input, Vocabulary and Grammar in Teaching Russian

November 2016

Presenters: William Comer and Lynn deBenedette

Webinar: "Your Feedback is Very Important to Us! Feedback and Assessment in the Second Language Classroom"

April 2023

Presenter: Olesya Kisselev (University of Texas at San Antonio)

Russian Outside of the Classroom: Community-Based Teaching

April 2022

Diverse Voices from the Field, Part II

January 2022

Presenters: Dr. Jose Vergara, Dr. David Parker, Dr. Raquel Green

Building Intercultural Competence in a Russian Language Class

March 2021

Presenter: Katya Nemtchinova (Seattle Pacific University) 

Inclusivity in the Language Classroom

July 2020

Panelists: Lindsay Ceballos, Thomas Garza, Lauren Nelson, Rachel Stauffer

Moderator: Colleen Lucey

Changes to the Pedagogy at the Post-Secondary Level

July 2020

Panelists: William Comer, Lynne deBenedette, Cynthia Martin, Shannon Spasova, Kristen Welsh

Moderator: Irina Dubinina

To Blend or Not to Blend: The Case for Hybrid Courses

April 2019

Presenter: Shannon Donnally Spasova

Verbs of Motion: Keep it Simple and Meaningful

December 2018

Presenter: Irina Six

Лакуны в словарях и грамматиках русского языка

March 2018

Presenter: Alexey Shmelev

The Backwards Flip: Designing Russian Courses for Advanced Proficiency

December 2017

Presenter: Thomas Garza

Современный русский язывк в интернете и других новых коммуникативных сферах

March 2017

Presenter: Максим Кронгауз

Contemporary Russian: What Do we Teach our Students?

March 2016

Presenter: Елена Шмелева

Webinar: "Rehumanizing the Humanities: Ungrading the Language Classroom"

March 2023

Presenter: Evgeny Dengub (University of Southern California) 

Project-Based Learning in Pre-college and College Russian Language Classroom

March 2022

Proficiency-Oriented Approach to Teaching Listening Comprehension

December 2021

Presenters: Olga Muhkortova, Ph.D. (Defense Language Institute)

Using Authentic Materials for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

February 2021

Presenters: Olga Klimova, Izolda Savenkova

Co-Curricular Activities and Events: Building Communities of Learners

July 2020

Panelists: Evgeny Dengub, Kathleen Evans, Laura Marshall, Lee Roby, Iza Savenkonva, Maria Shardakova

Moderator: Irina Dubinina

Authentic Texts in a Russian Language Proficiency-Based Classroom

February 2021

Presenters: Evgeny Dengub and Irina Dubinina

The Academic Job Market in Russian Language, Literature and Culture: Preparation, Pitfalls, and Pathways

February 2020

Presenter: Karen Evans-Romaine

Oral History Projects in the Russian Language Curriculum

March 2019

Presenters: Colleen Lucey and Benjamin Rifkin

Online Resources for Russian Teachers

November 2018

Presenter: Evgeny Dengub

The Movement Toward Transformation in Education: What it Offers Russian Language Teachers

February 2018

Presenter: Betty Lou Leaver

Guided Subtitles in Teaching Russian

November 2017

Presenter: Richard Robin

Moving from Intermediate to Advanced in Russian

December 2016

Presenter: Cynthia Martin

Proficiency-oriented and Standards-based Assessment

February 2016

Presenter: Benjamin Rifkin



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