CIE hosts ‘Communicating Across Differences’ workshop on Friday

November 09, 2026

CIE hosts ‘Communicating Across Differences’ workshop on Friday

The Center for International Education is hosting a workshop on Friday, Nov. 13, to help international graduate teaching assistants with preplanning lessons. The session is also open to SIU faculty, staff and students; advanced registration is not required.

The workshop is from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. in the Center for International Education (CIE), located in Woody Hall, 425 Clocktower Drive. Presented by Sabrina Starnaman, assistant professor of practice in the School of History and Kathryn Carpenter, a senior lecturer with SIU’s Center for English as a Second Language, the workshop will offer practical strategies to SIU graduate student teachers in providing clearer, more engaging teaching across cultures, languages and disciplines.

The workshop will provide “contextualized practices to help them with preplanning lessons that make it easier for students to understand the material and feel comfortable asking for help,” Starnaman said.

The workshop is one in a series that delivers practical skills to SIU’s international graduate student teaching assistants with a focus on specific needs of international graduate teaching assistants.

CIE will hold its weekly International Coffee Hour from 3 to 4:30 p.m. following the workshop. Participants are encouraged to stay for coffee and refreshments. The SIU tradition is a great opportunity to meet new people and make friends from all around the world.

Starnaman was recently named a 2026-2027 Provost Faculty Fellow, and among her efforts is the ongoing support of graduate student teaching assistants across SIU in understanding the best practices of undergraduate teaching to improve both student and teacher experience.

“International graduate teaching assistants have additional unique gifts and challenges,” she said. “They are bringing the entire world into our students’ classrooms, but they are also often working across languages and are trying to do their own schoolwork while becoming acclimated to life in the U.S.”