Multicultural Classroom Presents
ELA doesn't need improvement.
It needs to be revived.
A 2-day live virtual institute for middle and high school ELA educators ready to teach fiction the way it was always meant to be taught with imagination, cultural grounding, and real student joy.
Register Now โ $397Registration closes June 4 ยท Space is limited
Doors close June 4 ยท Institute meets June 5 & 6
The Honest Truth
Something happened to ELA.
And we both know it.
You became an ELA teacher because you believed in stories. You believed that literature could open a door for a student who felt like the world had closed most of them. You believed that reading and writing were about more than skills โ they were about becoming.
And then came the mandates. The test prep. The pacing guides. The curriculum designed by people who have never met your students.
Somewhere along the way, ELA stopped being about imagination and started being about compliance. Your students feel it. If we're honest? You feel it too.
Here's what we know: ELA doesn't just need improvement. It needs to be revived, reimagined, and remembered differently. It needs to return to what it always had the power to be: a space for identity, for cultural memory, for collective freedom, for academic joy.
That's what this institute is about.
What This Is
Introducing (Re)Viving ELA
A Speculative Methods Institute
This is a live, interactive, two-morning professional learning experience for 6thโ12th grade ELA educators built around one core idea: speculative teaching, rooted in established Black educational theory, can reconnect your students to history, identity, imagination, and their own sense of possibility.
This isn't a trend. This isn't a buzzword summit. This is grounded, serious, intellectually rigorous professional development that also happens to be genuinely engaging.
What You'll Learn
By the end of this institute,
you will be able to:
Articulate the Why
Understand why speculative and culturally relevant ELA is essential, not optional, and feel confident standing behind it in your school and classroom.
Reimagine What Counts
Expand your definition of text and literacy in ways that support student voice, agency, and genuine engagement.
Design with Intention
Build lessons and units that center imagination and critical thinking โ and still hit your standards. Yes, both.
Integrate, Don't Add On
Learn how to weave culturally relevant practices into your everyday fiction instruction without burning out or starting from scratch.
"It made me think deeper about my own experience and my teaching approach. I took A LOT of notes."~ Renee, Teacher | Texas
Who This Is For
This institute was made for you ifโฆ
You teach ELA in grades 6โ12, and you're hungry for something more than what the traditional curriculum is offering.
You've tried to incorporate culturally relevant teaching, but want a stronger framework and practical tools to do it well.
You believe your students deserve to see themselves, their histories, their imaginations, and their futures in the work they do in your classroom.
You want PD that takes you seriously as an intellectual and as a professional.
You've felt the slow drain of teaching literature in ways that feel disconnected from the lives of the students in front of you.
You're ready to bring more imagination, more depth, and more joy into your ELA instruction.
"It's refreshing to finally find a community that practices what it teaches."
What Makes This Different
This is not your standard PD.
Most professional development focuses on generic strategies. This institute focuses on something specific: the intersection of speculative fiction, culturally relevant pedagogy, and established Black educational theory. That combination is rare. And it's powerful.
What's Included
Here's everything you get
when you register
5 Hours of Live Expert Facilitation
Two interactive mornings on June 5 & 6, 9:30amโ12pm EST. Not a webinar. Not pre-recorded. Live, responsive, community-centered instruction.
Certificate of Completion
5 PD hours, documented and ready for your professional records.
Curated Book Selections
Carefully chosen titles that model the kind of speculative, culturally relevant fiction we want to see in more ELA classrooms.
Ready-to-Use Lessons & Resources
Real curriculum materials you can bring back to your students immediately. Not concepts. Not frameworks in the abstract. Actual tools.
Special Surprise from Authors
Something special for registered participants that we genuinely cannot wait to share. It involves the writers behind the stories we're celebrating.
A Real Community
A curated group of educators, capped intentionally, so this stays interactive, relational, and real. You're joining a learning community โ not an audience.
Your Investment
Five transformative hours.
One clear price.
About Your Co-Facilitators
Meet the Team
Lorena is an educator, curriculum designer, and founder of Multicultural Classroom with deep expertise in culturally relevant pedagogy and literacy instruction.
Her work sits at the intersection of culture, identity, and rigorous academic practice โ and she brings that same combination to every professional learning space she creates.
LaMar is an educator currently working on his doctoral degree in New York City. His overall goal is to provide students with access to the best education possible โ and his awards and recognition show he has been able to achieve that equitable education at his schools.
His national leadership and professional development work has helped create powerful spaces for ELA teachers to grow. LaMar's writing has been featured in NCTE journals and numerous podcasts, and his voice continues to boom throughout the field.
What Educators Are Saying
About this work
The course material is so easily approached in small lesson bits that it gives people a very manageable way to address this work without feeling overwhelmed.
Brent, Teacher | CanadaIt made me think deeper about my own experience and my teaching approach. I took A LOT of notes.
Renee, Teacher | TexasThe activities were both simple and complex โ deep work that feels accessible. It's a great companion to the book.
Heather, Teacher | WashingtonUsually PD feels like a checkbox. This didn't. Once I started, I wanted to continue all the way through.
Educator ParticipantThis was inspiring! The SEL strategies and clarity on race in the classroom were exactly what I needed.
Educator ParticipantIt's refreshing to finally find a community that practices what it teaches.
Educator ParticipantFrequently Asked Questions
Questions we know you're asking
Is this relevant to my grade level?
Yes. This institute is designed for ELA educators across grades 6โ12. The frameworks are adaptable, and we'll show you how to apply them to your specific students and context.
I'm already doing culturally relevant teaching. Will I learn anything new?
If you're already in this work, this will deepen and sharpen it. Speculative methods specifically are something most CRT-aligned PD doesn't address. This fills a real gap.
I'm not familiar with Black educational theory. Will I be lost?
Not at all. We build together. The institute is designed to be both accessible and intellectually rigorous. You bring your commitment; we bring the framework.
Is 5 hours really enough to make a difference?
Five hours of the right PD beats two days of the wrong kind. This is focused, expert-facilitated, immediately applicable instruction. Teachers have walked away from shorter sessions of this work and completely rethought their approach.
Will I actually be able to use what I learn?
Yes, that's a non-negotiable for us. You'll leave with ready-to-use lessons and resources you can implement immediately. Not someday. Now.
What if I can't make one of the two mornings?
Reach out. We want to work with you. Email us at [email protected] and we'll let you know your options.
ELA is back.
Come help us bring it back.
Two mornings. Five hours. A room full of educators who believe, like you do, that ELA can be something extraordinary.
Join Us โ Register Now for $397Registration closes June 4 ยท Institute meets June 5 & 6 ยท Space is limited
Questions? Email [email protected] or DM @multiculturalclassroom on Instagram.
