Is writing something you love to teach or dread? Love it or hate it, writing is a necessity in education, regardless of the subject area. This workshop will explore how writing can be taught effectively through a number of venues including rap music, Post–it notes, commercials, peacock feathers, props, sports programing, and social media. Learn how to effectively teach writing and have fun too!
Presenter: Rebecca Harper, Augusta University
After hearing a brief introduction from the facilitator, who founded the New Orleans Writing Marathon and has led Writing Marathons across the country, participants take part in a three-hour Writing Marathon, writing and sharing their work in small groups around Anaheim before returning to the meeting room to reflect on the process as a community of teacher/writers.
Presenter: Richard Louth, Southeastern Louisiana University
During this half-day interactive poetry writing workshop, participants will read and write poems that cultivate critical Hip Hop and spoken word literacies. The workshop will demonstrate practical Hip–Hop–Based Education strategies for teachers who want to learn about using Hip Hop and spoken word poetry in the 6–12 classroom. #HipHopEd
Presenters: Brian Mooney, Teachers College, Columbia University
Otto Vock, Jersey City Art Exchange
As social media deepens divides and the stories we tell become more important than ever, young people need to be empowered to take action. Critical media literacy enables students to understand the dangers of fake news, see representation in a new light, and expose the media’s political economy—then to use their new skills to create their own lighthouses to guide and protect their communities.
Presenters: Ben Boyington, White River Valley High School
Allison Butler, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Nolan Higdon, California State University East Bay
In this collaborative workshop you will review/revise the principles (developed by past workshop participants) for decreasing the impact of colonization on students and countering the racism and inequity inherent in English education. You will apply the principles discussed and developed to samples of your own work: lessons, materials, curricular projects, and professional development activities.
Presenters: Kevin DePew, Old Dominion University
Kylowna Moton, LA City College
Rex Ovalle, University of Illinois at Chicago
Michael Seward, Minneapolis College
Robyn Waters, Brooklyn School of Inquiry
In this Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) workshop, participants will engage in digital literacy practices that encourage meaningful thinking, writing, and doing in a digital age. Attendees will be led through activities centered on digital storytelling, source evaluation, accessibility, critical media literacy, and mindful technology integration.
Presenters: Johnny Allred, Brigham Young University
Katherin Garland, Santa Fe College
Troy Hicks, Central Michigan University
Devan MacKenzie, North Carolina State University
Mary Rice, University of New Mexico
We often work with students on the basics of character development and other elements of story in creative writing, but what about telling a personal story? Many students struggle with writing personal essays, so a full-blown narrative can be overwhelming. In this workshop, we will explore the personal narrative from a different perspective—researching our family history using Ancestry Classroom.
Presenter: Love Foy, Half Hollow Hills CSD
In this interactive workshop, presenters will guide teachers through narrative inquiry to identify connections between their lived experience and teaching practice. Teachers will gain instructional practices and methods to illuminate their students’ dreams and strategies for co-creating learning communities where all dreams can be seen, nurtured, and protected. We welcome educators of any age group.
Presenters: Arlene Casimir, Reveye, LLC
Kisha Howell, The Thought Partner
Anastazia Neely, Convent of the Sacred Heart
Islah Tauheed, NYC Dept of Education
In this workshop, participants will explore the practice of investigative literacy, that is, the practice of using texts to create investigative, problem-solving units that not only expose students to a multitude of varied texts, but also engage them in big questions around social justice, human behavior and psychology, and world affairs.
Presenter: Emily Creveling, High School South
Anti–bias and anti–racist work requires a personal uncovering of bias. This half-day workshop will be an engaging and interactive process for learning about ourselves and finding our inner light. Through spoken word poetry, independent writing prompts, small group discussions, and whole group processing, participants will leave with practical classroom strategies.
Presenters: Lorena German, Multicultural Classroom
Roberto German, Multicultural Classroom
Tiffany Jewell, Author
Everyone has the ability to lead! Participants will develop the techniques to strengthen their learning environment through holistic, social emotional learning, and equitable practices. Participants will explore what leadership is and be given strategic tools to improve their leadership capabilities, along with a comprehensive guide to schoolwide improvement and overall education reform.
Presenters: Hal Eisenberg, The Eisenberg Leadership Academy
Allison Teicher-Fahrbach, New York City Department of Education
Participants will learn through hands-on experiences about a research project in which elementary school teachers learned about integrating science and literacy through student-centered instruction with insects through inquiry, ecological justice, and citizen science with the book, Butterflies Belong Here, written by Deborah Hopkinson. Deborah will be joining us for this workshop.
Presenters: Maricela Almaraz, Golden Feather Union School District
Jennifer Diaz, Golden Feather Union School District
Cristina Hawkins, Golden Feather Union School District
Char Moffit, California State University, Chico
JD Olsen, California State University, Chico
Lexi Southam, Golden Feather Union School District
Tradebook Author/Illustrator: Deborah Hopkinson, Scholastic
Co-constructing inquiry units that break down white supremacy culture in literature by highlighting the brilliance of communities of color and focus on collective action and care. By first decolonizing our ideology through self and interpersonal work, we will develop an awareness to identify marginalized voices in texts and work to co-create collective action projects to address these issues.
Presenters: Sovandara Chhin, Birch Lane Montessori
Ashley Person, New Roads School
In this half-day workshop, educators will plan to implement Culture and Climate strategies from Learning for Justice’s Critical Practices for Social Justice Education publication. Through an interactive and collaborative workshop, educators will map Critical Practices onto their existing evaluations and make a plan for how to create safer spaces for their students and colleagues.
Presenters: Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn, Southern Poverty Law Center/Learning for Justice
Jaci Jones, Southern Poverty Law Center/Learning for Justice
Jonathan Tobin, Southern Poverty Law Center/Learning for Justice
Courtney Wai, Southern Poverty Law Center/Learning for Justice
W.19 Soul Sustenance 365: The Power of Radical Black Love Praxis in English Language Arts Classrooms
This workshop illustrates how radical Black Love Praxis can be utilized to nurture liberation and affirm Black lives and the Black Literary Heritage. The workshop will be grounded in the following questions: (1) How can ELA educators reconceptualize love?; (2) Why is it necessary for ELA educators to recommit to a love praxis as we work for equity, justice, and anti-racist education?
Workshop Facilitators: Janice Baines, Bradley Elementary
Kenesha Johnson, Claflin University
Tristan Evans Richardson, Tristan Michelle, LL
Tori Simmons, AC Flora High School
Dywanna Smith, Claflin University
During this workshop you will learn how to create a podcast with your students from beginning to end, with free editing tools, content curriculum, and ways of funding a classroom podcast studio. Attendees will hear from NPR Student Podcast winners before discussing example podcasts and the implementation process. Join us, and expect to walk away as a part of a collaborative podcasting community!
Presenters: Andrea March, Dalton High School
Amanda Triplett, Dalton Junior High School
In this hands-on, interactive workshop, participants learn to use digital gaming and physical theatre activities to teach Shakespeare’s tragedies and to connect the plays to social justice issues. The workshop is led by a Shakespeare scholar who is one of the creators of Play the Knave (https://www.playtheknave.org), the mixed reality Shakespeare video game this workshop explores.
Presenters: Gina Bloom, University of California, Davis
In this workshop, presenters share digital tools that can support place-based storytelling in language arts classrooms. Attendees will interact with student produced data stories focused on family migration histories and try out different approaches that support the inquiry-based activities we used to scaffold students’ learning (such as data visualization, oral histories, and community mapping).
Presenters: Daryl Axelrod, Florida International University
Matthew Deroo, University of Miami
Jennifer Kahn, University of Miami
Participants will learn about and then engage in a hands-on exercise that models how to engage ENLs in active learning with Shakespeare. This exercise ties directly to ELA content standards and is designed to promote SEL development, and it can be applied to any play or novel.
Presenters: Kellie Schmidt, NWEA
Margaret Stead, North Rockland High School