Workshops
2024 NCTE Annual Convention Workshops
Registration is required to attend a preconvention workshop.
Unless otherwise noted, workshops will take place at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Thursday, November 21, 8:00 a.m.—12:00 p.m.
W.1 — A Heartfelt, Hopeful, Culturally Proficient ELA Block for Elementary Latinx/o/a/e Learners
Strand: Rainbow
Audience: Elementary, Middle
Elementary Latinx learners routinely score lower than their White peers on reading assessments. This session offers a solution—culturally proficient ELA instruction. Join a grade 4 teacher, ESL expert, and five award-winning children’s book authors as they highlight the value of ELA blocks with equitable access to nonfiction and mirrors in fiction for Latinx learners and their classmates.
W.2 — Boston Writing Marathon
Strand: National Writing Project (NWP)
Audience: General, Teacher Education
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 Boston before returning to the meeting room to reflect on the process as a community of teachers/writers.
W.3 — Centering the Human in the English Classroom: Creation, Connection, and Inquiry with Digital Technology
Audience: Middle, Secondary, Teacher Education
Sponsored by the NCTE Assembly on Computers in English
In this Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) workshop, participants will engage in digital literacy practices that encourage creation, connection, and inquiry using digital tools. Attendees will be led through activities centered on artificial intelligence, podcasting, writing instruction, journalistic learning, and map-based narratives.
W.4 — Coaching the Human: How Starting with Heart, Hope, and Humanity Can Amplify Instructional Coaching
Strand: English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE)
Audience: Elementary, Middle, Secondary, Teacher Education
Discover the impact of infusing empathy, optimism, and a human-centered approach into instructional coaching. Explore practical strategies for building connections, creating a positive coaching environment, and leveraging confidence to enhance outcomes. Through engaging activities, learn how prioritizing heart, hope, and humanity elevates the effectiveness of instructional coaching.
W.5 — Committing to Inclusive ELA Instruction and Classroom Spaces: The Act. Change. Empower. Project
Audience: Middle, Secondary
This workshop introduces attendees to inclusive writing pedagogy, focusing on both designing instruction as well as cultivating spaces—both in and outside of traditional classroom settings—underpinned by this approach. The session framework, which facilitators will use to guide participants through discussions, exercises, and activities, centers on the Act. Change. Empower. (ACE) Project.
W.6 — Contemporary Poetry That Inspires: Teaching Strategies, Writing, and Community-Building In Person with Author José Olivarez
Strand: National Writing Project (NWP)
Audience: Middle, Secondary, College
In this interactive workshop featuring author José Olivarez, participants will explore his poems, honor the legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks, and learn new poetic forms. We will share culturally-responsive strategies for teaching poetry, and write and share our own poems in a dynamic writing workshop led by Peter Kahn.
W.7 — Crafting Purposeful Prose: A Workshop on Classroom Approaches to Sentences, Rhetoric, and Meaningful Writing
Strand: National Writing Project (NWP)
Audience: Middle, Secondary
This interactive and entertaining workshop explores a foundation for writing often taken for granted: sentences. NCTE Past President Beverly Ann Chin joins sought-after coach and author Brandon Abdon, YouTube ELA sensation Timm Freitas, and consultant extraordinaire Chris Judson to explore approaches to sentence-level teaching that can transform students’ writing and overall thinking.”
W.8 — Creating Critical Consumers of American Indian Content to Achieve Equitable Representation
Strand: Rainbow
Audience: Elementary, Middle, Secondary, Teacher Education
This session will provide participants with strategies for implementing Indigenous content into classrooms and learning spaces through culturally respectful and responsible approaches. Focusing on literary practices, we will discuss crucial understandings regarding American Indians to achieve equitable, engaging environments for both Native and non-Native students.
W.9 — Designing Spaces for Students to Reshape Their Worlds: An Antiracist Pedagogy Workshop
Strand: English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE), Literacies and Languages for All (LLA), Rainbow
Audience: General
Students bring to the literacy classroom a wealth of resources, such as linguistic competencies and reasons to compose. Yet, their literacy education is often only designed for them to prove that they can meet state standards. This anti-racist workshop will teach participants how to design and assess assignments that guide students’ use of these resources to address the social change they desire.
W.10 — E.A.R.T.H. Lit: A Collaborative and Culturally Relevant Resource for Teachers on Embedding Environmental Justice into Their Literacy Instruction
Strand: English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE)
Audience: Elementary, Middle, Teacher Education
Join our workshop, where educators unleash the power of storytelling in intersectional environmental justice. Dive into diverse literature, activities, and resources. Ignite discussions, empowering your classroom to shape a future where stories foster environmental consciousness and action. Be part of the movement for a sustainable, equitable future through ELA instruction. View www.earthlit.org.
W.11 — Hop on the Hyperdoc Express
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Strand: English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE)
Audience: Elementary
The energy in the classroom has shifted. Hyperdocs can be created to support readers in independent or group work. This is a pedagogical revolution that brings learning to life. In this session we will explore hyperdocs in the content areas K–12 that are already created and learn about the process to create hyperdocs. Teachers will leave with ideas to implement the next school day!
W.12 — Humanizing the Grading System: Implementing a Growth Grading System for the Changemakers in Our Classrooms
Audience: Middle, Secondary, Teacher Education
Teacher-author Sarah Zerwin and six teachers from across the country will outline the steps they have taken to inspire students to see their humanity beyond the numbers in the gradebook. This workshop will provide opportunities for participants to begin the process of decentering the grade—and themselves—in the classroom and provide specific, practical steps that teachers can take immediately.
W.13 — If You Give a Mouse an iPhone: Teaching Writing and Media Balance to Elementary Learners through Literature
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Strand: English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE)
Audience: Elementary, Middle, Secondary, Teacher Education
Meeting today’s students requires some thoughtful reflection! Subjects should be integrated and include social emotional learning skills embedded into lessons. This can be a challenge for the busy educator, especially when it comes to today’s trending technology tools. This workshop shows educators how to create a writing unit plan, use Google tools, and discover how Canva can enhance lessons!
W.14 — Learning to Read Movies: Integrating National Film Study Standards in the Classroom
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Strand: English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE), Literacies and Languages for All (LLA)
Audience: Elementary, Middle, Secondary, Teacher Education
Cinema literacy requires a knowledge of language and analysis different from that of other visual mediums, such as advertisements and news broadcasts. This interactive workshop introduces participants to a film-specific pedagogy rooted in national film standards and engages them in teaching strategies and applications to guide students beyond the simplistic read-the-book, watch-the-movie approach.
W.15 — Moving from Spectators to Players in Education Conversations: Writing for Publication
Strand: National Writing Project (NWP)
Audience: General, Teacher Education
Classroom teachers must engage as public scholars, contributing to and disrupting conversations about education, especially when our voices are missing from journals and policies. This workshop provides time and tools to examine teacher-crafted articles from contemporary journals. Oregon Writing Project coaches and authors offer both strategies and a platform for participants to kickstart drafts.
W.16 — Nurturing Humanity: Integrating Hope and Arts in Teacher Education for Transformation
Strand: English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE), National Writing Project (NWP), Research
Audience: Middle, Secondary, College, Teacher Education, Research
Participants will begin at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston by downloading an app we developed to support preservice teachers in this specific art space. Then, we will model the app with a work of art, before allowing participants to use the app to explore the museum in small groups.
(Held offsite at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston)
W.17 — Read Alouds That Celebrate Learners and Teach Racial, Historical, and Critical Literacies
Strand: Rainbow
Audience: Elementary, Middle, Teacher Education
This session helps educators design lessons that thematically integrate texts aligned to social studies so that students learn to value and advocate for the appreciation of human differences across a broad range of characteristics and traits, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, (dis)ability, age, and national origin.
W.18 — Shakespeare and Way Beyond: Actively Empowering Students with Language and Literature
Strand: English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE)
Audience: Middle, Secondary, College, Teacher Education
Experience the Folger Method, a scaffolded sequence of strategies that puts students directly inside the language and issues of complex texts. Teachers will be on their feet, speaking the words of authors, and connecting with the characters and ideas in Shakespeare and other complex texts in just the way they will with students.
W.19 — Text Tapestry: Weaving Diverse Text Sets for Dynamic Literacy Learning
Strand: Literacies and Languages for All (LLA)
Audience: Middle, Secondary
Explore the art of building dynamic text sets in this session, designed to enhance literacy through diverse resources. Learn to craft conceptually coherent collections, accommodating various learning needs and fostering deep understanding. Discover strategies for engaging students, aligning with educational standards, and creating impactful, multi-dimensional learning experiences.
W.20 — Understanding the Armenian Genocide through Primary Sources and Memoir
Strand: Literacies and Languages for All (LLA)
Audience: Middle, Secondary
Join us in the heart of one of the oldest, most vibrant Armenian American community centers in the US — Watertown, MA. This full-day workshop (8:30 am-4pm) begins at the Armenian Museum of America (AMA), where participants will enjoy a tour of the exhibits and be guided through the fundamentals of the history of the Armenian Genocide, as well as the use of literature and survivor memoirs from master educators, museum staff, and local Watertown educator, Houry Boyamian, the daughter of an Armenian Genocide survivor and memoir author. At noon, the workshop moves to the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), for an authentic Armenian lunch and an examination of its extensive primary source archive and a workshop on how to access and incorporate them into lessons about the Armenian Genocide. (Arrangements will be made to transport participants from the NCTE Convention to the workshops and back.)
(Held offsite at the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown)
W.21 — We Are Family: Literacy Events and Engagements That Embrace Families and Communities
Strand: National Writing Project (NWP)
Audience: Elementary, Middle, Secondary
As part of this workshop, participants will take part in some sample literacy engagements that can be utilized for school-based literacy programs. These include a literacy escape room, book tasting, writing marathon, book clubs, author events, and more. Suggestions for planning, budgeting and grant funds, potential partnerships, and more will be explored in this extended workshop.
W.22 — With Eyes of Appreciation: Looking at Student Work to Understand Children’s Language and Literacy Learning
Strand: English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE), National Writing Project (NWP), Rainbow
Audience: General, Teacher Education
This half-day workshop for P–12 teachers, preservice teachers, and teacher educators uses the concepts of resource pedagogies and appreciative inquiry as frames for looking at student work from literacy/ELA classrooms as a means to understand children’s literacy learning. We will employ a variety of LASW protocols to inform future collaborative work in professional learning communities.
W.23 — Writing as a Catalyst for Transformation—for Ourselves and Our Students
Strand: National Writing Project (NWP)
Audience: General
All too often teachers feel exhausted, stressed, and burned out. In this course, you will learn how to use writing to deepen your own resiliency, access clarity, and recover passion. In addition, we will explore how we can integrate writing opportunities for our students to bring these kinds of advantages to them as well. Bring a favorite pen/pencil and notebook.
W.24 — Writing I.R.L.- Real World Connections for Student Engagement
Strand: English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE), National Writing Project (NWP)
Audience: Middle, Secondary, College, Teacher Education
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to effectively integrate real-world writing experiences into their classrooms, employing cross-curricular inquiry methods and project- based learning to enhance student writing skills and engagement. Participants will be given a full unit of materials and will develop their own exemplars to use in their classrooms.