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Friday 20 Oct 2023
1:00 PM - 1:30 PM Book signing the Oberhelman Center for Leadership Performance
No workshops in this session.
3:30 PM - 4:20 PM Breakout Session F
No workshops in this session.
Saturday 21 Oct 2023
8:30 AM - 8:55 AM Plenary Session 4, Welcome
Featured Speaker, Briana Morales, 2023 Illinois Teacher of the Year
Briana MoralesBanquet AB
Briana Morales is a proud Latina and freedom fighter for students in alternative education, where she has spent her career loving and learning alongside students furthest from justice in East St. Louis, IL. Throughout her career she has helped students turn pain into power through narrative poetry of witness. Briana was honored in 2021 as a NCTE Early Career Educator of Color and more recently as the 2023 Illinois Teacher of the Year.
10:00 AM - 10:50 AM Breakout Session H
No workshops in this session.
11:00 AM - 11:50 AM Breakout Session I
No workshops in this session.
12:00 PM - 12:50 PM Breakout Session J
No workshops in this session.
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Plenary Session 5, Past Presidents’ Saturday Luncheon
Past Presidents’ Luncheon, Featured Speaker, Catherine Adel West
Catherine Adel WestBanquet AB
Catherine Adel West was born and raised in Chicago, IL where she currently resides. She graduated with both her B.A. and M.S. in Journalism from the University of Illinois - Urbana. She is the author of Saving Ruby Kingand The Two Lives of Sara. In addition, her work is published in Black Fox Literary Magazine, Five2One, Better than Starbucks, Doors Ajar, 805 Lit + Art, The Helix Magazine, Lunch Ticket, Gay Magazine, and Every Body Shines, a body positive anthology.
| Book Signing with Catherine Adel West Friday 2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Oberhelman Center for Leadership Performance |
Friday 25 Oct 2024
8:30 AM - 9:50 AM Plenary Session 1
Conference Welcome & Opening Session Featured Speaker
Staley Library, Ballroom (3rd Floor)
Challenged and Challenging Texts and Teaching
Carol JagoStaley Library, Ballroom (3rd Floor)
Carol Jago taught middle and high school for 32 years in Santa Monica, California. She has served as president of the National Council of Teachers of English and on numerous committees including the College Board’s English Academic Advisory committee, ILA Adolescent Literacy Interest Group, and NAEP Writing Standing Committee.
Carol Jago has published a number of books on literacy and English pedagogy, including her most recent book The Book in Question: Why and How Reading Is in Crisis (Heinemann, 2019). She has written for the Los Angeles Times and many educational journals and online forums.
Carol is the recipient of the International Literacy Association's Adolescent Literacy Thought Leader award and the NCTE Exemplary Leadership Award.
Book signing to follow
10:00 AM - 10:50 AM Breakout Session A
Mimicking Isn't Thinking: Putting Thinking Back in Writing Instruction
Kimberly Williams and Sarah Scholz, Hinsdale Central High SchoolStaley 138
Students emerged from Covid classrooms, but not unscathed. More than ever, they were not engaging in their own learning. Our course team decided we couldn't keep lamenting the fact that our tried-and-true approaches weren't working anymore; we needed to adapt to teach the students in front of us now. Inspired by a book for math teachers on getting kids to think, we adapted our own approach to writing instruction.
Perils of the Participation Grade: Rethinking our Evaluation of Participation
Stephanie Bailey, Glenbrook South High SchoolStaley 140
As educators, we know the value of participation. However, we also know that many barriers to participation exist in and out of the classroom. We know that participation grades favor extroverted students, and at their worst, participation grades “may be inherently ableist” (Laurel Bastian, as cited in D’Agostino, 2023). But what if there is a way we could abandon the perilous participation grade while simultaneously showing students we value daily engagement? There is a way: the Engagement Grade.
In this session, Dr. Stephanie Bailey will define the Engagement Grade and the implementation of it with various abilities and grade levels. Dr. Bailey has been teaching high school English for 27 years and has taught at the community college level. Also, she has been a reader for the AP Language and Composition test. Currently, she teaches AP Language and Composition and remedial junior English.
Culturally Responsive Teaching Standards, Practices, and Resources for the HS English Classrooms
Beth Schurman, Olivet Nazarene UniversityStaley 142
In March of 2021, the Illinois State Board of Education adopted a set of Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards for the purpose of better preparing future teachers to create culturally rich spaces and curricula that are welcoming and supportive for all students. While the new standards are an important tool for teacher education programs, there does not seem to exist a similar set of standards for practicing teachers in Illinois. While research suggests that culturally responsive teaching is a practice of many high school English teachers regardless of a required set of standards, we wanted to determine the extent to which this is happening using the CRP standards as a lens for teachers to consider the ways in which they are already embracing culturally responsive practices.
Specifically, our session will first share the results from a survey and interview with several high school English teachers in Illinois about their perspectives on and teaching habits related to the CRP standards. Then, we will share a repertoire of resources that we have curated and created to support teachers in their continued implementation of the CRP standards and culturally responsive practices in general.
It Does Happen Here: The Literary and Cultural Roots of American Authoritarianism
Tim Libretti, Northeastern Illinois UniversityStaley 144
It hardly seems arguable that U.S. national politics have, for nearly a decade now, veered in a decidedly and intensified authoritarian direction. That nearly half the nation seems to crave autocratic rule and repression is not, in fact, a brand new development. Despite the fact that prominent trailblazers in American literary study such as F.O. Matthiessen defined American literature precisely by its strong democratic impulse and individualist spirit, one finds from even a cursory study of the U.S. literary tradition a powerful and canonical anti-democratic politics—relentlessly so. In the works of such writers including T.S. Eliot and William Faulkner, one finds unapologetic supremacist values. Even the romantic individualism of Emerson and Thoreau endorse autocratic behavior, eschewing the rule of law that is a key principle of democracy. This seminar invites us to scrutinize closely as teachers of literature what values we are transmitting to our students as we teach U.S. literature, reflecting on how the institution of literary study itself has participated in creating our current national condition.
10:00 AM - 10:50 AM Discussion Panel 1: Book Challenges
Staley 146
Moderated by Amy Magnafichi Strong
IATE Intellectual Freedom Committee Chair
While Illinois schools and libraries enjoy broad protections against book bans, parents and community members bring challenges nevertheless. Panelists will discuss their experiences with book challenges. What books in the curriculum or library have been challenged? On what grounds? How have they addressed challenges to those books? What measure of success have they had in defending the challenge?
Panelists
Gary Anderson, District 211 (Retired), Illinois State University, Harper College
Bayyinah Bey, Chicago Public Schools
Stacy Haynes-Moore, Coe College
John Essington, Blackburn College
11:15 AM - 12:30 PM Workshop 1
Sharing our Humanity: Healing from Trauma Through the Power of Story
Julie Hoffman Springfield Public SchoolsScovill 211
Video Games as Literary Source Material for the Writing Classroom
James Drown and Mark Brand, University of Illinois at ChicagoScovill 212
Video-computer based games emerged as consumer products in the 1970s and now surpass movies, television, and music in terms of worldwide profits. Many of the original text-based games, such as Zork and Deadline had a genre based literary quality to them, and 50 years later we still see literary storytelling in this medium, with both major corporations and independent developers delivering significant texts using varying levels of technology and sophistication.
At the lower level of this, developers often produce low cost material that effectively deals with social and personal issues our students are interested in. Papers Please is a multi-platform game that examines issues around immigration and documentation. One Night, Hot Springs looks at the experience of being trans at a hot spring, while This War of Mine allow us to be a civilian in an urban combat zone (and is a text in Polish history classes). New and exciting games come out frequently, and this is a rich area for texts, which are sophisticated and meet students “where they live.”
We have successfully used video games in the writing classroom, and we are proposing a workshop that presents a number of short low-cost (or free) games to the audience, along with a variety of ways of using them in the classroom. As part of the experience, we would like to engage the participants in an actual lesson in relation to one of the games being presented.
11:30 AM - 12:20 PM Breakout Session B
Teaching SEL in the Secondary High School Classroom
Barbara Schiffer, Legal Prep Charter AcademyStaley 138
As educators, our primary goal is not only to impart academic knowledge but also to nurture the holistic development of our students. Recently, there has been a growing conversation around the importance of social-emotional learning in the classroom space. By infusing SEL skills and techniques into our classroom environment, we have the opportunity to support the whole child, fostering their self-esteem and creating a conducive atmosphere for optimal learning. Ultimately, the goal of this session is to look at how by recognizing and nurturing the social-emotional well-being of our students, we empower them to thrive academically and personally. I aim to equip educators with the knowledge, skills, and support they need to effectively integrate daily practices into their teaching, ultimately fostering a more compassionate and resilient learning community.
The CEIT Paradigm for Non-fiction Writing
Kevin Aldrich, Routt Catholic High SchoolStaley 140
In non-fiction writing, there are only four basic “moves” a writer can make. An acronym to help student writers remember them is CEIT, for claim, explain, illustrate, and tie-back. First, you can make a claim. This claim may be called a thesis, a topic sentence, a theme, or a main idea. Second, you can explain that claim. Third, you can illustrate the claim. In literary criticism, this would be evidence from the story that supports your claim. Finally, you can tie the example back to the original claim. That is, you can briefly analyze how this example illustrates your theme. In addition to making these four basic moves, you can also signal them. "In other words," signals explanation. "For instance," signals an illustration. "This is an example of wisdom because" signals a tie back. When a thesis statement includes multiple parts, those parts can be made the core of subtopic sentences in a single-paragraph essay, or topic sentences in a multiple-paragraph essay. Each subtopic section can be explained, illustrated, and tied back to the subtopic sentence’s idea. In addition to the signals mentioned above, time or order signals can further clarify structure, such as first, second, finally, and so on. Once students become adept with the CEIT paradigm, they can choose which features to use and which to leave out. This presentation will thoroughly explain the CEIT paradigm and use student examples to show how it applies both simpler and more complex essays.
Strengthening Students’ Reading Muscles to Build Stamina and Confidence
Carol Jago, University of California at Los Angeles; California Reading and Literature ProjectStaley 146
What can teachers do when students balk at doing the assigned reading? Why do so many students have difficulty staying with a book for more than a few minutes? In this workshop Carol Jago will demonstrate instructional moves that can help students increase their stamina and develop greater confidence in themselves as readers. Based upon current research in adolescent literacy, the session offers texts and tasks designed to engage today’s young readers.
Teaching Consent Through YA Literature
Genevieve Sherman and Deborah Althoff Will, Zion Benton High SchoolCollaboration 144
This presentation will take a look at teaching consent through various books. We will define consent, look at songs that both ask for and ignore consent, and dive into books that allow readers to see the four aspects of consent for this unit. Teachers will leave with a unit of work that is valuable and engaging.
12:30 PM - 1:50 PM Plenary Session 2
Business Meeting Luncheon and Featured Speaker
Promises of Gold: Reflections on Writing, Reading, and the Classroom
Jose Olivarez, Featured SpeakerStaley Library, Ballroom (3rd Floor)
Jose Olivarez is the author of two collections of poems, including Promises of Gold and Citizen Illegal. He co-edited the poetry anthology The BreakBeat Poets, Volume 4: LatiNEXT, with Felicia Rose Chavez and Willie Perdomo.
Promises of Gold was long-listed for the 2023 National Book Award and Citizen Illegal was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize.
In 2018, Jose Olivarez was awarded the first annual Author and Artist in Justice Award from the Phillips Brooks House Association and was named a Debut Poet of 2018 by Poets & Writers. In 2019, the Poetry Foundation awarded Olivarez a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship.
Olivarez's work has been featured in the New York Times, Paris Review, POETRY magazine, among others.
Book signing to follow
2:00 PM - 3:15 PM Workshop 2
“My Excellent Friend”: The Letter-Writing of Frankenstein in the Age of SnapChat
Leslie Birdwell and Jane Schumacher, New Trier High SchoolScovill 211
Our students use text to correspond with each other more than ever, often churning out micro-epistles while we teach our most engaging lessons. But while research overwhelmingly suggests that handwriting stimulates brain development and correspondence boosts mental health, snapping bypasses many of these benefits, due to the brevity and screen-dependence of the medium. When given the opportunity to turn a text into a real letter, however – one with an elevated salutation, advanced vocabulary, and ornate sentences, students will scribble seriously for half an hour, phones forgotten in backpacks. Engaging this activity in preparation for reading novels such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein will allow students to playfully encounter the language of the 19th century, consider new words and their shifting meanings over time, and compose heartfelt and often hilarious missives (if only to scold the dog for soiling the “citadel” of their bedroom).
In this workshop, participants will examine sample letters, both from Frankenstein and from online archives of Victorian-era correspondence; next, they will draw from an extensive word list in composing letters of high emotion and elevated language. At the end of the workshop, participants will discuss further implications for how such writing generates authentic stakes, stimulates discussions of word usage and parts of speech, and increases student confidence in the otherwise daunting task of reading 19th century texts.
Engaging students in local, collaborative problem solving to build their vision of the future
Florian Feucht, Thinking HabitatsScovill 212
Explore how local news can be used as a powerful tool to teach reading, writing, critical thinking, and collaborative problem-solving skills, while serving as a motivational hook to help students seek out information and connect with peers and the broader community. Our federally-funded unit connects reading and thinking skills with the writing process using a student-centric, project-based approach.
To highlight some features of the highly versatile featured unit, students develop reading and critical thinking skills through interactive modeling of cognitive skills and corresponding writing assignments. Built-in prompts engage students in peer-to-peer discussion about local issues. A culminating group project invites students to engage in collaborative problem-solving with their peers as they formulate a personal cause, select and analyze news articles, and produce an essay and a creative work aimed to advocate for change within their own community.
Participants will learn a reliable process for evaluating news articles in a non-biased manner. They will explore unit materials, including reading and writing activities, grading rubrics, student work and notes from teachers who have taught with the materials previously. This unit can be tailored to meet the needs of any classroom, and provides ample opportunities for cross-curricular connections, community involvement, and meaningful communication with peers and the broader community.
2:30 PM - 3:20 PM Breakout Session C
"Picturing" Socially Just Research Writing
Remy Garard and Katie Bovenkerk, Normal West High SchoolStaley 140
As we are navigating “contentious times” in the ELA field, a high-interest and non-threatening approach to moving our students towards engaging in social justice issues is using diverse children’s picture books as a jumping-off point for students to choose topics for required research papers. We encourage teachers to use a mentor text to lead students through the process of engaging with diverse picture books for children, critically examining the texts that capture their attention, and then using a single text to lead their higher-level research and study of visual media. This approach is a highly motivating and non-threatening way to engage students in important discussions, concerns and eventual research about culturally diverse topics. Teachers will come away from this session understanding the research that supports a move towards this type of unit, as well as with practical tools and lists of texts to use immediately in their lessons.
ELA & AI: The Obstacle Course of Future Pedagogy
John Essington, Blackburn CollegeStaley 142
Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) is disrupting, if not overthrowing, five thousand years of human communication, encompassing the entire existence of the English language. ELA educators must clearly understand the role genAI will play in our classrooms and adapt to technological trends in a vigilant yet open manner.
This session will highlight numerous areas of genAI and how they correspond with English education. Additionally, the presentation will discuss and question our current understanding of genAI and how that affects our understanding of what it means to educate students.
One of the main goals of the presentation is to critically examine the correct role for genAI in ELA education and tangle with the philosophical implications of this moment, and seek the middle ground between accepting all technological innovations without thought and living in a neo-luddite, sequestered classroom space.
Empowering Students Through the Use of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
AngelaNina Escanilla, Unity Junior High SchoolStaley 146
Culturally responsive teaching stresses the importance of connecting students’ identity and lived experiences to the classroom in order to enhance their learning. With book banning and curriculum censorship at an all time high, students feel powerless. They feel as if their voices don’t matter, often leading to the question “Why do I need to know this?” By understanding the communities from which our students come, we are better able to create engaging lessons and find literature that all students can relate to. Creating a welcoming and culturally responsive classroom will decrease student apathy and, in turn, increase student engagement. Not sure how to get started? This session will provide you with a multitude of resources, ranging from beginning of the year “Get to Know You” activities to giving students voice and choice on literature.
2:30 PM - 3:20 PM Interview with Jose Olivarez
Interview with Jose Olivarez
Jose Olivarez Interviewed by Jen Vincent, Bannockburn School, Story ExploratoryStaley 144
Writers bear witness. Educator and writer Jen Vincent will talk with poet José Olivarez about how living the life of a writer means paying attention, collecting ideas, navigating the writing process, and ultimately, bearing witness to the human experience. In exploring writing through Olivarez’s eyes, educators will see ways to wield the power of poetry as invitations to read and write and celebrate our humanity.
3:30 PM - 4:20 PM Breakout Session D
Engaging Scholars through Counterstory and Connection
Erin Perkins and Jay Mehta, Adlai E. Stevenson High SchoolStaley 138
As education consistently adapts to the ever-changing landscape of the field and its student population, teachers and administrators are acknowledging the necessity of diverse curriculums as part of culturally relevant and responsive practices. However, we argue that this has been implemented to varying degrees of success, especially texts related to the Asian American Pacific Islander and Desi American (AAPIDA) community. As the United States continues to grow its racial diversity, the literacy opportunities within the education system need to represent it. We will report on the unique perspectives that teachers of color bring to the professional space as it comes to curriculum and instruction from our own personal experience as teachers within the AAPIDA community as well as research. We will offer a discussion about how counterstory narratives empower scholars and promote empathy across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups and challenge ourselves to view all stories with complexity, nuance, and compassion. We will examine successful ways to conduct authentic moments of cultural connections and discuss how well-intentioned practices may result in inauthentic or exacerbate systems of harm for scholars. We will offer and report on practices that we have done to enable student discussion surrounding how their identities interact with the various systems while centering counterstories, authentic connections, and tending to the social and emotional needs of scholars.
Handling Heavy Texts with Care
Abigail Kindelsperger, University of Illinois at ChicagoStaley 140
| Many of the most frequently taught works of literature include death, trauma, and other topics that can feel daunting for new teachers to approach in the classroom. Focusing on a literacy methods course with a fieldwork component in Chicago Public Schools, this presentation explores how pre-service teachers learn to navigate teaching literature with heavy content. With Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat as a focal text, the presenter will share classroom strategies that help teachers reflect on their teaching philosophies and design lessons that balance paying attention to social-emotional needs and building literacy skills. |
The Perfect Match: Coupling Groundbreaking Texts with Revolutionary Pedagogy
Keisha Rembert, National Louis UniversityStaley 142
As ELA teachers, we know the power of a great book to captivate students' minds and hearts. By thoughtfully selecting and presenting texts that grapple with issues of race, identity and justice, we can ignite students' curiosity, empathy and critical consciousness. But we can't stop at just putting diverse books in students' hands - we must also equip ourselves with the pedagogical tools to guide them through meaningful engagement and reflection.
In "The Antiracist ELA Classroom," I laid out a vision and roadmap for transforming our English Language Arts classrooms into sites of antiracist education and empowerment. But how do we bridge the gap between theory and practice, between the pages of a professional book and the lived realities of our classrooms? In this session, I’ll book talk some great texts coupled with ready-to-implement anti-oppressive, antiracist instructional strategies.
Exploring Our Literacy Histories in Verse: Using Poetry to Cultivate Humanity, Content Knowledge, Community, and Craft
Kate Sjostrom,University of Illinois at ChicagoStaley 144
Much has been written about students’ and pre-service teachers’ fear of poetry; heck, there’s even a scientific name for the fear of poetry: metrophobia. Thankfully, there have been some great books to guide teachers and teacher educators in suffusing their classrooms with positive poetry experiences—books like John O’Connor’s 2004 Wordplaygrounds and the new Whispering in the Wind by Linda Rief and A Poetry Pedagogy for Teachers by Pindyck and Vinz. And yet, it can be hard to make sufficient time for poetry in high school and methods courses, where teachers and teacher educators are often bound by curriculum and time constraints. The presenter will describe her project to infuse both her high school classroom and, later, her writing methods course with poetry in an attempt to create fear-free poetry experiences—as well as to capitalize on poetry’s power to enhance content knowledge, collaboration, communication, and creativity. In the process, she will outline a literacy autobiography assignment she has done with high school and college students which enlists writers in creating snapshots of their most formative literacy experiences: engaging in writing workshops, reflecting on the implications of their and peers’ experience, and celebrating each other’s voices through publishing parties. Attendees will be invited to share some of their own literacy experiences and play with poetry as well.
3:30 PM - 4:20 PM Discussion Panel 2: Engagement and Curriculum
Student Engagement in Scripted Curriculums vs. Student Choice Contexts
Elizabeth Kahn, Moderator, Northern Illinois UniversityStaley 146
Some districts engage students with a severely limited classroom experience using scripted curriculums, while others engage students with curriculums that allow for broad student choice. Panelists will discuss their experience on this student engagement continuum. Where do their districts fall? What successes and challenges have they experienced? How have they worked around the challenges and capitalized on the successes?
Panelists
- John Barrett, Pleasant Plains Middle School
- John Hartzmark, MacArthur High School
- Cindi Koudelka, Fieldcrest Community School District, Aurora University
- Nicole Boudreau Smith, Adlai E. Stevenson High School
- Julie Hoffman, Springfield Public Schools & University of Illinois at Springfield
3:45 PM - 5:00 PM Workshop 3
Identity Cycles: SEL Integration in the ELA Classroom
Elise Zerega, Northwestern University, and Corrine Ulmer, Lane Tech College PrepScovill 211
Suggested: Bring a laptop with Google Suite
Together we will explore a curriculum rooted in identity for middle school students that empowers them to not only critically craft their own identities, but more thoroughly develop critical thinking skills in order to enact social change. The curriculum integrates social emotional learning with common core, while being non-linear and revolutionary. Texts, skills, and activities centered on identity allow students of color, in particular, to take control over their identity formation, and also allows white students the chance to authentically reflect and understand their own positions of privilege in contrast. Paired with seminars, collaborative writing, and individual reflections through an active revision process, this cyclical curriculum engages students by returning to concepts and skills in order to deepen their holistic development throughout the year. The intersection of SEL, ELA, and equity is of utmost importance as our students, and the world around us, continue to recover from the upheaval of a global pandemic. Corrine Ulmer has over a decade of direct experience developing and implementing advanced middle school curriculum that offers practical takeaways from Elise Zerega's background in pedagogical research that explores the intersection of SEL and academic achievement.
Transforming Teaching Through Self-Care
Sarah Bland, Enter Peace Print and Wellness CollectiveScovill 212
We all know that teachers cannot “pour from an empty cup.” This rhetoric of self-care is all too common. But amid the fast pace of the school system, what are we actually supposed to do to refill our cups? The obstacles to self-care are made worse because much of what the dominant culture calls “self-care” simply helps us cope within antiquated systems rather than truly promote sustained well-being. This cultural confusion around self-care keeps teachers stuck in cycles of exhaustion, overwork, and disconnect. The steeply increasing rate of teachers’ chronic stress and burnout makes clear that we must prioritize real self-care practices—boundaries, self-compassion, power, and processing feelings of guilt. Centering our humanity in this way creates the groundwork for life-giving teaching practices, classrooms, and communities.
Drawing on ten years of teaching English in Illinois public high schools and the work of Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Pooja Lakshmin, Sarah Bland holds space for teachers to use reflective writing to create a real self-care plan that will support their well-being throughout the school year. Further, participants will be invited to practice short guided meditations to foster self-compassion. Engaging with reflective writing and guided meditation in this way is an act of self-care, community care, and love that naturally shifts how we engage with ourselves, our students, our curriculum, and our school communities.
4:30 PM - 5:20 PM Breakout Session E
Voices Silenced: Unpacking the Dilemma of Book Challenges in the Context of Culturally Responsive Pedagogies Through Content Analysis
Amy Magnafichi Strong, Illinois Association of Teachers of EnglishStaley 140
This session will discuss the findings of a three-year dissertation study about the reasons for and rhetoric surrounding book challenges and bans. The presentation will discuss how this rhetoric interrupts culturally responsive teaching practices and silences marginalized voices. This session will also present effective ways of discussing these challenges with stakeholders.
Cultivating the Next Generation of Teachers
John Barrett, Pleasant Plains Middle SchoolStaley 142
A session to empower and celebrate the vocation of professional educator. We will celebrate what we do, brainstorm ways to celebrate young teachers (in particular) and brainstorm ways to keep young teachers in the field of education.
Exploring Diverse, Modern Voices in Book Clubs
Sue Hersam and Brad Ruda, Lake Forest High SchoolStaley 144
As English teachers, we’re used to teaching texts in isolation. This presentation will demonstrate how the presenters have experimented with book clubs as a way to weave more varied voices into classrooms. This session will showcase an American Literature Book Club Unit, which provides a framework for students to helps our students see the larger America beyond their own experiences and those captured in canonical literature. Presenters’ sophomore teaching team reads recently published American fiction, searching for well-written literature from varied perspectives to expose students to characters facing complex issues. The novels include relatable teenage narrators whose experiences move students beyond their comfort zones. The unit revolves around student choice, beginning with book selection and extending through student-led book group discussions. In the course of the unit, student groups research related real-world issues like Native American land rights, groundwater contamination in low-income areas, and effects of immigration policies. For a final project, students create movie book trailers using Canva to advertise novels' themes and motifs.
Presenters will also share novel titles, videos of book groups in action, and project examples.
Novel Selection in Secondary Settings: Curating Inclusive Texts
Kelly P. Vaughan, Lewis UniversityStaley 146
In the last four decades, literacy scholars and national educational organizations have emphasized the need to include more diverse and inclusive texts for our students. However, teachers have also experienced increased calls for censorship and book banning in the last decade. This presentation will address two questions: how do secondary English teachers currently select books for inclusion in their curriculum? How can teachers ensure access to diverse and inclusive texts?
The presenter will share the results of a pilot study about how teachers select novels in their classrooms and share multiple resources (evaluative checklists, book awards, and online resources) to help curate inclusive classroom libraries, comprised of texts featuring protagonists representing diverse racial, linguistic, gender, and disability communities. Participants will be asked to share their experiences with text selection, reflect upon the criteria they would like to use to determine which novels to teach, and evaluate their current novel choices.
Attendees are suggested to have access to Google slides.
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM Cocktails & Hors d’oeuvres
Staley Library, Ballroom Foyer (3rd Floor)
Enter the Basket Raffle to benefit the IATE Minority Scholarship
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM Plenary Session 3, Friday Dinner
Awards Dinner
Staley Library, Ballroom (3rd Floor)
6:30 pm, Plenary Session 3
Awards Dinner
- Drawing for Basket Raffle
- Minority Scholarship Recipients
- Student Literature & Art Contest Winners
- Lifetime Achievement Award
- Author of the Year
Joelle Charbonneau Interview
Joelle Charbonneau , Interviewed by Genevieve Sherman
Joelle Charbonneau is the author or the New York Times best-selling The Testing trilogy (comprised of The Testing, Independent Study, and Graduation Day), as well as two mystery series: The Rebecca Robbins mysteries (including Skating Around the Law and Skating over the Line) and the Glee Club mysteries (comprised of Murder for Choir, End Me a Tenor, and A Chorus Lineup). Her YA books have appeared on the Indie Next List, on the YALSA Top 10 books for 2014 as well as the YALSA Quick Picks for reluctant readers.
Joelle has performed in opera and musical theater productions across Chicagoland, and now teaches private voice lessons.
Book signing to follow
Saturday 26 Oct 2024
11:55 PM - 11:56 PM Archive (2023 Sessions)
Illinois State Readers’ Choice Awards
Nichole Folkman, Hartsburg-Emden CUSD #21Collaboration 142
Want to learn about the Readers' Choice Awards for Illinois? Did you know that they exist for all ages from k-12th grade? Find out which program is for you and learn about strategies for using the lists in your classroom and a sampling of books from the lists.
Teaching Students about "Asians"
Jeremy Quach, Jones College Prep High SchoolCollaboration 144
Representation of Asians in the West often follows the same script: model minorities, mother/daughter conflicts, and oppressive traditions. In this session, attendees will explore and workshop many different materials, ranging from entire units on media stereotypes to individual readings and assignments that can be plugged into existing units, that teach students how to problematize Orientalist assumptions that fuel Asian racism today.
Let’s Talk Narrative
Paige Timmerman, Salem Community High School, and Kourtney Hake, Sparta Lincoln SchoolCollaboration 146
Personal narrative is often seen as an extra unit of writing because of the pressure on teachers to focus on informational and analytical writing. When we look at authentic writing, however, personal narrative is often blended with other genres. This session will focus on how writers often incorporate personal stories for the purpose of answering questions and feature lessons and activities from our upcoming book, Narrative as Navigation.
The Ethical Frame: Understanding the Relationship of Discourse and the Ethical Basis of an Argument
Andrew J. Rodbro, Warren Township High SchoolCollaboration 138
For teachers who teach argumentation. In addition to effective argument processes (claim, evidence, warrant; logos, ethos, pathos), the way a speaker frames an argument can determine a speaker's success with an audience. This frame is built with a speaker's discourse--deliberate and purposeful language choices of a speaker to present an argument. Effective deployment of a particular discourse can redraw the moral and ethical lines that make an argument appealing. This session will provide teachers with a vocabulary and knowledge base for teaching the concept of discourse and the way a speaker's choice of discourse frames an argument.
Designing Assignments that Resist ChatGPT
Jennifer Connolly, Granite City High SchoolCollaboration 144
After a brief overview of how ChatGPT works, we'll talk about ways to design assignments that deter students from using AI generated texts. This is NOT a session on how to catch, police, or punish the use of AI, but to design more holistic and process-oriented tasks that ask students to do their own thinking.After a brief overview of how ChatGPT works, we'll talk about ways to design assignments that deter students from using AI generated texts. This is NOT a session on how to catch, police, or punish the use of AI, but to design more holistic and process-oriented tasks that ask students to do their own thinking.
To Build a Story: Eleven Questions for Beginning Fiction Writers
Randal HendeeCollaboration 142
How can you help your students write a good story from scratch? You offer them the basics of storytelling, one step at a time. With each step, you prompt them to build a story that is uniquely theirs. This workshop combines narrative theory with practical writing advice to help teachers help their students write an entertaining and emotionally resonant story.
Building Authentic Collaboration: Our Experiences as Dual-Enrollment Instructor and Embedded Librarian
Jayna Leipart-Guttilla and Delores Robinson, Illinois Valley Community CollegeCollaboration 140
Human Resources expert Tim Baker, in his 2019 text on performance and development strategies, theorizes 5 “pillars of authentic conversation” that allow colleagues to effectively collaborate and to “keep it real” in their working relationships. By identifying authentic approaches to task-focused conversations and people-focused conversations, Baker lays out a plan for co-workers in any environment to strategize, carry out their plans, address unhelpful behavior, build trust and appreciation, and move into the future. Faced with teaching dual-enrollment speech and composition classes in area high schools, the session presenters (a community college instructor and librarian) discuss their experiences as they formulated a strategy for collaborative teaching. They describe the Embedded Librarian role as it exists at their school and how their approaches to these shared courses have evolved along the way. Weaving in Baker’s terms and definitions of authentic conversation, the presenters share what worked and what didn’t in their collaborative teaching. The session also offers assessment data from when two of the dual-enrollment courses taught by the presenters were offered by high schools without a media center or librarian in their buildings.
Teaching Authentic Reading with Metacognitive Tools: The Double-Entry Research Log
Kayla Greenwell, Illinois Valley Community CollegeCollaboration 146
Kayla Greenwell, MA will lead an interactive workshop utilizing the double-entry research log (DERL) while explaining the pedagogical theory and neuroscience behind the learning tool. The DERL is a reading tool based on the design of 1980s dialectic journals with updates based on recent developments in cognitive science. While applying cognitive science to the classroom is not new, the changes are usually broad. The DERL is meant to be a simple tool that teachers can incorporate into their classrooms immediately.
Sharing the Reader's Journey: Facilitating Book Club Podcasts
Laura Kammes-Bumm, Glenbard West High SchoolCollaboration 144
As choice reading continues to ensure that students of all abilities find enjoyment in reading, teachers incorporating choice reading into their curricula may seek ways to encourage student voice in discussions. This presentation will offer an idea to be applied for ongoing book club units or end-of-semester assessment. Students reading choice books trace their personal reactions to their reading to determine theme or genre-based connections with peer readers. They then apply podcast knowledge gained through class listening experiences to construct and record discussions of their reading journeys using the podcasting app Anchor.
Culminating Activities to Provide Connections
Kristin Runyon, Charleston High SchoolCollaboration 146
Traditionally, students have demonstrated their understanding and analysis of a text or topic through tests and essays. However, have you seen other teachers’ social media posts about One Pagers or Hexagons and weren’t sure how to introduce them to students? Hexagons and One Pagers can be used for single texts, to connect multiple texts. to explore themes, and across the curriculum. This presentation will share the basics of each activity and then give participants time to practice each one.
From Voices on Paper to Voices in the Room
John Hayward, Naperville Central High SchoolCollaboration 138
Get every student in your class writing and talking about complex, creative, personal and debatable topics. How? Transition from engaging journal prompts to various discourse strategies. Observe the positive difference these activities make in your classroom community and in their extended writing projects. Learn and practice these ideas in an interactive workshop and be inspired!
How to SEL-ebrate Learning: Incorporating CASEL-5 Framework into ELA Content Instruction
Jeremy Robinson, Kyle Fitzmyer, and Megan Delaney, J.S. Morton East High SchoolCollaboration 142
During this session, teachers will learn how to combine SEL behaviors and ELA curriculum. We will explore ways to take an SEL framework and use it as a lens for analyzing literature.
A Small Place in the U.S.
Brittany Neil, Adlai E. Stevenson High SchoolCollaboration 140
From rural Wisconsin to wherever you are, we can choose authentic texts that offer both a mirror and a window to our students and their experiences of place. In the resort town of Elkhart Lake, teachers read A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid and connected the tourism industry there to students’ experiences. Attendees will explore resources and ideas to create a similar unit or lesson for their classes.
Featured Author Session: Celebrating the Victories
Catherine Adel WestCollaboration 142
This workshop is designed to help you and students find all the large and small ways writing can help not only change your life but your students' lives along with some DOs and DON'Ts on how to properly engage students of color.
Communicate Extraordinarily with Tier 2 Vocabulary
Andrea Parker, Robert Fulton Elementary, ChicagoCollaboration 140
The interactive workshop will provide participants with research and strategies to implement engaging and meaningful speaking and writing strategies using tier two or high level vocabulary. The purpose of embedding tier two vocabulary into the speaking literacy is to improve student communication skills, especially written communications. Based on research, students write how they talk, and do not advance their verbal vocabulary after third grade. With more exposure, especially to students form low-income families, students can gain a repertoire of specific words to used on a daily basis, where they can identify more words and its synonyms in literature, increasing comprehension and reading/writing stamina.
AP Language: High Stakes + Low Stress = Remarkable Success
Jodie Seipp, O’Fallon Township High SchoolCollaboration 144
In an attempt to bolster enrollment and lower stress for both students and teachers, we have designed an AP Language and Composition class using a writing workshop model empowering students to explore topics that matter to them. Our AP Language and Composition pass rate exceeds 95%, and our enrollment in the course continues to grow each year. The course is designed to help students analyze everything from social media posts to peer-reviewed academic journals in an authentic, yet rigorous manner. Students complete nearly all work within the class period which helps to minimize student stress while maximizing time for in-class conferencing with the teacher. This session will focus on sharing ideas and strategies to help high achieving students who are often extremely busy and stressed find joy in researching, analyzing, and writing about issues they care about.
This Speaks to Me
Sheila YarbroughCollaboration 146
The task of nurturing the authentic voices of students within our classrooms can be one of the most important undertakings of teachers at all levels. Activities focusing on the listening, viewing, and reading interests of students can enhance their written and spoken communication skills as well as support social and emotional learning while encouraging the use of instructor provided analytical tools across various disciplines. The activity, “This Speaks To Me” allows students to share what they see, hear, and feel while developing writing, listening, and critical thinking skills. Finally, through practice and discussion participants can decide if “This Speaks To Me” can be a tool to use in their classrooms as well as how it might be adapted across age levels and abilities.
The Larry Johannessen New Teacher Forum
Elizabeth Kahn, Northern Illinois UniversityCollaboration 140
This interactive discussion session will address fears, hopes, and strategies for success in teaching. Student teachers and teachers in their first few years of services are invited to talk about challenges and victories. Experienced teachers and others who care about the struggles of novice teachers are encouraged to attend and share their ideas.
Keeping it Real: Shaping Adolescents’ Identity and Agency With YAL & Action Research
Cindi Koudelka Fieldcrest CUSD 6, Minonk/Aurora University and Katie Russell, Murphysboro CUSD #186 Murphysboro Middle SchoolCollaboration 142
The pandemic and social divisiveness has exacerbated inequities and made it difficult for teens to reflect on their place in the world. Apprenticing adolescents in action research grounded by inclusive Young Adult novels is an authentic and engaging way to reframe their civic learning and empower them to shape their world for healing, dreaming, and unity. The presenters will share work grounded in Freire's Critical Literacy theory and further scaffolded by scholarship in action research and positioning. The presenters will model how to use Young Adult Literature and Critical Action Research to provide students the participatory spaces to critique the world and engage them with relevant interrogation of texts and exploration of of political language, civic values, and their agency in the world (Cammarota & Fine, 2008, Freire, 2016; Mirra & Garcia, 2017). As educators continue to shape literacy practices, we recognize schools, one of the largest enculturating institutions in the world, have the opportunity to teach adolescents how to use literacy to navigate humanity & social contexts. This presentation is of interest to educators wishing to reimagine a liberating pedagogy that privileges inclusive adolescent voices.
Art as entryways and escape routes
Keisha Rembert, National Louis University and Briana Morales, Gordon Bush Alternative CenterCollaboration 146
In today’s educational landscape, it is essential for students to have meaningful opportunities to engage in humanizing and antiracist pedagogy. Art can serve as both an entryway and an escape route to help students understand and challenge oppression. As texts, art can reveal our reality, highlight the difficulties of marginalized groups, and provide a space for antiracist discourse and action. In our classrooms, the examination and creation of art as story and justice allows students to confront the realities of racism and other oppressive forces in our everyday lives and challenge themselves and others to think critically about the ways in which it manifests in our society. Art can act as an entryway to ignite dialogue, inspire voice, build community and foster collective action. Additionally, it can also be used as an escape route to explore and express the complexities of racism and its implications, as well as a means to escape oppressive structures. . In this session ELA teachers will learn how to use art in ten ways in our antiracist ELA classrooms.
Authenticity as Method: Keeping it Real with Students
Angelo Bonadonna, Norman Boyer, ChrisTina Edwards, and Erin Giusto, Saint Xavier University; and Moira Bonadonna, Art in MotionCollaboration 138
The curricula and methods of ELA can be powerful tools for reaching disempowered, disconnected students and motivating them to act, think, interact, and appreciate through the enchantments of language and story and expression. In a discussion format, a panel of early career, veteran, and preservice teachers share their approaches to cutting through the malaise and resistance often promoted by school environments to reconceive school as a space for humanistic, creative, and moral involvement.
Kindness: Can It Be Taught? Using Kindness As an Instructional Tool
Sophia Smith and Alexandria Ellison, J.S. Morton East High SchoolCollaboration 144
Yes, it can be taught! Through action research, daily interactions, project based learning, and a little help from technology, building a culture of kindness is not only feasible, it's part of the curriculum! Think you have too much to cover? This session will explore how you can tie kindness to content and course skills while promoting and supporting SEL.