From Monday Magic to Literary Jam Sessions: Creative Routines for Accessible ELA Learning

Move away from traditional beginnings to classes like grammar work and bell ringers. Theme days provide intrigue and engagement while still providing structure, community, and routine.

Participants will work through examples of multimodal learning experiences that address literary analysis, language work, rhetoric, and speaking and listening.

The Magic of Mondays (and Beyond): Using Theme Days to Anchor Learning
Move beyond bell-ringer questions and grammar warm-ups! This session explores how teachers can use theme days as a powerful instructional routine in the English Language Arts classroom to build skills, community, and students' growth mindset. Theme days anchor the class period in consistent skills practice and help to foster a positive classroom culture. They help teachers and students to establish and engage in beginning of class routines to draw students into learning right when the bell rings, while still providing variety so that not every class period feels the same. In an ELA class where so many different skills are being prioritized, taught, practiced, and assessed, theme days help teachers to “fit it all in” in a way that is consistent and not overwhelming. Consistent student engagement in theme days helps both teachers and students to focus on and measure the long term improvement of specific ELA skills. This session will be very practical! Ideas for different theme days will be presented, and sample activities will be provided as well. We will also discuss how feedback and assessment can look different in a theme day environment. Participants will leave with lots of ideas and practical tips to get this started in their own ELA classroom…starting on Monday! Additionally, this session will provide examples of how this can look in a ML classroom with a specific goal of engaging students in ACCESS test preparation in practice in the domains of reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

A Literary Jam Session: Using Musical Improvisation to Teach Rhetorical and Literary Analysis
The English classroom invites creativity, inquiry, and exploration - not only for students but also for the teachers looking to make complex systems for analysis and argumentation open and accessible to all students. Thus, this presentation will focus on a developing area of pedagogical exploration in the English classroom that uses improvisational piano and musical composition as a vehicle for learning the facets of rhetorical analysis and developing the study of rhetoric. Activities geared toward exploring literary arguments in The Great Gatsby through musical composition will also be offered. This experimental pedagogical approach arose from a unique teaching pairing in an English classroom at a school designed to create equitable access for students with learning disabilities. The presenters, an experienced English classroom teacher and an accomplished improvisational pianist, will engage participants with materials and curated text-based and musical activities, while also facilitating collaborative discussion and further ideation on applications and extensions of this innovative approach to literary study.