Breakout Session A

Session A1

Anna Jenkins,  jenkinsa@msd19.org
Nicole Heard, heardn@msd19.org
    Mascoutah High School
Room:  Fell A
Audience:  General

How to Succeed with a Co-Teacher
So you’ve just found out that you will have a co-teacher. What does this mean? How do you get along with each other? Share responsibilities? Learn how to effectively work with another adult while putting the needs of your students first.

Session A2

Meghan Senjani, mesenjanin@cps.edu
    Back of the Yards College Prep High School
Room: Fell B
Audience:  High School

The Power of Place
By incorporating Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger and Looking for Alaska by John Green, this unit takes a critical look into how important a “sense of place” is for the students of today’s classrooms.  While using two tales of young adults and their search for identity and independence, students can connect with the characters and explore the importance of setting and character development in literature.

Cheryl Staley
    Carbondale Community High School
Room: Fell C
Audience:  High School

Fatal Fathers in Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet
Shakespeare’s plays often feature rocky relationships between parents and children, sometimes turning deadly when fathers view their children as extensions of themselves. This session will focus on fatal fathers in two of the plays most commonly taught in high schools. Come for a lively discussion and leave with teaching notes, scholarly articles, a mock trial unit, debate and seminar topics, and role‐playing activities.

Session A4

Tamara Jaffe-Notier
    Niles West HS
Carol Friedman
    Evanston Township HS
Room: Redbird E
Audience:  High School

The Case for Reparations
Carol Friedman and Tamara Jaffe-Notier will demonstrate interactive lesson materials to use with Ta Nahisi-Coates’ research essay, “The Case for Reparations”:  http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine
/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

Session A5

Angelo Bonadonna, bonadonna@sxu.edu
Norman Boyer, boyer@sxu.edu
Carol Medrano, medrano@sxu.edu
    Saint Xavier University
Room:  Redbird C
Audience:  High School/General

Assignments v. Pages:  Putting the WRITER Back in Writer’s Workshop
This presentation explores an approach to writing workshop that does away with teacher-chosen assignments.  Instead, the workshop cultivates authorial decision-making, voice, and capacity through the workshop’s commitment to three principal components:  1. a rigorous SSW (“silent sustained writing”) program;  2.  each writer’s participation on an editorial team, and 3. the periodic submission of polished pages throughout the term.  Genre awareness, style, and rhetorical skill are taught by the teacher in mini, small-group, and individual lessons—but particularly in response to writers’ projects rather than the teacher’s curriculum.

Session A6

Marcy Newbold, marcy.newbold@gmail.com
    Auburn High School
Room:  Beaufort
Audience:  Middle/High School

Writing Portfolios in ELA Classrooms
A brief argument for writing portfolios will be presented. This information is based upon research done for ISU’s English 409.03 “Writing Assessment in High School/Middle School.” Examples from my own classroom will be shared. An outline and options for starting your own process will be shared with all.

Session A7

Zach Kuhn, zkuhn@csd99.org
    Downers Grove South High School
Room:  Redbird F
Audience:  High School

Composed in Voices
This is a discussion regarding how A.P. Literature teachers can incorporate Russian literature (specifically The Brothers Karamazov) into a diverse curriculum.