Rather in-the-face of literary tradition, participants will explore how hip-hop/rap lyrics can be used to teach rhetorical moves and examine expert use of language in many situations. The session presenter will highlight a unit she’s taught in high school classrooms for almost 10 years, sharing ways to harness student engagement through the use of rap lyrics, examining context, appeals, reading like a writer, and a little literary analysis. Turn the love of a fascinating musical genre into a real-world way to teach rhetorical concepts.
Blog Archives
Cultivating Resilience in Reading Through Emotionally Intelligent Teach
Students are overwhelmed and anxious. They are showing up to class and not engaging in well-intentioned activities. How do teachers reach these students and re-engage them without losing patience in frustration? This presentation explores the complex relationship between affective factors and reading comprehension, tapping into how students engage with text on an emotional, motivational, and attitudinal level. This session will also explore how teachers’ own attachment styles align with our students’ attachment styles and how teachers can build on this knowledge to further student engagement in analyzing texts. Participants will walk away with practical strategies they can use to help students self-regulate in order to better their overall literacy
Throwing Open the Doors: How to Make AP English Language Accessible to More Students
AP Language, the most popular exam in the AP portfolio, should be open to all students who are searching for a challenge, but too often teachers are stuck as to how to forge the necessary skills. How can teachers throw open the doors and offer the right kind of support? As more and more schools move away from traditional tracking, the students in AP Language arrive with a wider variety of skills and skill deficits.
This session will introduce techniques and approaches rooted in cognitive psychology and brain science that work with students new to the AP experience, including exiting EL students. Approaches will include logical thinking applications, rhetorical analysis exercises, vocabulary acquisition that works, essay revision approaches, and pathways to deepen discussion and move students into more sophisticated thinking. Participants will be offered workable student-centered solutions to the barriers that prevent students from entering and succeeding in AP Language. Both experienced teachers and those newer to AP Language will benefit from the presentation. The presenter, Rita Thompson, has over a decade of experience teaching AP English Language in a Title I school. Though not required, attendees may want to bring a tablet or laptop to access resources.
Authentic Assessments with AI
Authentic Assessment with AI is a workshop that attempts to align project- based learning with AI supports. Whether researching a topic for an essay, developing an in-class paragraph, or designing a creative project, students can utilize AI independently or with teacher supports to create prompts that address the fundamental structures of an assignment or assessment while also evaluating and reflecting on their decisions in the development of a product. By using authentic assessments with AI, teachers can show students the limitations of AI in this process when it comes to the authentic learning experiences they engage in as well as the critical thinking skills necessary for student success.
Participants will be provided with some purposeful review and examples of project-based learning with practical application for a high school setting or relative experience in middle-school or college. Participants will also explore, design, and outline their own authentic assessment with AI. Organizationally, participants will be provided with an overview of the steps of a project-based learning assessment and will be shown where AI can be used to support student learning. Though not necessary, attendees are suggested to bring a device with access to ChatGPT or MagicSchool AI to allow for some person- alized exploration.
Teaching Texts with Multiple Perspectives: Analyze “Perspective,” Cultivate Humanity
Cultivate humanity by preparing your high school students to see the world and all it encompasses (past, present, future) by reading texts that encourage analyzing multiple perspectives so they, as the next generation of readers, thinkers and leaders, can be more tolerant and accepting of others around them. Three specific novels are intertwined in this presentation: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Discussion Panel on Co-Teaching, Moderated by John Hayward, Naperville Central High School
Co-teaching is becoming a widespread practice to improve student performance. While collaboration is universally considered virtuous, teachers can be territorial in their lessons, with their students, and in their pedagogical judgments. Participants will be asked about their experiences co-teaching. How do co-teachers manage the division of teaching duties? What challenges have teachers experienced and how did they overcome them? What aims has co-teaching accomplished; which aims has co-teaching fallen short in achieving?
Panelists: Brittany Neil, Round Lake Senior High; Katherine Cole, Round Lake Senior High School; Alyssa Staley, Carbondale Middle School; Genevieve Sherman, Zion-Benton Township High School; Kathryn Hoving, Hampshire High School; Kimberly Millard, Hampshire High School
Grammar for All by Focusing on Patterns
By focusing on parts of speech and sentence patterns, teachers empower students to improve their use of punctuation, sentence complexity, and overall writing. Bonus: they also teach reading strategies that assist with tackling difficult texts and create opportunities for English emergent students to succeed. Join this session to discuss this useful and non-threatening approach to grammar and review visuals and lessons that the presenter uses in College Readiness and English classes.
Pushing Back with Love and Joy: Why Queer Representation Matters
Join the presenters as they share their favorite books that center and celebrate Queer Joy in Literature. Despite living in a state that prohibits book banning and mandates instruction honoring the contributions of LGBTQ+ people, our students still have limited access to literature in which Queer joy is represented. This session will highlight joyful, identity-affirming literature that spans all ages in a fast-paced jubilee and discuss how the books can add to cultivating an inclusive classroom experience. A robust list of books with links to purchase from independent bookstores will be provided. Door prizes will be given! Come and make a new TBR list for your classroom.
The Nostalgia Project: Discovering Community Through Poetry, History, and Human Impact
In preparation for a return to school following the pandemic in 2021, East Aurora School District partnered with Dr. Badia Ahad, Loyola University Provost, to train staff district-wide on the concept of Nostalgia, Reclamation, Regeneration, and Retribution. Following the training, The Nostalgia Project was born. As an element of a four-part interdisciplinary unit ending with a four- part podcast, students shared their oral and written histories in the format of narrative poetry inspired by George Ella Lyon’s poem “Where I’m From” while considering their childhood homes, families, and community. Transitioning to social studies, math, and science, students learned about the history of their city and the diverse immigrant groups that worked to contribute to the identity and uniqueness of where they are from; compiled information about demographics of the area they chose to investigate and created their own data representation with projections; and proposed a way to resolve a social, environmental, or political issue in their city in a way that would benefit the community as a whole. In this session, educators will gain specific knowledge of the project in order to collaborate with their colleagues to provide a rich interdisciplinary experience for students to become experts in their community and to “forge a better future.” Attendees are suggested to bring a device to access links to resources presented during this session.
Fostering Student Choice in the AP Classroom
Students perform better when they care about the material they are studying—but teachers can’t always guarantee every student responds the same to a high-interest text. In both AP Literature and AP Language, there are ways to allow for student choice in text selection that allow for both windows and mirrors. In this session, teachers will receive (and hopefully share!) text selections for both courses, as well as specific lesson templates and activities to allow for student choice as they work towards skill mastery. Non-AP teachers welcome!