Blog Archives

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.