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.
Blog Archives
Let’s Talk Narrative
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.
Teaching Students about “Asians”
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.
Novel Selection in Secondary Settings: Curating Inclusive Texts
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.
Cultivating the Next Generation of Teachers
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.
Session materials: Slides
Voices Silenced: Unpacking the Dilemma of Book Challenges in the Context of Culturally Responsive Pedagogies Through Content Analysis
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.
Exploring Our Literacy Histories in Verse: Using Poetry to Cultivate Humanity, Content Knowledge, Community, and Craft
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.
Session materials: Slides
The Perfect Match: Coupling Groundbreaking Texts with Revolutionary Pedagogy
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.
Handling Heavy Texts with Care
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.
Session Materials: Slides; Website (Note that the website link is to the Google Slides presentation, which may be updated slightly from the ppt version.)
Engaging Scholars through Counterstory and Connection
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.