One of my fascinations as an educator has been gamification, creating novel ways to teach, review, and contextualize content. In this breakout session, I will present some of the activities I have created, such as a book scavenger hunt to correspond with Fahrenheit 451, a crime scene investigation that corresponds with Macbeth, or vocab battleship, a vocabulary review game I use quite often in my classroom. During this session, I will offer some advice on what to consider when creating games or interactive classroom experiences, as well as explain how utilizing AI can make a seemingly daunting task very achievable. This session will most appeal to middle school and high school teachers who seek novel ways to incorporate active learning and gamification into their lessons.
Blog Archives
Identifying, Preventing, and Addressing AI-Authored Drafts in the Composition Classroom
Three JJC English faculty members will share their insights on AI in the composition classroom and discusshow it has transformed and will continue to transform their lessons and projects. They will outline their departmental policy on AI use in college composition and explain its rationale. Additionally, they willdemonstrate how they identify AI-authored essays using multiple AI detection services and by analyzingcommon AI language patterns and paragraph structures. The faculty will also describe various approachesthey use to address AI-authored compositions.
Telling Our Stories: Infusing Creative Writing Practices in Personal Narrative
Let’s celebrate the mighty voices of our young people! This session will provide hands-on strategies for uplifting and expanding students’ personal narrative writing. Whether it’s a stepping stone to the college essay or a fun way of building community, storytelling techniques can enhance students’ creative expression as well as promote an inclusive space to excavate compelling stories based on their lived experiences. We’ll be exploring multi-genre forms including flash narrative, poetry, and graphic memoirs. Participants will enjoy an interactive experience that they can bring back to their own classrooms. No prior storytelling or visual art skills necessary.
Three Minute Poems: Mining, Crafting, Polishing, Sharing
This session will guide you through timed writing protocols designed for instant results. The initial goal is to show how students can write—in as little as ten minutes—a spontaneous, no-pressure poem draft. A draft they may eventually choose to revise, edit, polish, and even publish. The long-term goal is to help students and teachers develop a creative writing practice that resists writer’s block and channels the spirit of discovery. You will leave the session with tools to help you and your students start, develop, and finish a poem.
Connected & Invested: Our Path to Purposeful Connections and Redefined ELA Instruction
Join us—instructional and technology specialists—as we recount our journey to transform literacy instruction for grades 4-5 in our district. Along the way, we leveraged new partnerships, fostered unprecedented collaboration among teachers, and united our entire staff as one team working together. Our common goal: transforming literacy instruction into something that is meaningful, standards-aligned, highly engaging, and that happens with intention across every content area. We’ll tell you about the grand triumphs we experienced, such as our implementation of Expert Packs as a curricular resource, and how we encountered unexpected heroes, like the students who harnessed their newfound autonomy and enthusiastically took charge of their own learning. Our quest was not without its challenges. We’ll share how we had to learn from a few failures, correct a couple missteps, and even navigate the occasional antagonist along the way. Rest assured, we’ll offer ideas and materials that can be tweaked to meet the needs of any elementary-through-middle-school classroom whether you anticipate your story will be written solo or will include a whole cast of supporting characters. With each twist and turn of our narrative, we’ll present the concrete strategies and usable resources you’re craving so that you walk away empowered and prepared to embark on your own journey toward literacy magic.
From Pages to Possibilities: A Novel Approach to Amplifying Joyful Latine Voices
Representation matters—and joyful Latine stories transform classrooms for all students. This session shares fresh, creative ways to bring vibrant Latine books into novel studies and classroom libraries. Participants will learn about high-quality books featuring Latine representation, activities to support them, and actionable ideas to amplify student voice, pride, and literacy through authentic voices.
Building Resilience: The Role of Feedback, Reflection, and Grit in Strengthening Student Agency
Learn how to empower students to take ownership of their learning by implementing practical strategies to foster resilience and collaboration. Gather practical, structured feedback techniques to use in your next class activity, and watch your students set and reach their goals, build relationships, and take pride in their academic journey.
Shreds of Evidence
Revisions can be a useful tool for students to demonstrate understanding; however, time is the great barrier. How much time do the students need? When will I grade these? In this session, we will work to provide a narrower focus for students to revise small portions of their writing using specific wording from our rubric to practice the skills we want and to demonstrate their ability to meet expectations.
Session Materials
Moving Beyond, “I’ve Tried Everything”
Even with a lot of support, teachers often believe that they have tried everything and become discouraged. Expand your “everything.” Bring energy, passion, and a positive attitude back to students who are struggling while developing their literacy skills. Become more aware of over 120 practices that will ignite improved student achievement and bring struggling learners the joy of success in school. Learn how to use powerful scaffolds to build the confidence and skillfulness of struggling and disinterested learners. See how you can add to your strategies that motivate students to become engaged, empowered, and ready to achieve without watering down content material and lowering standards. Participants will be involved in fast-paced reflection activities to more closely examine issues and options related to low student literacy performance.
A NOVEL approach to a Perennial Problem: An Empowering Design Plan for Equitable Learning for All
In this energetic session, panelists with over 80 years of collective experience share how they design innovations to successfully tackle the puzzle of meeting the needs of a wide range of learners within a single classroom setting. Attendees will participate in interactive scenarios; learn to contribute to effective change; and receive procedures for developing discussion-centric, inquiry units to ignite student curiosity and honor their humanity.