Teaching the previously dreaded analysis skill becomes an anticipated opportunity for discovery and reasoned defense with a new approach. Get students into analytical reading and writing using a series of engaging warm-up activities that will spark interest, inspire investigation, and boost confidence. No more dry and boring book talks! Guide students through the fields of art and music first. Transition to crime scene analysis to make clue searching fun again. Involve AI if you dare. When students finally land in the world of text, they will know how to argue for their interpretation with conviction and solid evidence. Come learn new ways to approach analysis!
Blog Archives
Pedagogies of Voice
This session addresses the knowing-doing gap that keeps us from implementing an equity-centered, inclusive pedagogy in the face of global unrest. Grounded in seminal frameworks like Understanding by Design and the work of Paolo Freire, bell hooks, and Gloria Ladson-Billings, we will explore the intersection of equity and pedagogy and the toxins that incarcerate our imaginations. The session focuses on elevating student voice and agency, while empowering teachers as healers and community-builders. In light of rising political censorship and systemic inequities, participants will explore concrete tools and practices for transformative, equity-driven pedagogy that fosters Identity, Belonging, Inquiry, and Efficacy, the four domains of Agency, for both educators and students within today’s tumultuous global context.
Living the Life of a Writer: 6 Practices Student Writers Have, Know, and Do
Everyone is a writer. We write texts and emails. We write for ourselves and for others. We write novels or write about novels. Inviting students into living the life of a writer shifts the focus of our instruction from the writing to the writer. In this session, educator and author Jen Vincent will guide you through the six practices writers have, know, and do while sharing strategies you can try tomorrow with student writers.
Pages of Joy, Stories of Pride: A Novel Approach to Centering Queer Literature
When representation is lacking, children can be made to feel invisible, unimportant, or even unworthy. Representation that is filled with stereotypes and misconceptions can perpetuate biases, divisiveness, and hate. This presentation intends to do the opposite, celebrating books that center LGBTQ+ characters with joy and love. We will feature books for all ages—board and picture books, middle grade, YA, and books for grown-ups.
Getting Creative with Nonfiction
Nonfiction isn’t just a five-paragraph essay, but when was the last time you’ve flexed your own creative muscles when it comes to writing true stories? This workshop blends the best of both learning about the fantastic world of nonfiction and trying your own hand at writing a short work of nonfiction. Attendees will walk away with an understanding of the different forms of nonfiction, appreciation and inspiration for the ways information can be presented, and recommendations for some of the best young adult nonfiction available today. Sharing in this workshop is welcome, though it will not be required.
Poetry and Song
Meter, rhyme, imagery, sensual language, and ideas are basic to both poetry and lyrics. This session will explore parallels in the English folk tradition exemplified by the centuries’-old “Scarborough Fair” and Bob Dylan’s modern rendition “The Girl from the North Country”; delve into the art song with original settings of the iconic poems “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” by Yeats, Dickinson’s “Wild Nights!” and Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”; and discuss and demonstrate the lyrical and musical process of writing original songs. The presenter is a veteran English teacher and a singer-songwriter who performs professionally in Central Illinois.
ESCAPE THE BOOK!: Escape Rooms and Other Alternative Assessments
This presentation highlights engaging methods such as educational escape rooms and creative response projects in lieu of traditional assessment methods. Escape rooms transform assessment into an immersive experience, where students apply course concepts to solve puzzles, decode clues, and work as a team. These activities reinforce content knowledge while improving collaboration and engagement. Similarly, creative responses—such as digital storytelling, podcasts, visual art, and role-playing—encourage students to connect with material in meaningful and personal ways. Throughout the presentation, examples of these strategies in action will be shared, showcasing how they align with learning objectives and standards. Additional Alternative Assessment ideas will be shared in addition to the Escape Room format.
The Forgottonia Project: Using Local History & Storytelling in the Classroom
What happens when students see their own community’s history as the center of their learning? The Forgottonia Project uses podcasting, creative writing, art, and oral history to connect students with local stories—from Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology to the legacy of Free Frank McWorter. In this interactive session, we’ll explore how rural voices and overlooked histories can engage Gen Z learners, empower teachers as practitioners, and showcase authentic, performative assessments. Together we’ll examine research on student disengagement, the power of performative assessments, and the role of humanities-centered education in difficult times. Participants will experiment with strategies like the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) and leave with adaptable tools to create learner-centered environments that amplify student and teacher voices while using stories, past and present, to grow more engaging classrooms.
Agency, Advocacy, and Action: The Art of Shaping Global Citizens and Defining Solidarity
English classes are natural spaces to read the world and expand the walls of the classroom space beyond books and people in the physical space. The opportunity to do so allows for English teachers to shape global citizenship and show their own solidarity through their craft. How do we model solidarity and global awareness and action? How do we leverage grammar and other discipline-related skills and crafts in the name of voice, advocacy, agency and change? As new laws emerge in an attempt to censor and prohibit this work from impactfully and effectively happening in classrooms, equity advocates in schools across the country struggle to engage in liberatory instruction (Love, 2000). This workshop will tackle the challenges of being equitable in school settings by unpacking equity and solidarity through action. Equity work is meeting students’ social emotional needs, building criticality (Mohammed, 2020), getting to know students beyond a surface level (Singleton & Hays, 2008), integrating holism (Safir & Dugan, 2021) in our views of students and the funds of learning they bring into the classroom (Jaber, 2022).
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.