Alberta Summer Literacy Institute

Hosted by SAPDC, a proud member of ARPDC

MORE INFO COMING SOON!

May 24th, 2022

Welcome & opening remarks ~ 8:20

Opening session ~ 8:30 - 9:45

When Characters Speak with Catherine Hernandez

Author and screenwriter Catherine Hernandez speaks about adapting her novel Scarborough (Canada Reads 2022 finalist) into the film of the same name (nominated for 11 Canadian Screen Awards). While exploring her journey as a writer, she will discuss at length the act of crafting natural dialogue that jumps off the page and how to tell the same story in different mediums.

Local Alberta Offerings ~ 10:00 - 11:15

MORE INFO COMING SOON!

Feature Offerings ~ 12:00 - 1:15

Truth Telling: A Strategy for Teaching Counter Narratives with Lorena German

Identity texts are projects created by students that facilitate language learning while at the same time reflecting back students’ identities in a positive light. In this session, you will discover identity text projects from Kindergarten right through high school that will give your English learners’ a voice to express their linguistic and cultural identities, while growing their English skills. Explore the classroom process of imaginative identity text creation with English learners, and experience student-created identity texts in a variety of formats including digital stories, videos, hardcover fiction, and non-fiction books, collages and three-dimensional art constructions, prose and poetry. Students’ voices will also come alive in an online distance learning format as we explore several virtual identity text projects as well.

The New Literacies: Expanding the English Language Arts with Trevor Aleo

What is the role of English Language Arts in our rapidly changing world? In this interactive session, Trevor will discuss the power and possibilities that emerge when we reframe the discipline in more expansive terms. By infusing our courses with a wider array of literacy practices, we create new opportunities for students to engage in authentic disciplinary inquiry, think deeply about humanistic themes, and design compelling multimodal compositions. In addition to seeing examples and hearing about how to integrate these new literacies into their teaching repertoire, participants will be provided tools and frameworks they can use to design learning experiences that foster enduring, transferable understanding for students.

Picture This! 3 Hands- on Invitations to Boost Creativity and Critical Thinking with Picture Books Across The Curriculum with Misty Paterson

The art and artistry of picture books is worth exploring and savouring with students of all ages. This session will offer three ready-to-use invitations, with any type of picture book, to boost creativity, reasoning, and expression. While often seen as simple texts, picture books can be complex, interconnected provocations that invite readers into endless meaning-making possibilities. Come experience the power of picture books for yourself!

Remixing the ELA Classroom with Paul W Hankins

In "Remixing the ELA Classroom," Hankins will touch upon the idea of "laddering" multimodal texts to both a singular and multi-layered end. Showcasing past student products from his classroom, Hankins encourages classroom practitioners to wonder upon possibilities that stretch beyond the traditional and embrace the holistic qualities of the student writer. From picture book remixes to commonplace books to fully-realized multigenre projects, the session will have something to offer attendees wanting to expand the way students react, reflect upon, and respond to texts and writing invitations in the classroom. Attendees will receive a template for a sample project and a related title list as resources.

Feature Offerings ~ 1:30 - 2:45

Engaging Readers + Writers with Mentor Texts with Rebekah O'Dell

Mentor texts are magical for many reasons, but particularly for the way they bridge our reading and writing curricula. Mentor texts invite students to simultaneously practice critical reading and thinking skills while elevating their own writing. In this session, participants will practice the skill of reading like a writer, the foundational skill for combining reading and writing instruction, with mini-mentor texts that can be incorporated into any writing unit in any genre. Participants will leave with mentor texts they can use in their classroom immediately, strategies for teaching students to read like writers, and a vision for what mentor texts can accomplish with student readers and writers.

Writing, Redefined: Toward Greater Equity, Engagement, and Inclusion in Our Workshop Spaces with Shawna Coppola

How can we create learning spaces where all children and youth have an access point into composition? In this session, we will explore how print-centered writing has historically been over-privileged in school spaces and who that has ultimately served (and continues to serve). Participants will leave this session with ideas for how to broaden our concept of "writing" in order to provide our students with more authentic, engaging, and inclusive opportunities to develop their own compositional practices.

Oral Storytelling in All Its Beauty: Broadening Ways We Cultivate Comprehension, Composition and Identity with Nawal Qarooni

The session will explore ideas reading images and art, composing in non-traditional ways, and tapping into long histories of rich storytelling culture in order to further understand student identity. We'll think together about elevating student choice in sharing their artifacts for learning in order to build agency and engagement in learning, while building a practical toolkit of instructional methods for use in the classroom. Participants will also leave with a list of mentor texts more broad than alphabetic, for students to analyze, build from and discuss.

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