Session G Workshop Descriptions

Using Graphic Novel Literature Circles to Challenge Curricular Silences: A current ELA teacher educator and high school ELA teacher demonstrate how they positioned graphic novel literature circles to challenge curricular silences common across secondary ELA and social studies curricula. Additionally, presenters will illustrate how they positioned graphic novels in conversation with nonfiction texts. Finally, presenters will share assessment practices aligned with teaching graphic novels, including student-created video essays, interactive multimedia posters, and student-generated discussions. (9-12)

Presenters: Cody Miller & Gage Moffitt, SUNY Brockport

Location: Salon A

A Culture of Reading: Daily Reading Practices That Work: Reading for pleasure in the classroom has been revised and reimagined again and again. If we’ve learned anything, we know that the practice of daily reading is one that alleviates stress, deprograms our screen-driven brains, and allows us to get back in touch with what we all loved as kids: stories. Merging the philosophies of Kittle & Gallagher (180 Days) and Gordon (No More Fake Reading), this workshop will give you practical strategies of creating engaged, invested, and dedicated lifelong readers. This workshop will cover ways to recommend to, check in with, and cheer on your students! (6-12)

Presenter: Bridgette Gallagher, Saratoga Springs High School & Capital District Writing Project

Location: Salon B

Freedom Dreaming for Educational Justice: Envisioning and Enacting More Just Educational Futures Alongside Our Students: In this interactive and participatory session, writing project teachers will share classroom practices and student work that had the most profound influence on their seeking of more just educational futures alongside their students, and as it has been informed by key scholarship related to freedom dreaming (Kelley, 2002; Love, 2019), arts-based approaches to writing (Whitmore, Chisholm, & Fletcher, 2020), multigenerational writing (Flores, 2019), and writing for social transformation (Christensen, 2009). (K-12, College, Teacher Education)

Presenters: Matt Pinchinat, Leah Werther, Alicia Wein, Kyle McHugh, Christina Taylor, Christina Pepe, Kelly Wissman. Capital District Writing Project

Location: Salon C

From Swa Swa to Swag: Teaching the History of English: By examining and analyzing the ways in which the English language has evolved - from Old English to Middle English and beyond - to meet the needs and reflect the values of those who speak it, students gain a better understanding of the ways in which they and their families contribute to our cultural and social language as a collective whole. When we teach students to appreciate the value of language as a representation of society, we teach students to value their home languages and the valuable contributions they make to our collective society today. (9-12, College)

Presenters: Lauren Katz & Vincent Lankewish, Our Lady of Lourdes High School

Location: Salon F

Dungeons and Dragons in the English Classroom: Take your students on a fieldtrip to the Sword Coast and transform yourself from teacher to Dungeon Master to make creative writing interesting and exciting for all students! If you've ever taught creative writing, you know the drill: Half the class will eagerly retell the plot of their favorite book or movie, while the other half will stare at a blank page for days. Dungeons and Dragons solves this problem by providing students and teachers with the resources--and incentives--to create unique characters in rich and complex worlds. All it takes is a few rolls of the dice! (9-12)

Presenter: Richard Hackford, Wellsville Central School District

Location: Albany/Colonie Room

What makes you, you? Using Poetry as a model for self-exploration: For students and educators, it can be intimidating to be asked to write about yourself, past experiences or the things that make you, you. Considering the question: "How do we use writing to help our writers think? To grow? To learn? To affirm / invent / reinvent themselves?", this workshop aims to explore personal experiences through the use of mentor texts: "Random Autobiography" by Mary Larsen and "Raised By" by Kelly Norman Ellis. These poems serve as a model of self exploration that is not autobiographical, but a way to connect our personal experiences. (9-12, College)

Presenter: Kasey Stecher, Pawling High School

Location: Salon G

Narrative competence: The Implications for Pedagogy: This study seeks to identify and analyze those linguistic (i.e., semantic, syntactic and pragmatic) and non-linguistic (i.e., social, political, ideological) elements which, I will argue, can be shown to contribute to the development of what I theorize as Narrative Competence and Cognitive Mapping. I will examine the narrative form and the process of narrativization as not only a meaning making process (Narrative Competence) but also one of the production of knowledge about the subject’s situatedness in the world, emphasizing both its local and global dimensions. (K-12, Researcher, Curriculum Developer)

Presenter: Sepideh Yasrebi, North Colonie Schools

Location: Schenectady/Troy Rooms