Student Presenters

Student Presenter Expectations

Students will be grouped across universities based on similarities in presentation topics to the greatest extent possible. Each table will feature three presentations. These individual presentations will consist of either a single presenter or a pair of presenters, as determined by the student presenter(s) and their mentor.

Student presenters are expected to...

• plan a 10-12 minute roundtable presentation,
• focus on a 21st-century teaching idea or inquiry, or a research-driven pedagogical practice,
• consider the audience of novice and experienced English teachers,
• provide a title for their mentor to submit to session chairperson,
• prepare a one-page handout with approximately 25 copies,
• present to an audience of their peers at the NCTE Annual Convention,
• be attentive to the other presentations at the table,
• engage in conversation with presenters, respondents, and attendees after all presentations have concluded, and
• upload the presentation handout when requested.

Sample Presentation Titles

​The following is a sampling of presentation titles from the “Future Is Now” session at the 2016 NCTE Annual Convention:

• ​​A Gamified Standards-Based Incentive Program and Middle School Writers
• Addressing Disability through a Social Justice Lens in Children's Books
• Audience, Genre, and Revision: Helping Students Find Authenticity through Writing
• Exploring Cinema: A Multi-modal Approach to Character Analysis
• Lifting the Digital Curtain with Project Based Learning
• Representations of LGB Youth in Young Adult Literature
• The Benefits & Challenges of Blended Learning: Personalizing the Secondary ELA Classroom
• To Kill a Mockingjay: Examining Commonly-taught Literature through an Environmental Lens

Tips for Writing Your First Conference Proposal

Conference proposals are tricky documents to write, especially as a pre-service teacher. You want to demonstrate that you have something to say about a particular research topic or question, but you also know you still have a lot to learn. Here’s a (hopefully handy) template to guide you in writing the proposal, as well as some tips to consider as you write.

Your proposal should include the following three sections and be no more than 500 words in length:

1. Background and experience. What is your interest in this topic? How did you come to it? What experience do you have with it in your own work as a student and/or pre-service teacher? Why might it matter to other students and teachers?
2. Research. What does the field of English Education already know about your topic? What are some important studies, and who are the voices who inform your thinking on this topic? What do you know you still need to explore?
3. Description of your session. What can attendees at your session expect to learn? What do you envision the broad structure to be? What main points do you want to articulate? Do you plan to share work you’ve created? How about student work? What are the takeaways you hope session attendees will leave with?

Some general tips as you’re writing:

• Think of the proposal as a form of argument. You’re trying to convince your reader that you have something to say about this topic, so be specific and thorough, especially as you describe what session attendees can expect to see and learn.
• Your research section doesn’t need to be exhaustive. You’re still learning about the field, so it would be unreasonable to expect a thorough discussion of your topic. But be able to describe what some important texts/authors have to say about your topic so your reader can see you have more than a passing familiarity with it.
• Use your professional voice. Your proposal’s audience will be English Education faculty. Write clearly and knowledgeably about your topic as a new member of this community.
• A proposal is a work in progress. The details can always be fine-tuned later, so don’t feel like the proposal commits you to anything other than the broad strokes of your session. The actual content can (and probably will) change as your thinking evolves.