Embedded Files
9:30-10:00 Welcome and Introduction to the Day/Interview with Dr. Richard Koch (LIVE)
10:00-10:45 Keynote: Unleashing Student Creativity Through Trauma-Informed Teaching
Presenter: Dr. Richard Koch, Western Pennsylvania Writing Project (PRE-RECORDED)
In these remarks Richard Koch will focus on the relationship between mindfulness and trauma-informed teaching methods, especially as applied to the writing workshop. Mindfulness, in this case, has to do with making ourselves aware of students’ capacities and needs as learners and then matching that with the specific intention of establishing kindness as a foundation of our classroom work. Mindfulness also suggests the need for incorporating culturally sustaining practices. This talk will clarify why culturally sustaining, trauma-informed teaching methods are so important to bring to our teaching of writing in these times. And this talk will provide specific and practical guidance about how we can “tune” our workshop teaching so that it integrates restorative and healing practices in a natural and effective way. The best news is—these methods actually work best for ALL students, and they effectively guide toward quality writing as well as incorporating healing.
Link to recorded video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6pc-FLm4c8
Link to Sweet Honey in the Rock's song, "On Children": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYAkcL36aCE
Link to Nadine Burke-Harris's TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ovIJ3dsNk
11:00-11:45 Using Culturally Responsive Children’s Literature as Mentor Texts for Mindful Student Writing Presenters: Dr. Keely Baronak and Crystal Rose, Carlow University (LIVE)
Literature provides both a window into the life and experiences of others and mirror; this mirror lets us see and value our own lives reflected in its many forms. Using culturally responsive children and adolescent literature as mentor texts provides uniquely scaffolded instruction in support of authentic writing. Connecting mindfulness practices to writing can help ground the emotional intersection between our memories/lived experiences and storytelling through written expression. How do we support children when they write about those things that Scare us? Inspire us? Injure us? Hurt us? Built us? Shape us? Change us? Mentor texts will represent a cultural variety of beautifully written and illustrated children’s and adolescent books from a diverse group of authors and illustrators.
Link to recorded video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67XOr8tvNKc
[NOTE: The first few minutes of this recording include the last remarks from the opening interview and the plan for the day, before the session begins.]
12:00-12:45 A Mindful Practice: Building Oral Language to Support Writing Development for ALL Students
Presenter: Val Piccini, Carlow University and Western Pennsylvania Writing Project (LIVE)
Writing is essential for academic learning, social communication, and everyday function in society. Writing is utilized across all academic disciplines, including math. Students must write to convey their ideas about texts they’ve read and opinions they have. However, teacher views on writing directly reflect how writing gets taught and often differs widely from classroom to classroom…and from student to student. What does research say about teaching writing? What are the elements of effective writing instruction? To ensure that writing develops in ALL students, we must adopt an integrated framework that recognizes and utilizes oral language as a critical foundational component and necessary element to support fluency in written composition. How do we create a space where all kids are given the necessary tools to be successful writers? How do we support ALL writers on their journey to writing proficiency? Building oral language and incorporating oral rehearsal is essential to ensuring ALL students succeed as writers!
Link to recorded video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZfsZGygb7Q
12:45-1:15 LUNCH
1:15-2:00 Mapping Our World with Wonder
Presenters: Jessica Kaminsky and Jordan Mroziak, CMU CREATE Lab (LIVE)
Mapping can help uncover our connection to place, and offer opportunities to wonder and for mindfulness. In this workshop we will use maps to explore our current relationships to place, with an emphasis on how these relationships have changed now that many of us are spending significantly more time in our homes and neighborhoods.
Link to recorded video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIWVhJn2DjY
2:15-3:00 What Does Trauma-Informed Workshop Look Like?
Presenter: Dr. Richard Koch, Western Pennsylvania Writing Project (LIVE)
In this Interactive Writing Session participants will write together and respond to writing, in a safe and supportive environment. We will experience firsthand key practical steps for tuning writing workshop so that it incorporates trauma-informed practices. We hope that students feel safe in our classrooms, but there are steps we can take to explicitly construct safety for them. We want our young learners to be engaged with their writing topics, and there are steps we can take to help them see they can write about what matter most to them. And we know that deep learning requires risk and a willingness to make mistakes. There are trauma-informed practices we can adopt so that the classroom discourse related to “error” is supportive and positively transforming. In this session we will practice together some of the key steps to adapting our practice so that it both leads to quality writing and also helps students grow toward their whole selves.
Link to recorded video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL0UkK_5lBo
3:15-4:00 Healing Futures
Presenter: Michelle King, Learning Instigator and Co-director, Western Pennsylvania Writing Project (LIVE)
In this session, Learning Instigator and Love Activist Michelle King will lead us in an inquiry exploring the role of language in healing the planet and ourselves, and realizing the vision of "Beloved Community" described by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Grace and James Boggs of Detroit.
Link to recorded video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaIrJDoRS-A
Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1d6UfumVlsOO_2Ap2O73-KXTO5IZiFmlUxhGmAFp4PXI/edit?usp=sharing
4:15-5:15 Expressive Writing, Anti-Racism, and Social / Emotional Learning
Presenters: Boston Writing Project--Robert Comeau, Teacher-Researcher at Another Course to College, Boston Public Schools; Mary Dibinga, Teacher-Researcher at Boston Latin Academy, Boston Public Schools; Denise Patmon, Director, Boston Writing Project; Professor/UMass Boston (LIVE)
This session will focus on how expressive writing can help teachers and students grow together, in a Beloved Community Framework. We will facilitate some of what it takes to do expressive writing with middle and high school students, including building relationships, doing expressive writing ourselves, and examining authentic student work, while planning on culturally competent responses to students and their writing. Join us to deepen our understandings, our pedagogy and our intent to do anti-racist work.
Link to recorded video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv4j8HBp1Xs
Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DvNV7QG5I8ffR_xkyYhW94xaCSR1aQOaKhVb9hUJg-s/edit?usp=sharing
Demo Website for Online Student Journal:
https://sites.google.com/view/know-thyself-demo-site/home?authuser=0
5:15-5:30 Conclusion and Brief Panel Discussion
Presenters: All (LIVE)
BONUS Session: Imagining Other: A Strategy for Writing and Healing (PRE-RECORDED)
Presenter: Laura Roop, Director, Western Pennsylvania Writing Project
Drawing upon her own experience grappling with trauma through writing, Laura Roop will briefly discuss research about the effects of expressive writing on healing and wellness, and propose that other kinds of imaginative writing can bring additional dimensions of healing. She will propose several writing experiments to try.
Link to recorded video:
Link to article and recorded interview with Dr. James Pennebacker:
Link to Healing Through Creativity anthology and discussion guide, featuring award-winning student work: https://www.artandwriting.org/scholarships/scholarships-special-achievement-awards/new-york-life-award/healing-through-creativity/
Link to "Restorying the Self" article, Harvard Educational Review (2016) by Amy Stornaiuolo and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: https://www.academia.edu/28463874/Restorying_the_Self_Bending_Toward_Textual_Justice
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