The NEATE News Fall 2015 Annual NEATE Conference, October 30-31, 2015 at the Holiday Inn, Mansfield, Massachusetts This year’s theme is Empowered Teachers, Engaged Students: Building Our Capacity to Reach All Learners. Headlining the conference will be two speakers known for empowering teachers and engaging students. Friday’s luncheon speaker Sonia Nieto speaks and writes on multicultural education, teacher preparation, the education of Latinos, and other culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. Her book Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education is widely used in teacher preparation and in-service courses around the country. Other books include The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities, Why We Teach, and her newest work, Why We Teach Now. Saturday’s speaker will be Tom Newkirk, author and co-author of numerous books on literacy. His newest work, Minds Made for Stories, is a corrective to the narrow and compartmentalized approaches often imposed on schools—approaches at odds with the way writing really works outside school walls. His book on boys and literacy, Misreading Masculinity, helped focus attention on ways to engage boys by allowing them to make use of popular culture loyalties. Throughout his career he has developed programs to support literacy, most notably The New Hampshire Literacy Institutes, which have run annually since 1981. Books by both authors will be available, and they will sign copies after their keynotes. Other books recommended by conference presenters will be on sale Friday by Books on the Square. Friday’s schedule will include 15 interactive sessions, including strands on social justice pedagogy, differentiated instruction, and teaching with technology. In a new feature this year, Saturday participants will be able to choose from three extended workshops, one on each strand. A list of sessions and workshops is included below. 1
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The NEATE News Fall 2015
Annual NEATE Conference, October 30-31, 2015at the Holiday Inn, Mansfield, Massachusetts
This year’s theme is Empowered Teachers, Engaged Students: Building Our Capacity to Reach All Learners. Headlining the conference will be two speakers known for empowering teachers and engaging students. Friday’s luncheon speaker Sonia Nieto speaks and writes on multicultural education, teacher preparation, the education of Latinos, and other culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. Her book Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education is widely used in teacher preparation and in-service courses around the country. Other books include The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural
Learning Communities, Why We Teach, and her newest work, Why We Teach Now.
Saturday’s speaker will be Tom Newkirk, author and co-author of numerous books on literacy. His newest work, Minds Made for Stories, is a corrective to the narrow and compartmentalized approaches often imposed on schools—approaches at odds with the way writing really works outside school walls. His book on boys and literacy, Misreading Masculinity, helped focus attention on ways to engage boys by allowing them to make use of popular culture loyalties. Throughout his career he has developed programs to support literacy, most notably The New Hampshire Literacy Institutes, which have run annually since 1981.
Books by both authors will be available, and they will sign copies after their keynotes. Other books recommended by conference presenters will be on sale Friday by Books on the Square. Friday’s schedule will include 15 interactive sessions, including strands on social justice pedagogy, differentiated instruction, and teaching with technology. In a new feature this year, Saturday participants will be able to choose from three extended workshops, one on each strand. A list of sessions and workshops is included below.
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The NEATE News Fall 2015
Friday 90-Minute Concurrent Sessions • Journeying Toward Global Social Awareness: Revising ELA Pedagogy for Digital Literacy Instruction, Social Problem-Solving, and Literacy across the Curriculum • Teaching Students to Write African-American History for Publication • Stories Matter: A Fresh Approach to To Kill a Mockingbird • Verse For Better: Using Multicultural Verse Novels with Social Justice Themes to Stimulate All Learners to Read, Write, and Excel • Building a “REP” for Argumentation: Using Respectful, Effective, Productive Strategies • Close Reading Made Easy, Easy Access to Close Reading • Multidimensional Differentiation in Poetry • Improving Student Writing Through Written Metacognitive Reflection • Using Student Response in Teaching Writing • Planning and Differentiating Online with the Literacy Design Collaborative • Teaching Outside the Boundaries: the Challenges and Rewards of Multimodal Writing • Digital Storytelling to Improve Skills in Narrative, Speaking and Listening, Technology • Chaucer Pilgrimage Site: Pedagogical Benefits of Combining Physical and Digital Learning Spaces • Theatrical Approach to Text – Tools for Integrating Theater into the Classroom • Poet-of-the-Year Presentation and Workshop
Saturday Three-Hour Workshop Topics • Teaching about the Holocaust through the Lens of Social Justice: Exploring Resources to Help Students Resist, Remember, and Reflect • Building Access from the Ground Up: Using Universal Design for Learning for Curriculum and Lesson Development • Make/Hack/Play: Tinkering with Technology to Promote Connected Learning
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Join us for a monthly Twitter chat at #NEATEChat on the third Thursday of each month at 7pm. Gain valuable insights and resources to bring back to your classroom and implement right away. Topics we’ve already covered during our chats:• Young Adult Literature• Poetry• Teaching Issues Related to Social Justice• Mentor Texts
The following are upcoming dates and topics through February:October 15: NEATE Conference PreviewNovember 19: The Late Work DebateDecember 17: Books as GiftsJanuary 21: The Late Work Debate February 25: Is Shakespeare Still Relevant?
Submit a piece to The Leaflet: Manuscripts will be accepted for each Leaflet issue that describe innovative teaching strategies, recent classroom developments, lesson plans, or reading recommendations to assist us in our profession. Book reviews are also accepted. The Leaflet also accepts and includes original fiction and poetry written by the very talented teachers amongst us in each issue. Multiple submissions are acceptable. Email submissions to: [email protected]
Popular elements of past NEATE conferences will return this year, some with new features. These include readings by the finalists for New England Poet-of-the-Year, who will also share strategies on teaching poetry; a raffle to support classroom mini-grants that will be awarded at the conference; a free wine-and-cheese reception Friday afternoon, followed by a free performance of 1984 by the New Rep theater company; and, of course, the exhibit hall with representatives from publishers and other education vendors. The Friday luncheon will also include presentation of the Ann Garland West and Marian Gleason teaching awards, for new and experienced teachers respectively, as well as the Charles Swain Thomas Award, which is given annually for distinguished service to NEATE.
If you have any questions, please visit http://neate.org/page/conferences-1 or contact the conference co-chairs, Bruce Penniman and Christina Roy, at [email protected]. Registration is available online now with a $15 early bird discount (by October 10, 2015) at http://neate.org/page/conference-registration. We look forward to seeing you in Mansfield on October 30-31!
Professional Development as Self Care by Kim Parker, Ph.D., President of NEATE and English Teacher at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Cambridge, MA
At the start of every school year, I marvel, momentarily, at how quickly time passes. This summer was no exception, and as I prepare to begin another year of teaching, I find myself in need of a different type of inspiration. While I invite the new challenges that will come from teaching a new level of young people, a new co-teacher and a new department head, I also worry that so many changes will leave me looking for a solid place to stand. When I get nervous or worried, I often turn to texts of all sorts, choosing to postpone any forward movement to instead catch up on the numerous blogs I’ve bookmarked, poems sent to me by friends, or magazines that have piled up over the last few months. A few days before school started, I read an article by Dave Stuart, Jr. a teacher whose blog I admire and who does a wonderful job arguing for work-life balance. On that particular day, the article I read was about using the Warren Buffet rule to brainstorm the top 25 goals I want to accomplish for the school year, then narrowing that list to the top five. From there, all efforts for the year should be in attention to that top five list and only that top five.
I immediately set to work (I will admit it was hard to get to 25; I got close enough, though), and when I winnowed my list down to my top five, one of them was to build my professional networks beyond my classroom. There’s no better opportunity to achieve this goal than by attending our NEATE conference this October! There, I know I will have the opportunity to catch up with colleagues who have become dear friends, learn some innovative ways of teaching that I can use as soon as I walk back into my classroom the following Monday, and renew my teaching soul. I’ve found that I am sustained long past the conference by the relationships, knowledge and joy created and nurtured during that time.
In the meantime, we’ve done some housekeeping on our website (neate.org). Some highlights include: a Good Reads feed that lists recommendations from our Executive Board. If you’re looking for what to read next--either academic or something lighter--please check that out. The contests and awards section has some exciting opportunities for new teachers and others in search of writing contests for their students. Finally, in August, we debuted the “Hot Topics” question. Each month, we’ll ask you to respond to the question, and we’ll use those responses for future discussion forums. If you haven’t voted yet, please do!
I hope you’ll be able to join us this fall; NEATE is your professional home, and it would be such a pleasure to see you. The conference fulfills so many of our needs as teachers: to be surrounded by good teaching energy, to have the time to simply slow down and listen to passionate colleagues talk about our practice, and to remember why we enjoy our profession. Link to the Dave Stuart article: http://www.davestuartjr.com/25-5-list/
NCTE released a statement on September 8, 2015 regarding the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Below are excerpts from the NCTE Statement. The statement was invited by the NCTE Presidential Team and authored by the NCTE/CCCC Black Caucus.
We will not render ourselves voiceless, nor can we tolerate the fictions of colorblindness and post-racialism any longer. Though the election of President Obama raised the hopes and expectations of many that our country's legacy of racial apartheid, of devaluing the Black body, had ended, we know that systems of racial inequity persist. From Watts in 1965 to Ferguson 50 years later, uprisings across our nation evince the resilience of American racial oppression. Redlining has become redistricting, leaving patterns of segregation from 1954 intact in 2015. In the wake of Baltimore, Ferguson, Cleveland, New York City, Charleston, and elsewhere, a devastating portrait of two Americas has emerged.
We call upon English educators to use classrooms to help as opposed to harm, to transform our world and raise awareness of the crisis of racial injustice. We call upon English education researchers to commit time to studying and disrupting narratives of racism rendered complexly in the substance of our profession. As an organization, we are committed to providing English educators with the tools, training, and support needed to build a more equitable system better able to serve the unique needs of all youth. In addition to the revolution on the ground, we seek a parallel revolution in curricula, instructional models and practices, assessment approaches, and other facets of education that would lead to a future free from the barriers of prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination, and bias. At the same time, we must pursue meaningful opportunities for all stakeholders to build their capacities for higher cognition, deeper compassion, elevated empathies, and greater acceptance.
To read the full statement: http://www.ncte.org/governance/pres-team_9-8-15
More Diverse and Multicultural Book Titles
We will continue to highlight diverse and multicultural books to add to your classroom library. Below are additional web sites and book recommendations to check out.
Web sites:http://thebrownbookshelf.com/http://www.slj.com/2014/05/diversity/culturally-diverse-books-selected-by-sljs-review-editors/#_http://glbtrt.ala.org/rainbowbooks/archives/1103http://www.imyourneighborbooks.org/http://oyate.org/
This Side of Home, by Renee Watson. Identical twins Nikki and Maya have been on the same page for everything — friends, school, boys and beginning their adult lives at a historically African-American college. But as their neighborhood goes from rough-and-tumble to up-and-coming, suddenly filled with pretty coffee shops and boutiques, Nikki is thrilled while Maya feels like their home is slipping away. Suddenly, the sisters who had always shared everything must confront their dissenting feelings on the importance of their ethnic and cultural identities and learn to separate themselves from the long shadow of their identity as twins.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, by Benjamin Alire Saenz. Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at a swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as they start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Aristotle and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.
Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper. Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom—the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged, because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Exploring Indian identity, both self and tribal, Alexie's novel is a semi-autobiographical chronicle of Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, a Spokane Indian. The bright 14-year-old was born with water on the brain, is regularly the target of bullies, and loves to draw. The daily struggles of reservation life and the tragic deaths he endures would be all but unbearable without the humor and resilience of spirit with which Junior faces the world.
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, by Meg Medina. When Piedad “Piddy” Sanchez hears that Yaqui Delgado is going to crush her, she has no idea why she has become a target of one of the roughest girls in her new Queens school. But as the harassment escalates, avoiding Yaqui and her gang starts to take over Piddy’s life. Is there any way for Piddy to survive without closing herself off or running away? In an all-too-realistic novel, Medina portrays a sympathetic heroine who is forced to decide who she really is.
If I Ever Get Out of Here, by Eric Gansworth. A seemingly authentic depiction of the life of a teen on an Indian reservation in the 70s, this well written novel explores the stigma and challenges Native teens face in schools which are mostly non-Indian, including the negative assumptions made by teachers and administrators. The main character, Lewis Blake is an insightful young man who actively tries to negotiate the two worlds he must operate within.
A Girl Called Problem, by Katie Quirk. Set in Tanzania, the story follows Shida, a young girl coming of age in a small village of the Sukuna tribe. Her village is asked to move to another village as part of President Nyerere's "ujamaa" program (a kind of Tanzanian experiment in socialism). Many in Shida's tribe want to support Nyerere's vision for Tanzania, but are reluctant to leave their traditional way of life. Shida and her tribe's struggles are deeply intertwined as both must face a challenging new paradigm.
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One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia. Eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. When they arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with her, Cecile is nothing like they imagined. While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.
In the News: The Common Core State Standards, Part II
Common Core Gets A Passing Gradeby Nora Bicki, Ph.D., Retired Professor, Mass. Maritime Academy, Buzzards Bay, MA
In the last issue of the NEATE newsletter, I wrote about the Anti-Common Core Movement which is based on false claims about what exactly the Common Core is, how it was created and how it is being implemented. Even though it may seem too early to worry about the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election, several of the candidates are outspoken opponents of the Common Core, although I have yet to hear any of them mention specific issues they may have with it. It’s somewhat depressing to think that this type of Anti-Common Core campaign rhetoric will be with us throughout the upcoming
year.
So, it was with great delight that I read an article that was recently posted on NEATE’s Facebook page that trumpeted the fact that the Common Core is proving to be quite successful! (If you haven’t already “liked” the “New England Association of Teachers of English” Facebook page you’re missing out on a treasure trove of great articles that are being posted there on a regular basis.)
The Facebook link sent me to an online CNN article dated August 4 by Katia Hetter titled “Why Kids are Reading History for Fun.” She and other scholars that she quotes in the piece attribute this phenomenon, in large part, to the Common Core. For example, Kathleen Odean, a young adult literature specialist claims that reading fiction should always be a mainstay of the curriculum. However, because there is more dialogue and often less complicated sentence structure in fiction, many middle and high school students are not prepared to read complex texts well or to write more intense papers for class. The answer to the problem, she believes, is Common Core’s inclusion of more nonfiction texts in history/social studies, science and technology into the curriculum.
Hetter notes that as a result of the Common Core’s emphasis on informational texts, nonfiction book sales have increased resulting in more writers producing a greater variety of high-quality nonfiction texts for teachers to choose from. Adult author Brad Meltzer was “concerned that his children might see reality TV stars or sports figures as heroes.” He preferred they look up to historical figures such as Amelia Earhart and Jackie Robinson. Consequently, he created his very popular “Ordinary People Change the World” series so that young readers could “realize that ordinary children could become extraordinary people.” And at the same time, these avid readers learn a bit of history while increasing their background
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knowledge and their critical thinking skills so necessary for success in higher grade levels, in college or in the workforce.
Author Lauren Tarshis, creator of the “I Survived” series written through the eyes of children who have survived such historical events as Hurricane Katrina or the destruction of Pompeii, finds that students are fascinated by history and is pleased that “many of them springboard from my book into further research on their own.” What English teachers would not be thrilled to know that not only have we instilled a love of reading in our students but that we encourage their intellectual curiosity and critical thinking skills? And if it works for history, might it not also work for science as students read more about such topics as climate change, ocean and space exploration, and advances in technology?
At the end of my previous article on the Common Core, I included the website for a letter to the editor that appeared in the March 2015 online edition of Education Week written by, among others, the Chancellors of the State University of New York and the Tennessee Board of Regents. The gist of the letter was to give Common Core a chance before condemning it. The letter began, “Ensuring that our young people are prepared for the challenges of college-level coursework and a good career is not an option; it’s an obligation. And discussions over how best to do that are devalued when they become a tool for political pundits and a rallying point on the campaign trail.” If only we could get through the next fourteen months without having to listen to certain candidates constantly bash Common Core. I encourage you to contact them and point them to NEATE’s Facebook page and website (neate.org) for a bit of education on the benefits of the Common Core! Until then, I think we can simply enjoy the fact that as far as reading goes, the Common Core seems to be working both in and out of the classroom.
Link to article: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/04/living/children-history-books-booming-common-core-feat/
NEATE Online: Hot Topic
The weather may be cooling down outside, but our NEATE website is burning up! Introducing NEATE Hot Topics, our monthly online survey concerning topical areas of teaching English/Language Arts. To participate, simply visit the site (neate.org) and take the brief pop-up survey.
At the beginning of each month, we’ll open a discussion about the previous month’s Hot Topic on our Conversations page (http://neate.org/forum/). We encourage our members to return to the site and converse with others about the spotlighted issue.
We hope to spark lively debate and share lessons and our collected experiences with teachers across New England!
Do you have a suggestion for a NEATE Hot Topic? Email Alex at [email protected] with your ideas!
Upcoming Hot Topics:• Should we give zeros for missed work? • Should young adult literature be incorporated into the curriculum? • Do you pair nonfiction texts with fiction texts? • Do you teach vocabulary in context or in isolation?
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Inside this edition:- Annual NEATE Conference Preview- NEATE Monthly Twitter Chats- Professional Development as Self Care- NCTE Statement Affirming #BlackLivesMatter- Diverse and Multicultural Books and Websites Recommendations- In the News: The Common Core State Standards, Part II- NEATE Online: Hot Topic
