2024 ICTE Fall Conference

SPARK VIDEO: Bot or Not?: All ELA educators are thinking about the growth of AI and its impact on writing instruction. AI tools can help our students with certain tasks, and they can be a hindrance in others. In this session, I will share a game I play with my students to help them recognize the benefits and drawbacks of AI-generated writing. We call the game "Bot or Not," and it's fast, fun, and easily customized. Participants in this session will learn, laugh, and leave with tools to help students engage in authentic conversations around the things AI writing can and cannot do.

SPARK Rural YA: This spark session will share findings and insights from previous book club discussions with Iowa teachers. Additionally, there will be an opportunity for teachers to sign up for the Spring 2025 iteration of the Reading Rural Book Club. Attendees will walk away with Rural YA Literature titles to share with their students.

SPARK Thought Experiment: I believe students like to go deeper than they think they can with their learning! Therefore, several years ago I began teaching a philosophy unit in my Advanced Placement Language and Composition classes.  In this session I will explain how I set up the unit (student-led Socratic seminars), offer a list of philosophical essays, and include a few philosophical thought experiments. There's more than a trolley problem!

Marci Rickords, Kaitlin Ritland, Quinn Dreasler, and Rachel Wagner, alums of Iowa Writing Project's Level I Institute 2023-2024, came away from class with a clear sense of the pedagogy and instructional practices it takes to create confident and capable student writers. Join these teacher-learners/teacher-leaders as they share what they know to be true about teaching writing: adult and peer response to student writing is crucial, student SEL is strengthened and supported through classroom writing, and reflective practices amplify student voice.

PRESENTATION MATERIALS (click on link here)

Come learn about how a rural English teacher brought a True Crime podcast into her curriculum and enhanced her students ability to openly discuss their opinions, accurately research, work as a team, and create their own podcasts.

Secondary students thrive when their identities are recognized, their skills honed in intellectual pursuits, their concerns honored with the chance to critically solve problems in their community, and their joy is centered in the classroom. Join a literacy professor, an English Language Arts /ELL educator, and Reading/SPED teacher in this interactive session as they share the insights, strategies, lessons, and assessments inspired by a year-long study of Gholdy Muhammed’s Unearthing Joy. Engaging strategies, authentic assessments, and on-line resources wll be shared with partipants.