Even though writing scholars like Thomas Newkirk emphasize that narrative is the backbone of all writing, school curricula emphasize argumentative writing instead. How might we create more space for narrative writing? How do we teach it in ways that it does not lose its sparkle once it becomes "schoolified"? Using Ruta Sepetys' book You the Story: A Writer's Guide to Craft through Memory as a mentor text, this session will invite students and teachers to view narrative with a storyteller's eye. Bring your notebook and be prepared to write!
Tired of comprehension quizzes? Bored with summary passages? Want to find a new way to see students interact with a text? Learn about a variety reading strategies to spice up the engagement of reading in your classroom. Explore visual and speaking tasks with that require minimal teacher preparation to see your students' analysis and depth of understanding of a complex text.
As Megan Mayhew Bergman observes in _The Kenyon Review_, “While nearly all writing observes and processes the world around us, overtly socially-conscious writing is risky.” Many of the writers from the English Renaissance were as courageous as they were cunning, but current pedagogy often ignores the crucible of political intrigue and personal peril in which their witticisms were wielded. The Elizabethans’ affections for cryptology, rhetoric and wordplay created a synergy that often allowed them to avoid not just book bans, but beheadings! Come join in a celebration of risky writing as we sleuth the puns and politics of Shakespeare, Lanier, and Marlowe and find new appreciation for contemporary social poets like Gwendolyn Brooks.
HS English & College Psychology, Kuemper Catholic High School / DMACC
Jeff Hughes has taught high school English and language arts for eighteen years. He enjoys helping students discover reading, writing, and imagining in new ways including storyboarding, mind mapping, and creating Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories. During the 2015-16 school year... Read More →
Looking to be more purposeful, impactful, and efficient in writing about literature in your classroom? In this practical breakout session, come get new ideas or modify current ones for using writing to help students think, evaluate, connect with, and even prepare to read the texts you teach. Using specific examples from American Literature, poetry, and classic novels, this session will offer you ideas to immediately apply to a high school literature classroom.
