I hate I couldn’t be there with you all, but I hope you had a good time at the Winter Literacy Conference. Generally speaking, if you can take away just one thing from a conference to use in your classroom, it was worth your while. Obviously, everyone couldn’t attend all sessions, so with this post, share something you learned in one of the sessions you attended. That way others may be able to pick up something cool to use in their classrooms from a session they weren't able to get to. This post will serve as your exit slip for the conference since you didn’t have to put your name on the one you completed there.
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I enjoyed the Winter Literacy Conference. In the “Growing Readers: Engaging Students in Meaningful Classroom Discussions” session, I enjoyed all of the activities we completed to introduce our kids to being active participants in group discussions. One of the speakers made such an important point: It is great to have the goal of having literature circles in our classrooms; however, we are never going to have success in doing this if our students don’t first learn how to hold discussions. There are many strategies we used in this session that I would like to use in my class this year…especially the cockroach article!
In addition, I LOVED the session entitled “Creating a Community of Readers: Community Book Clubs.” Amanda, Claire, and I were discussing how we would be so thrilled to have book clubs (with parents, too!) with our students. Yes, the incentive of extra credit is great, but how awesome would it be to have students hang around later once a month just to discuss a book they have read on their own for fun! I hope we can implement part of this with our freshman program.
Finally, I enjoyed the session “Vocabulary that Sticks, Not Stinks.” I think my favorite strategy that Paula used was the word sorting strategy. She gave us a list of words and we grouped them…however we could. Finally, we looked at how these words all came together in one of Emily Dickinson’s poems. I would love to do this with my kids. I would even love to use this poem (extended metaphor)! If I did this in my classes, I would have the kids define the words first. Then they could practice grouping them. Finally, when they read the poem, it would all make sense because they’re familiar with the vocabulary. Great ideas!
I truly enjoyed all three of the sessions that I attended. Each and every one had useful, practical strategies and/or information. One of my favorite strategies was the word sorting activity that Ruth Anne talks about and I will definitely be using it with my class.
The session on Using NCS Mentor in the Classroom was super-informative and practical. The Academic Support teachers had training on using NCS Mentor during one of the late start Wednesdays. After that initial training, having it presented again with another person’s perspective and classroom ideas really helped it to sink in. I almost feel comfortable enough trying to use it with my students now! For those of you who don’t know, NCS Mentor is a web-based program that allows teachers to demonstrate SC Dept of Ed writing standards using actual student writing samples. The kids can see authentic essays (grouped by grade level) and can practice scoring them in the same way that their own essays are scored for PACT or HSAP. Once students see exactly what ‘good’ compositions look like, then they can begin to recognize when their own written compositions look ‘good’. They can also see graphic (color-coded) examples of what to be sure to include in scored written essays. I can see this being a very useful tool to help improve writing skills.
I honestly had mixed feelings about the Winter Literacy Conference. I feel there were not many presentations for high school teachers. While I enjoyed the presentations I attended ("Growing Readers: Engaging Students in Meaningful Classroom Discussions, "Community Book Clubs," and "Vocabulary..."), I feel that I was expecting a little more.
My favorite presentation was the one on Community Book Clubs. The presentation really inspired me to attempt a Community Book Club. I've always wanted to have a book club program after school and this seems like the push I've been waiting for.
I'm with Stephanie. I felt that, while the Literacy Conference had some good stuff, for the most part, it really wasn't geared to us at the high school level.
A few things I found helpful: the first was the revised bloom's taxonomy that the key note speaker handed out.
The sessions were interesting. I went to the one that "the Other Diane" did. I really liked her idea of setting up a blog and requiring the students to post comments as feedback, to ask questions, etc.
I also went to the vocab session that the teacher from BC did. It was informative.
My second session, however, was something that two elementary school teachers put together. When they have their students write a report (I think it's in 4th grade), they wanted their students to do a form of a KWL for their individual topics. Sooooo, they gave each child a manila file folder. On the top half they wrote: What I (think I) know, and What I want to Know. Then, the bottom half was where the students, as they were doing their research, would write what they learned. I liked that it gave each child a concrete way to keep track of their learning. And since the students had chosen their topics themselves, they were fairly motivated. They would then use the information in their folder to put their research paper together.
(It was really cute: the example folder that I was looking at was about fast cars and under the "What I know" section, he had written every car he could think of and that it was fast. So his what I know section looked like this: cars need gas, the ferrari is fast, the audi TT is fast, a lamborghini is fast, a viper is fast, etc.)
Although I was only able to attend the opening session and "Growing Readers: Engaging in Meaningful Classroom Discussions" workshop, I enjoyed my time at the Winter Literacy Conference. I had already attended the first part of the Growing Readers workshop at a different point in time and I was happy that I could take away something different each time.I enjoyed the activities and am actively trying to engage my students in real discussions. I also did not feel that many workshops were geared towards high school.
I don’t think there was a lot I could use in my class. I did learn more than I needed about cockroaches. I do not have time to teach students how write even if I were qualified, I usually have to go with what they have. However I do like the MCS Mentor. It looks like a great tool for students and English teachers.
I enjoyed the conference very much. It is always good to participate with my colleagues to receive new ideas and refresh previously learned instructional strategies that could be implemented in our classes.
One of the workshops I attended was the NCS Mentor; it was a quick, informative and brief overview. I will implement the use of this program in my classroom. I find when students’ critique each other they are much harder. I feel that peer review will evoke a better opportunity for them to improve their writing skills. So in using this program in class, I’m hoping my students will gain further knowledge and build on their existing writing skills.
Did any one in the group go into the workshops—“Organizing Non-fiction Text to Write in Content Areas”; and” Growing Readers: Engaging Students in Meaningful Classroom Discussions: The Sequel”? I would love to have copies of the information.
I have a flyer on “Writing Prompts/ Ideas to Get Started Writing Memoir” if anyone is interested.
The workshop—“Vocabulary That Sticks, Not Stinks”—Presenter Paula Miller was excellent. A great website resource was given to the class;
http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/words//.
I really enjoyed the Winter Literacy Conference. I think the best session I attended was about book clubs. A husband and wife both discussed how they implemented after-school book clubs that included involvement from parents and students in their schools (at elementary and middle school levels). This gave me a lot of hope that if students at these levels could become interested and involved in book clubs on their own volition, then maybe this is something that could be implemented at the high school level, too.
I also attended a great session that helped me with strategies for teaching vocabulary. I got lots of great ideas, and I was introduced to freerice.com, which is a great site all about knowing definitions. But the best part is that for each correctly answered vocabulary word, grains of rice are sent to impoverished people in third world countries!
What can I say????? I put the agenda in my notebook. Perhaps seperate conferences would be good. One for elementary and one for the high school. Perhaps then more people would give information that high school teachers could use. Some of the stuff was done before.
It was difficult trying to find speakers with topics related to high school teachers or science. I did think I chose some with really great ideas to try. I picked up a few strategies to add to my new collection thanks to the study group.
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