Supporting Learning and Writing for all Students
Best Practices in the Teaching of Writing

When: October 3, 2009

Where: Bartlett Hall, University of Massachusetts/Amherst

Registration: $25 fee (includes coffee and luncheon).
Registration Deadline (with payment in full): extended to September 25!
Note: Fee is non-refundable, but registration may be transferred to another person.
Register on-line (in Comment box, note workshop preferences).

Schedule:

8:30 - Coffee and registration
8:45 - A & B workshop sessions
12:00 - Luncheon, Pat Hunter Award and Keynote Address
This year's keynote will be given by Dr. Lisa Green, Associate Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Center for the Study of African American Language at the University of Massachusetts.
1:30 - C Sessions and 2009 Summer Institute reunion
3:00 - Closing and 5 PDP certificate pickup

Note: This schedule differs from what was printed in the fall issue of Connections. Please refer to this schedule when selecting workshops.

A Workshop Sessions:

A1: Making Poetry Accessible.
In this workshop partipants will learn how to use Art and Mentor poems as a way to make writing poetry accessible to all learners.
Beth O’Connor teaches eighth grade Language Arts at North Middle School in Westfield.

A2: Using Artifacts to Expand Student Writing.
Workshop participants choose from a wide selection of artifacts and are asked to stop and spend time to think about what the item says to them, using all of their senses. Then, they will think and write about how this artifact relates to their work as a teacher, or how they think and feel about their work as a teacher.
Liz Brinkerhoff teaches in the University Without Walls program at UMass Amherst.

A3: A3: Social Skills Stories.
“Social Stories” are a therapeutic writing tool used with students who have Autism. This workshop supports the idea that this technique can be slightly altered to be used as a valuable and effective tool for all students.
Jennifer Stankiewicz teaches fifth grade at Ware Middle School.

A4: ELL Panel Presentation: Teaching Reading and Writing in Sheltered Content Classrooms.
This panel presentation will present a variety of strategies that content area teachers need to develop writing, reading, and vocabulary skills of English Language Learners. Participants of the 2009 Advanced ELL Institute will discuss their curriculum projects.
Susan Shellenberger is an English teacher for Special Education and ELL students at Amherst Regional Middle School; Kathleen Reckendorf is a Literacy Teacher at Amherst Regional Middle School; Frances Ortiz is an ELL teacher and coach in Greenfield.

B Workshop Sessions:

B1: Hip Hop in the Classroom.
This workshop is centered around using hip-hop in the classroom, including hip-hop material and content, but also strategies and activities that come from hip-hop culture.
Kelly Norris teaches grades 9 - 12, including a Media Studies class.

B2: A Space Where Anything Can Happen: Using Creative Drama to Enhance Writing and Learning.
This workshop teaches warm-up games, group-building, sense memory to activate presence and imagination, and two drama activities to use as pre-writing. Teachers work in response to the sense memory exercise and brainstorm ideas for using the activities to enhance their curriculum.
Andrea Zucker teaches at Duggan Middle School in Springfield.

B3: Encouraging Positive Risk-Taking in the Classroom.
How can teachers encourage, discuss, and model positive risk taking? Through the model of a narrative writing unit, teachers will generate and commit to a positive risk that they take in their classrooms.
Alfie Alschuler teaches English at Amherst Regional Middle School.

B4: How Can We Assist Learning-Disabled Students to Become Successful in their Writing?
This workshop will explore the challenges of learning disabled students in writing. A brief description of cognitive weaknesses that contribute to poor writing will be presented as the neuropsychological underpinnings of a learning disability in writing. Small groups will work on specific case studies to brainstorm strategies for helping poor writers. Participants will receive a composite list of strategies that can be used in the classroom.
Julie Vukovich is a school psychologist in the East Longmeadow Public Schools.

B5: Exploring Content Area Literacy.
Participants will participate in a collaborative inquiry into the question: What does language literacy look like in the content area classroom? Participants will compare differences and similarities between content areas and consider ways that each can inform the other. We’ll participate in strategies that math teachers have developed to address language literacy needs as a way to begin thinking about literacy activities and strategies teachers can implement in their classrooms.
Mary Moore and Debra Eastman are teachers at the Athol- Royalston Regional Middle School.

12:00-1:30
Luncheon and Keynote Address by Dr. Lisa Green:
“Universals and Variation: What Happens When a Student’s Language Differs from Classroom Language.”

C Workshop Sessions:

C1: Writers Workshop.
Enjoy some personal writing time with writing prompts, and
time to share and respond.

C2: Advanced ELL Institute Meeting.
For participants of this institute only.

C3: DESE Reading & Teaching American Literary Non-Fiction Meeting.
For participants of this institute only.

C4: DESE Teaching Expository & Persuasive Writing Meeting.
For participants of this institute only.

C5: Summer Institute Reunion
For 2009 Summer Institute Alumni only.

Register on-line (in Comment box, note workshop preferences).