Following are the scheduled presentations for the March 13 Bernadette Mulholland Glaze Language & Learning Conference.
Session 1: 9:15-10:30
Using Writing to Understand Math
Zach Carter, South Lakes High School, Fairfax County Public Schools
This presentation focuses on how to use writing to explain the process behind solving math problems. Instead of centering math on numbers, the presentation explores how to look at math through the lens of language. Participants will be involved in solving problems (including explanations) and should have a calculator if possible. (Intended for 7-12, but can be adapted to K-12).
Collaborative Writing: Co-Authoring in the Classroom
Katheryn Hans, Freedom High School, Loudoun County Public Schools
This presentation focuses on the use of collaborative writing for students to produce one final product within their group. Students work together to plan, draft and revise a single product which they turn in as a group. This presentation also stresses the use of role writing in the classroom, letting students play with voice. It also addresses special populations, research and motivation. Participants will discuss and analyze the nature of group work in their classrooms, participate in process-based writing, analyze strategies needed to work effectively in a group and consider the benefits of using co-authoring in the classroom to meet standards. (Intended for 6-12, but can be adapted to K-12).
Author’s Craft: Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts
Erin Crostic, Dale City Elementary School, Prince William County Public Schools
This presentation focuses on the connection between reading and writing as a way to solidify early literacy skills. By using children’s books and renowned authors as mentors, this presentation helps students understand the relationship between reading and writing. Participants will identify craft techniques in quality children’s literature, discover the importance of re-reading a text multiple times, and work with mentor texts to search for craft techniques. They will then practice a strategy of their choice in their own free-write short story, will review student work samples, and will learn about class/student publication using resources such as barebook.com (Suitable for K-12, including struggling readers/writers and ELL students).
Genre Study Centers: A Study-Driven Approach to Writing
Kelly Worland, Wolftrap Elementary School, Fairfax County Public Schools
This presentation focuses on a student-centered way of exploring genre through the use of Genre Study Centers. This approach to teaching genre, adaptable to all levels of learners, gives learners access to every aspect of the writing process, from brainstorming to revising to editing. Participants will discuss and share the challenges of writing, discuss and share the challenges to teaching writing to a classroom of diverse learners, and explore Genre Study Centers. They will identify the benefits of using genre study centers to generate student-centered learning experiences, identify the many ways that centers can be differentiated to meet the needs of all learners in a classroom, and identify ways that they can adopt centers in their individual classrooms or grade levels (Suitable for K-University).
Blogging in the K12 Environment: Breaking Barriers of Time and Space
Tommi Troia-Griffin, Lake Ridge Middle School, Prince William Public Schools
In this presentation, teachers will explore applications for blogging in an educational setting. After considering the audience and purpose for a new blog, participants will create a blog using a school-friendly hosting service such as Edublogs. Participants will engage in writing activities to prepare for a first blog post, browse blogs and explore potential applications in their own classrooms (Suitable for all grade levels).
High Tech Strategies for Low Tech Teachers
Barry Blair, Park View High School, Loudoun County Public Schools
This presentation focuses on using interactive learning techniques to increase student motivation and involvement, with or without the use of technology. Participants will see how interaction affects student learning, participate in an interactive, collaborative vocabulary exercise, and learn how to understand and interact with texts of various natures (Suitable for 6-12).
Session 2: 10:45-12:00
Writing for Impact: Cultural Clashes of the 1920s
Chuck Daly, Robert E. Lee High School, Fairfax County Public Schools
This presentation focuses on writing across the curriculum, evaluation, and creative writing within the constraints of SOL requirements. Participants will experience the challenge of creating meaningful writing activities in a U.S. History class while under testing time constraints. They will also create a newspaper front page and brainstorm strategies for evaluating the effectiveness of lessons like this one. (Suitable for K-University).
Imitate the Master: Sing in Me, Muse, and Through Me Tell the Story
Meghan Short, Central High School, Shenandoah County Public Schools
This presentation rests upon the idea that good writers must read and that students can successfully incorporate principles from their reading into their own writing. In a presentation that works for all grade and ability levels, participants will practice imitating a master’s words through a first line/last line activity with several different books, and practice imitating masters in history, science and math through primary source documents (Suitable for 4-12).
Conferring with Young Writers
Courtney Allen, Hoffman-Boston Elementary School, Arlington Public Schools
This presentation introduces teachers to the basics of the student conference. Video examples of conferences allow participants to consider what makes the conferring process most successful and how this process can be used for revision and assessment purposes. The presentation will also discuss the important role conferring plays in charting students’ progression as writers, adapting instruction to suit individual needs and development, and building a classroom community. Participants will consider the conferring process, decipher the elements of a quality writing conference, observe the various roles teachers and students play, and engage in guided practice conferring with young writers (Suitable for K-University).
SOS: Self-Assessment Offers Student Success
Laura Tucker, Smart’s Mill Middle School, Loudoun County Public Schools
This presentation introduces ways to help students become involved in writing through inquiry by immersing them in reading good models, creating their own rubrics, and self-assessment. Participants will learn how students can be immersed in reading good models of book reviews and good models of “slice of life” writing. They will then discuss and identify important features in book reviews within large and small groups, and create a rubric to self-assess their own book reviews and “slice of life” writings (Suitable for K-12).
Written Expression in Writing—Just SHIV3 IT!!
Lynn Metheny, Robert E. Aylor Middle School, Frederick County Public Schools
This presentation focuses on the revision process, motivating immature writers, and aligning teacher instruction with state writing expectations. Participants will identify the basic components of written expression and use the acronym SHIV3 to incorporate various figurative language and best writing practices into writing. Quick mini lessons will focus on writing simile to connect the tangible and intangible, hyperbole, illustration, voice, vocabulary, and sentence variety (Suitable for 6-12).
Reinventing Fables: Integrating Music and Drama into the Art of Writing
Angie Collins, Willow Springs Elementary School, Fairfax County Public Schools
Focusing on a philosophy of experience-based learning, teachers will explore a variety of ways to read and retell a story using fables as the basis and incorporating music and drama. Participants will practice reading and retelling a fable through dialogue and character sketching, and work in collaborative groups to reinvent a fable involving dialogue, dramatization, musical instruments and multi-genre writing. They will share these reinventions with the large group and will explore music-brain research and the correlations between music and writing curriculum (Suitable for 3-University).