MCTE+Conference

Conference Review  I attended the NCTE conference in East Lansing this past semester, and had the opportunity to listen to three phenomenal speakers. The first person was keynote speaker, Dr. Tom Romano. Romano had a lot of ideas about writing in general, but what caught my attention was his focus on ways to incorporate the common core standards into the curriculum. I was intrigued, since this is something I will need to think about as a future English teacher myself. For instance, one of his ideas for a poetry unit was to have students develop a foundation by writing with ‘image and detail.’ He says “Write away, then write to expand that to some other level or meaning. Language will surprise and teach you.” He mentioned that while the therapeutic value of writing is not found in the common core standards, this type of writing is. Therefore, I think he was essentially driving at the fact that this still involves therapeutic writing, and hits the common core standards as well. However, perhaps my favorite part of his session was his philosophy on improving students’ writing abilities. He doesn’t believe that the average students get enough practice writing because teachers can’t give enough feedback. Therefore, ultimately, the best teacher is writing itself. In addition to that, when it comes time for students to write, teachers need to be quiet, and give students more time to write inside the classroom. However, Romano says, it is still important to “place opportunity for discovery in your students’ hands.” I found these statements to be simple, yet profound. After thinking back to my past experiences in middle and high school, I do not remember being granted much time to write inside the classroom. For many students, this may be the best time for them to write, and if not, time can always be given to take it home as well. The point is that there is much opportunity inside the classroom for learning about writing to take place, by simply giving students the time needed to write.

 I scanned the pamphlet for a second speaker to listen to, which turned out to be a teacher from Lutheran High School in North Macomb, Michigan who just so happened to be sitting next to me during Dr. Tom Ramono’s session. His name was John Brandt, and his topic was “Alternatives to Whole-Group Discussion.” Brandt had four unique ideas for alternatives to whole-group discussion, but was only able to get through the first two completely; due to an excited audience (we had a lot of questions). His first idea was one I have heard before, sketching your way through a text. He believed that drawing was especially powerful, and an “effective thinking strategy that all good readers should employ.” He even showed us a video of his students using the strategy in one of his literature classes, which was especially engaging. I was impressed by their thoughts and ideas, once the hesitation about not being able to draw went out the window. The second alternative was my favorite, speed debate. Speed debate is not only fun, but it gets students thinking on higher level of thought spectrum (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation). The way it works is a topic is chosen to discuss, such as “Hamlet has lost his mind vs. Hamlet is sane,” and then the students pair up with a partner, assume either the same or opposite position, and debate. Then time is called, and they switch partners. This gives students an opportunity to build and expand their thoughts continuously. At the end, everyone writes out their final position/argument on paper for fifteen minutes. I think it’s brilliant. Students like it because it’s a friendly competition. In other words, as a teacher, you effectively tap into their willingness to argue to engage them. I can’t wait to use this activity in the classroom one day.

 The last session I attended was called “Talking to Write” by speaker and poet, Terry Wooten. He spoke about his tips to writing and teaching poetry. Wooten was dyslexic his whole life, and therefore learned to memorize words from an early age. In fact, he has 557 poems alone committed to memory today. Impressive, to say the least. One of his best tricks is to create a memory map before you start writing, especially if you are having trouble coming up with ideas. Personally, I have always been a believer in the power of memory maps. I think they spark great story lines for prose, poetry, and drama. However, my favorite word of advice he gave for helping students shape their poems is to tell them to make sure each line ends on a “power” word. “Power” words are words that evoke vivid images, such as verbs and nouns. They are high-energy words. Wooten also said to leave out “nerd” words at the end of lines. “Nerd” words are any words in various parts of speech that do not evoke an image, such as the word //very//. These words have low energy because they just take up space. I can’t express how much I love this idea. I feel like it is a great way to get students motivated to spruce up and revise their poems, in addition to getting them thinking about how language works. He also had great ideas for getting students to use and understand similes. Overall, Wooten made me think about different ways to get students started on writing poems, and excited about writing poetry in general.