NCTE Overview of Activities

@ Boston

11/23/13

9:30-10:45

Activity / Lead / Time
INTRO –
Open in Wolof – show language barriers / Adama / 9:30-9:35
Introduction to FWI and history – lines we draw in schools and society / Karen, FWT / 9:35-9:45
Baseball Line Games
 Community building
 Literary Unity Connections
 Pre/Post Test
 Dugout Debates / Megan & HFWs / 9:45-10:15
Move to Pitcher’s Mound to pitch/spit/share HFW writings / HFWs / 10:15-10:25
Why join HFW? Application for teachers and students and community stakeholders?
 Safe, creative space
 opportunities to identify needs and reframe leadership and accountability
 culturally responsive; community-based / HFW, Joyce, Jill, Chet, Mark / 10:25-10:35
REACTOR & Q&A
 Freedom Center’s connection
 Bridging classroom and community ed.
 Organizing for inside-out (grassroots) change by uniting students, teachers, teacher educators, and community educators rallying around social justice stories and goals / Rich Cooper, NURFC / 10:35-10:45

Baseball Line Games

Participants Choose from the following topics written on the board or displayed on a Power Point: Standardized Testing, Student-Teacher Relationships, Curriculum & Methods, Freedom & Control in the Classroom. Depending on which one they choose, go through Diamond Talk or Questioning the Call.

Diamond Talk:

Warm Up: Step Inside the Diamond If…

  1. You’ve been to Boston before.
  2. You had to choose between Star Wars and Star Trek, you would choose Star Trek.
  3. You had to choose between Star Wars and Star Trek, you would choose Star Wars.
  4. You teach, attend, or work with rural students.
  5. You teach, attend, or work with urban students.
  6. You teach, attend, or work with suburban students.

Play Ball: Step Inside the Diamond If…

  1. Standardized Testing
  2. You’ve ever had to learn another language.
  3. You’ve ever had to use that language daily (in another country, for work, etc.)
  4. You’ve ever had to take a standardized test in another language.
  5. Standardized testing values your students home language (African-American Vernacular, Appalachian Dialect, Foreign language)
  6. You feel that standardized testing reflects student learning.
  7. You feel you can balance the demands of testing and the needs of your students.
  8. Student-Teacher Relationship
  9. You trust your students’ funds of knowledge
  10. You trust your students to work through and with their passions at school
  11. You trust your students’ passions will give them transferrable skills
  12. You and your students define respect the same
  13. You know where your students are coming from and who they are
  14. Your students know where you are coming from and who you are
  15. Your students know you care about them
  16. Curriculum and Methods
  17. Your school devotes enough time to writing.
  18. Your school’s arts-based programming has been gutted.
  19. You have a lot of choice in how and what you teach
  20. You have little choice in how and what you teach
  21. You think the Common Core represents students needs
  22. You believe that grammar skills are more important than learning about literary devices
  23. You believe that learning about literary devices is more important than learning about grammar skills
  24. You allow for creativity and genre choice in writing

The Big Play of the Game: Respond in any way that you would like to the following question(s):

  1. What is the biggest challenge for educators today?
  2. Where is drawing a line appropriate in the world of education? Where is it prohibiting?
  3. How do we balance the needs of students with the demands of our profession?

Questioning the Call- Agree or Disagree:

Standardized Testing

  1. Learning is measurable.
  2. English Language Learners should be able to use interpreters for all of their tests.

Student-Teacher Relationships

  1. Most of my students think I’m a good teacher.
  2. I trust my students.

Curriculum & Methods

  1. I am effective at differentiating.
  2. My students know why I do what I do.

Freedom & Control

  1. I can balance student needs and state/district mandates.
  2. If I let students follow their passions, they will learn something valuable.