The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: Decolonize Your Classroom

The ERWC community is pleased to kickoff its Spring webinar series with a very special guest, Daniel Summerhill. In this session, Daniel will explore the connection between rhetoric and poetry and his work to transform language for the purposes of social action, community building, and truth-telling.

Daniel B. Summerhill is Professor of Poetry/Social Action and Composition Studies at California State University Monterey and the inaugural Poet Laureate of Monterey County, CA. He is the author of Divine, Divine, Divine (Nomadic Press), a semifinalist for the Charles B. Wheeler Prize. Summerhill holds an M.F.A. from Pine Manor College (Solstice). He received the Sharon Olds Fellowship and was nominated to Everipedia’s 30 under 30 list.

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Welcome Anne Whitney as she joins our three-part webinar series on writing in the classroom. Anne will introduce the key elements of NCTE's "Principled Approach to Writing" and discuss how they impact writing instruction.

Dr. Anne Whitney is a former high school English teacher. Her research addresses writing and how writing works in school and life. This work has included studies in elementary, secondary, college, and professional development settings and non-school contexts such as churches.

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Nadia will share her research into "authentic" writing instruction and offer strategies for building a robust writing program at the high school and middle school levels.

Nadia Behizadeh is an associate professor of adolescent literacy in the College of Education & Human Development’s Department of Middle and Secondary Education. She is also a co-director for the Center for Equity and Justice in Teacher Education. In addition to her scholarly activities, Behizadeh teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in educational research and theory, English language arts methods and content literacy.

The Fall 2023 Webinar series kicks off with a very special guest. ERWC, in conjunction with the CSU Chancellor's Office, is proud to welcome Kelly Gallagher to our webinar community. Kelly Gallagher is the author of multiple books, including 180 Days: Two Teachers and their Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents, Readicide, Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing through Modeling & Mentor Texts, and Reading Reasons: Motivational Mini-Lessons for Middle and High School.

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Welcome back Matthew Johnson as he joins us for a discussion on some of the biggest issues facing teaching middle and high school students today, and how these changes impact writing instruction.

Matthew Johnson is a father, husband, and English language arts teacher in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is also a contributing writer for the New York Times Learning Network, EdWeek, and Edutopia and blogs regularly about writing instruction and pedagogy at www.matthewmjohnson.com

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This session will examine a cross-curricular approach to developing and maintaining a strong classroom community even in the face of contentious topics. Nichelle will introduce her strategies for promoting civil discourse--an alternative to either avoiding or fighting our way through contentious topics--to foster meaningful, thought-provoking classroom discussions.

Literacy strategies acquired in language arts classrooms are not exclusive to language arts; yet students often fail to recognize how to transfer them to other learning situations. Teaching students how to recognize the transferability of skills and strategies is therefore part of the learning process, and it begins with structuring your unit plans. Join the ERWC community as we kick-off our 2022/23 “Language and Literacy” webinar series with Trevor Aleo—co-author of the book “Learning That Transfers: Designing Curriculum for a Changing World”—who will explore the real-world possibilities of teaching for transfer.