Oct 30 2009 - Teaching of English Conference

SUNY Cortland will offer a conference on "Discussions About the Teaching of English (DATE)" on Friday, Oct. 30, at the College.

The conference's two keynote speakers are Deborah Appleman, a professor of educational studies at Carleton College, and Keith Gilyard, a distinguished professor of English at Pennsylvania State University.

The day-long program takes place from 8:30 a.m.-3:15 p.m. in the College's Corey Union.

The conference is geared for middle school and high school English language arts educators including teachers of special education, literacy, English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), librarians and college faculty and students.

The deadline to register is Monday, Oct. 19. The general registration fee is $50, which includes morning refreshments, lunch and materials. For registration information, contact the Center for Educational Exchange, Van Hoesen Hall, Room B-232, at cee@cortland.edu or (607) 753-4214.

Keynote speaker Appleman will discuss "What We Teach and Why: Reading and Resisting Ideology with Literary Theory." She is the author of Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literacy Theory to Adolescents (2nd edition) and Reading Themselves: How to Transform Adolescents into Lifelong Readers Through Out-of-Class Book Clubs.

Keynote presenter Gilyard will focus on "Writing for Life: Writing in the Curriculum and Beyond." He wrote Let's Flip the Script: An African American Discourse on Language, Literature, and Learning (African American Life) and Voices of the Self: A Study of Language Competency.

Featured speakers include:

• Marlene Carvell, author of Who Will Tell My Brother?, Sweetgrass Basket and Caught Between the Pages;

• Bruce Coville, author of Armageddon Summer, Fortune's Journey and Space Station Ice-3;

• Tamora Pierce, author of The Song of the Lioness quartet, The Immortals quartet, The Circle of Magic quartet, The Protector of the Small quartet and The Circle Opens quartet; and,

• Ned Vizzini, author of It's Kind of a Funny Story, Be More Chill, and Teen Angst? Naaah...

Workshop sessions will include the following topics:

• "Human Rights: Integrating Distance Learning Technology with Human Rights Curriculum Focusing on Local and Global Service";

• "Writing for, with and by Students: Balancing Choice and Structure in a Middle School ELA Program";

• "So What Do We Do After The Outsiders: New Trends in Young Adult Titles for Generation Z!";

• "Why Literacy Really Matters: Using Fiction and Nonfiction to Explore Human Rights, Social Justice and the Global Community";

• "Lit Circle Folders: Enhancing Middle School Readers' Conversations"; and,

• "Differentiated Instruction in Action in the High School Classroom."

The event is sponsored by the College's English Department and the Center for Educational Exchange; the Central New York Teaching Center; the Cortland County Teacher Center, Dryden Teacher Center and Lansing-Groton Teacher Center; Onondaga-Cortland-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES); Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES; and the Campus Artist and Lecture Series.

For more information about the conference, contact organizer Karen Stearns, assistant professor of English, at (607) 753-2072.