The NEATE News Spring 2015

Annual NEATE Conference, 2015 The annual NEATE conference will be held October 30-31, 2015, at the Holiday Inn Mansfield, MA. The conference theme is Empowered Teachers, Engaged Students: Building Our Capacity to Reach All Learners. The keynote speakers will be Dr. Sonia Nieto, author of Finding Joy in Teaching Students of Diverse Backgrounds, Affirming Diversity, and What Keeps Teachers Going? on Friday, and Dr. Tom Newkirk, author of Minds Made for Stories, The Art of Slow Reading, and Holding Onto Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones on Saturday. Conference sessions will focus on topics that will help teachers to increase their skills, knowledge, and confidence in ways that will empower them to make the English classroom more accessible and relevant to all learners, with a focus on the following strands: Journeying Toward Justice, Designing for Differentiation, and Teaching with Technology.

NEATE Conference Speakers: Sonia Nieto is a Professor Emerita of Language, Literacy, and Culture, School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Retiring from the University of Massachusetts in 2006, Dr. Nieto continues to speak and write on multicultural education, teacher preparation, the education of Latinos, and other culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. Her book Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education (first 4 editions solely authored, and 5th and 6th eds, with co-author Patty Bode), is widely used in teacher preparation

and inservice courses around the country. Her most recent book, Why We Teach Now, dares to challenge current notions of what it means to be a ''highly qualified teacher'' á la No Child Left Behind, and demonstrates the depth of commitment and care teachers bring to their work with students, families, and communities.

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The NEATE News Spring 2015

Thomas Newkirk, Professor of English has studied writing and literacy at all levels of proficiency, from the beginning scribbles of four year-olds to the personal essays of first-year college students. His first book, More than Stories: The Range of Children's Writing (1987), demonstrated the range of writing young children could attempt. His book, The Performance of Self in Student

Writing, won the David Russell Award from the National Council of Teachers of English, as the outstanding research monograph for the year (2000). His work on boys and literacy, Misreading Masculinity, has helped focus attention on ways to engage boys by allowing them to make use of their popular culture loyalties. He has been honored by the University of New Hampshire for his research, and he has received the Lindberg Award from the College of Liberal Arts for

excellence as a scholar and teacher.

See the NEATE website www.neate.org for more detailed information on the Annual Conference.

Free Professional Development and Resources for TeachersOn Saturday, March 28, English teachers filled the media cafeteria at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School abuzz with ideas and discourse around teaching synthesis. NEATE welcomed Bedford Saint Martin (BFW) to present Teaching Synthesis in the ELA Classroom: A Workshop for Writing Teachers. Led by Renee Shea and John Golden, the workshop provided an interactive space for analysis of student writing samples and the teaching of writing synthesis through non-fiction texts. The workshop challenged us to engage in activities as the student writer while considering how claim, PQE (point, quote, explanation), and choice of perspective/counter argument can be taught. We engaged with pre-reading questions, “Before we read about this topic, write a brief response to…”; selections from articles; and activities regarding critical analyses of the reading to create a strong argument. The key activity asked

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Join us for a monthly Twitter chat at #NEATEChat on the third Thursday of each month at 6pm. Gain valuable insights and resources to bring back to your classroom and implement right away. Topics we’ve already covered during our chats:• Young Adult Literature• Poetry• Teaching Issues Related to Social Justice• Mentor Texts

The following are the remaining dates and some of the topics for the remainder of the year:June 18: Fall Conference Preview July 16: Pleasure Reading August 20: TBDSeptember 17: TBDOctober 15: TBDNovember 19: TBDDecember 17: TBD

Submit a piece to The Leaflet: Manuscripts will be accepted for each Leaflet issue that describe innovative teaching strategies, recent classroom developments, lesson plans, or reading recommendations to assist us in our profession. Book reviews are also accepted. The Leaflet also accepts and includes original fiction and poetry written by the very talented teachers amongst us in each issue. Multiple submissions are acceptable. Email submissions to: sarah_lefebvre@wrsd.net

Deadline: December 1, 2015

Monthly NEATE Twitter Chats

The NEATE News Spring 2015

teachers to consider, read, and engage in a selection from Amanda Ripley’s article, “The Case Against High School Sports” from the Atlantic magazine. Sentence frames as a strategy for engaging in synthesis followed. The stems provide students with a springboard for claim positions and points raised in her argument, identifying counter arguments, point of view (I agree with Ripley that….) and including personal experience into the argument. As an extension, we each read one of four additional articles. As the author of the assigned article, we stepped into the voice of Kai Sato, Daniel Bowen and Collin Hitt, Mark Edmundson, or the Associated Press and chatted amongst each other regarding our claims. Teachers left with an armload of materials, a chat or two with a new colleague, and a bounty of ideas for the classroom. As an English teacher of students with language based learning disabilities, I rarely recommend a student for AP coursework. While I am passionate about teaching the writing process, I was not exactly sure what I would take away from this workshop. At 12:30, I packed up my shiny new books, said my goodbyes to colleagues and new acquaintances, and reflected on a new appreciation for the writing process. These strategies may not secure my students a seat in AP coursework, but it can help them with their synthesis. It may even open a door just a bit wider to enjoy the writing process. - Written by Brenda Le Blanc

Diverse and Multicultural Books

As our population continues to change in the U.S., our classrooms must reflect those changes. Students deserve multiple opportunities to read about diverse characters and cultures, and all students deserve opportunities to see themselves in the books they read. Below are a few web sites to check out, as well as some book recommendations to add to your classroom library.Web sites:https://www.leeandlow.com/educators/articles/checklist-8-steps-to-creating-a-diverse-book-collectionhttp://www.diversityinya.com/ http://weneeddiversebooks.org/http://www.tfcbooks.org/best-recommended/booklisthttp://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/CCBC_Choices_2014_citations.pdfhttp://www.bankstreet.edu/library/children-resources/childrens-book-lists/multicultural-books-older-children/

Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, by Phillip Hoose. On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders.

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The NEATE News Spring 2015

Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny and the Fight for Civil Rights, by Steve Sheinkin. The book follows a group of young African American sailors – many of them teenagers – who are assigned to load ammunition at Port Chicago, a segregated naval base in California. But they are never trained to handle ammunition safely, and are constantly being rushed by their officers. When a terrifying disaster rocks the base, the men face the toughest decision of their lives: do they return to duty as ordered, or do they risk everything to take a stand against segregation in the military?

Gabi, a Girl in Pieces, by Isabel Quintero. Gabi Hernandez chronicles her last year in high school in her diary: college applications, Cindy’s pregnancy, Sebastian’s coming out, the cute boys, her father’s meth habit, and the food she craves. Throughout the book, Gabi is struggling to make her way through her own beliefs and figuring out how to live them. She does want to be a good girl, but what that looks like for her is a different picture than that of her family members.

Mexican White Boy, by Matt De La Peña. Danny’s tall and skinny. Even though he’s not built, his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot. A 95 mph fastball, but the boy’s not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound he loses it. But at private school, they don’t expect much else from him. Danny’s brown. Half-Mexican brown. And growing up in San Diego that close to the border means everyone else knows exactly who he is before he even opens his mouth.

A Time to Dance, by Padma Venkatraman. Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit.

Bamboo People, by Mitali Perkins. Narrated by two teenage boys on opposing sides of the conflict between the Burmese government and the Karenni, one of Burma's many ethnic minorities, this coming-of-age novel takes place against the political and military backdrop of modern-day Burma. Chiko isn't a fighter by nature. He's a book-loving Burmese boy whose father, a doctor, is in prison for resisting the government. Tu Reh, on the other hand, wants to fight for freedom after watching Burmese soldiers destroy his Karenni family's home and bamboo fields. Timidity becomes courage and anger becomes compassion when the boys' stories intersect.

Written in the Stars, by Aisha Saeed. Naila’s conservative immigrant parents have always said the same thing: She may choose what to study, how to wear her hair, and what to be when she grows up—but they will choose her husband. Following their cultural tradition, they will plan an arranged marriage for her. And until then, dating—even friendship with a boy—is forbidden. When Naila breaks their rule by falling in love with Saif, her parents are livid. Convinced she has forgotten who she truly is, they travel to Pakistan to visit relatives and explore their roots.

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The NEATE News Spring 2015

Hot Topic: The Common Core State Standards Common%Core:%Haters%Gonna%Hate% by#Nora#Bicki,#Ph.D.,#Retired#Professor,#Mass.#Maritime#Academy%

Call me naïve, but I had no idea there was such an extreme anti-Common Core movement out there. I knew there was opposition to some aspects, but it was not until I was asked to be part of a campaign team to elect a new member to our local school committee that I found out just how extreme it could be.

As a member of NEATE’s Executive Board for many years, I participated in the conferences that were dedicated to the Common Core. As former editor of The Leaflet, I read and edited quite a few articles on the subject. I thought I had a pretty good idea what it was all about. The truth dawned on me when I decided to research our candidate’s opponent in the race. A Google search revealed that she had her own Tea Party Command Page and her personal Facebook page was filled with anti-Common Core screeds amongst other Tea Party favorite topics. I knew they were anti-climate change, anti-big government, anti-Obama, but anti-Common Core?

Now understand that our local school committee has no control over whether or not our school is part of the Common Core. It is responsible for voting on the school budget, maintaining school buildings and so forth. Consequently, the campaign team advised our candidate, a retired teacher/administrator with 36 years of experience, not to worry about the topic, and we worked to prep her on what are the most important issues in our school system today, school choice and special education costs, the deterioration of school buildings, whether or not the school was “administration heavy” etc. These were topics the voters were concerned about.

Our candidate’s opponent admitted to knowing very little about such voter concerns and ran on her opposition to Common Core. During a televised Candidates Night and in local media interviews, she claimed the educational standards in our schools would be lowered, children would be required to report if there are weapons in their homes, the program was created without the input of educators, it was unconstitutional, and Common Core was another way for the federal government to take over our education.

Where did such ideas come from? A quick look at the official Common Core site explains the program in detail and even has a “Myth vs. Fact” section that debunks such whacky ideas. A bit more online searching though and I found an incredible number of sites such as parentsagainstcommoncore.com with its own online petition to sign, and even a local group called libertychalkboard.org which holds meetings to “educate” people on the “truth” behind Common Core. The most bizarre article online was published in early April in The Washington Times titled, “Common Core ties to Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia” alleging that the educational standards amount to the “Islamic infiltration of America.” The vitriol and hatred expressed on these sites along with the misinformation was astounding!

How can we as educators combat such misinformation? Our advice to our candidate during the televised program was, whenever the opponent made a false statement, simply state the correct information and move on. Wrong!! Apparently, stating facts can actually reinforce what they believe since people don’t like to admit they are wrong about closely held beliefs. Again online, I found a multitude of sites dedicated to stopping falsehoods from “morphing” into facts. Often mentioned is the psychological concept of belief perseverance. According to one online psychology dictionary, this is a “tendency to persist with one’s held beliefs despite the fact that the information is inaccurate or that evidence shows otherwise.” Often when presented with facts involving government

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The NEATE News Spring 2015

topics, the response from these believers is something like, “yeah, that’s what they want you to believe,” allowing them to persevere and keep their self-esteem intact.

We all have to acknowledge that not everyone loves the Common Core and that there may be several good reasons for that position. No program or major change is going to be perfect, and changes and corrections can be made when serious problems are identified. The rational ones amongst us believe the basic facts of Common Core and will be willing to work to improve the program, not disseminate false statements against it. The good news is that our candidate resoundingly beat her anti-Common Core opponent and that these extreme anti-Common Core folks are in the minority. The bad news is, no matter how much you try to provide facts to certain segments of the population, haters are gonna continue to hate!

Want to read more about the Common Core State Standards? Check out a brief article from the website, Education Week, titled: States Should 'Stay the Course' on Common-Core Standards.

NEATE Online Resources

Did you know that the NEATE website has free lesson plans to assist you with lesson planning? And, you can submit lesson plans to NEATE as well! Check out: http://neate.org/page/lesson-plansHere’s a sampling of lesson plans available on the NEATE website:Texts Sets: • Crucible Socratic Seminar, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Wi"iams (play) and selected poems • “Seeing Dignity in Poverty” by Julia Baird (essay) • “The Migrant Mother” by Dorothea Lange (photo) and "I Stand Here Ironing" by Ti"ie Olsen (fiction) • Character, Passion & Culture/Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Writing: • Writing a Vignette &om a Painting, Sentence Fluency •  Constructing an Argument•  Revision-Editing Lessons, Revision for the Research Paper•  Prewriting Overview, mini-lesson and Worksheet,

Literature:* Power, Corruption, and Motivation through the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism• ”Raised by Women" Poetry Reading and Writing• Fences Unit • Short Story Using Critical Lenses

Language:• Denotation/Connotation Basic Lesson Plan• Pre-teaching Vocabulary Using Inquiry Techniques

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Reading:• Independent Reading Project•  Reading and Understanding Articles

Teaching Outside the Classroom: • Early American Gravestone Project and Field Trip• A Walk Around Walden Pond

Speaking and Listening:• Communication and the Fractured T• Constructing an Argument• Crucible Socratic Seminar

Lessons to Engage Students During High Stress Times:• Literary Holiday Feast

The NEATE News Spring 2015

NEATE Board News

At the NEATE Board Meeting in March, Dr. Jocelyn Chadwick came and lead a professional development on using primary source documents with students. Dr. Chadwick has more than 30 years experience as a teacher, scholar, and author. Spending the first ten years of her career as a high school English teacher, Dr. Chadwick went on to inspire young minds at higher learning institutions in Texas. She recently served as Professor of English at Harvard University in the Graduate School of Education and is a nationally recognized Mark Twain scholar. Her new book, Common Core: Paradigmatic Shifts, is a timely and protean educator resource and reference, designed to be of immediate use in the classroom and in professional learning communities. Look for a new book book by Jocelyn slated for release this fall through Heinemann Publishers, Teaching Literature in the Context of Literacy Learning.

New England Poet-of-the-Year Award

Congratulations to the winner for the 2014 NEATE Poet-of-the-Year, Theresa Vara-Dannen, Ph.D. Theresa is an adjunct faculty member at UConn and the Univ. of Hartford. She heads the English Dept. at University High School of Science and Engineering. Her most recent book is The African-American Experience in Nineteenth Century Connecticut: Benevolence and Bitterness (Lexington Books) and her collection of poetry Profligate with Love was published in 2006 (Antrim House).

NEATE’s Poet-of-the-Year Competition is open to all teachers of English/language arts who are members of NEATE or one of its state affiliates. Only former Poets-of-the-Year are not eligible. Finalists will be chosen by a panel of judges and will be invited to read their poetry at a session at the annual NEATE Fall Conference on October 30 and 31, 2015 when the Poet-of-the-Year will be announced. It is highly recommended that finalist be prepared to attend the conference on Friday, October 30th in order to participate in the festivities associated with the Poet-of-the-Year Award. Poems of the finalists will be published and distributed at the reception. Finalists are expected to register for the conference at the discounted presenter's rate.

Guidelines: 1. Poets should submit five unpublished, original poems. Poems may be more than one page. 2. All poems must be submitted in English.3. Each poem must be typed or word-processed; please send 3 hard copies (address below) IN ADDITION to an electronic version of each poem to: bwahlberg2@gmail.com4. Submit copies of poems (from step 3): one with your name and address and three without either.5. Poems will not be returned; poets should retain copies of their work.6. All entries must be postmarked no later than July 15, 2015.7. Send a 1-2 paragraph biography of yourself.Poems must be accompanied by an entry form (www.neate.org) and your bio and sent to the following address:Barbara Wahlberg, 27 Kent Street, Cumberland, RI 02864

Questions? Call/text Barbara directly at 401-529-5622.

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New EnglandAssociation of Teachers of English 21 Young RoadAshburnham, MA 01430

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Inside this edition:- Annual NEATE Conference Preview- NEATE Monthly Twitter Chats- Professional Development and Free Resources this past February- Diverse and Multicultural Books and Websites Recommendations- Hot Topic: The Common Core State Standards- NEATE Online Resources- NEATE Board News

- NEATE 2014 Poet-of-the-Year