Room
Altadena
Panorama City
Tujunga
Van Nuys
La Crescenta
Altadena
Panorama City
Tujunga
Van Nuys
La Crescenta
Session 1
9:00-10:00
“The Play’s the Thing”: How to Use Tableau to Bridge the Reading/Writing Gap
Susan Thomas
Experience how tableau invites students to play with abstract ideas and physically experience a literary text. This accessible technique not only breathes
life into student understanding, it ignites their writing, too.
Fishing for a Beautiful Beginning: Using Mentor Texts to Develop the Perfect Hook
Karen Nelson-Holguin
Using Mentor Texts as models, show your students how to grab their readers, hook, line, and sinker, by creating amazing first sentences. In this interactive
session, several kinds of hooks will be explored across different text types. This lesson can be adapted to different grade levels and topics, so climb aboard!
In the Dressing Room: Trying on Revision Strategies
Andy Molnar
Do your students hastily submit drafts without much (or any) revision? Maybe they’re unclear about how to approach that second look. Using a deliberate
six-step process, help your students assess their own writing for audience, purpose, content, style and organization.
Miss van Pelt Is a B****: How Well Do You Know Your Characters So They Move and Speak in Step with Your Story?
Theresa Chaides
From story and character development to details in dialogue, this session will have you, along with some familiar friends, using the tools necessary to help
students develop intense characters and the words they speak, as they learn how to add the detail their stories need.
Music of the Mind
Megan K. Benton
Close reading is all the rage, and perhaps you’re looking for an engaging way to introduce deep and complex thinking about text. Look no further! This
interactive workshop will use pop music to get you to annotate text and develop thinking skills that transfer to all disciplines, genres, and grade levels.
Session 2
10:10-11:10
Restorative Circles: Writing from the Inside Can Develop Character Outside
Nicolette Morales
Is your school moving towards Restorative Justice? Or are you simply wondering what is Restorative Justice? Come join our circle and find out how to
embed restorative practices using writing to cultivate courageous, courteous and considerate classroom culture.
Can You Match the Description with the Drawing to Find the Correct Monster? Using Precise Language in Description
Kim
Lewis
This interactive workshop demonstrates a strategy that combines drawing with writing to help students choose precise language when using description in
their writing. Elementary and Secondary.
I See, You See, We Write: Visual Literacy and Writing
Al Schleicher
We see, we write, and then…we recite! Analysis through visuals is a great way to explore visual texts, and to jumpstart the writing process. This interactive
workshop will give you the necessary tools to develop student analysis of visuals, write what they see, and then…recite their original poetry.
Imitation: Beyond the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Jenn Wolfe
Whether Picasso actually said "Good artists copy, great artists steal" or not, the message is clear! A lot can be learned by imitating the masters. In this
interactive session, explore ways of using mentor texts to get students to read like writers and try new styles of writing.
Including Writing throughout the Investigative Learning Process
Denise Segal
Writing isn’t just for essays anymore! The ability to convey one’s thinking through writing now plays a pivotal role in all curricular areas. While engaging in a
mathematical investigation, participants will predict, revise, conclude and summarize, all the while using the language of the discipline and the tools of the
trade.
Altadena
Panorama City
Tujunga
Van Nuys
La Crescenta
Session 3
11:20-12:20
Letting Go of the Big Red Pen by Embracing Writer's Workshop
Janin Spoor
If your students gripe about each new assignment, and if you don’t have time to grade all of them, this session is for you! Learn how an in-class writing
workshop encourages students to write while allowing you to let go of some grading “myths” and respond to student work productively.
How Should I Begin? Crafting Leads that Grab the Reader Right from the Start
Debbie Bamberger
First impressions are important, and in writing that means leads! In this workshop, we'll study mentor texts to discover exactly what the authors did, then
apply these lessons to our own writing. Using this strategy will raise the level of students' writing across text types and grade levels.
Is there a Theorist in this Class? Writing the Literary Theory Interview Narrative
Edgar Muñoz
How do we introduce literary theories and the concept of the theoretical lens to secondary students? Using the interview narrative genre, this interactive
workshop will model a student-friendly method of answering these questions and give you a strategy to take back to your classroom.
Write Around Baby, Write Around! Move Among Images, Texts, Songs and More to Discover and Develop Your Writing
Veronica
Freeman
Do you wish you had more time to give your students experiences they could write about? Come learn how to use multimedia centers as an engaging way
to interact with a variety of text. Experience a combination of reading, writing, listening, observation and collaboration in one interactive lesson and build
deeper understanding of any given topic.
I Believe … Purpose and Audience in Opinion Writing (K-5)
Karla Contreras
I believe… is a powerful statement that can open the world of opinion writing for your students. Help your students embrace their growing opinions of the
world through the use of mentor texts that help scaffold purposeful writing and aid in finding meaningful audiences.
The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first
time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.
--Robert Cormier
Don’t get it right. Get it written.
--James Thurber
I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.
--Flannery O’Connor