Fall 2011

Super Saturday Program

Theme:
Literacy to Engage the Disengaged

September 10, 2011
through
November 12, 2011

All sections are conducted by San Jose Area Writing Project Teacher Consultants.

September 10, 2011

Theme:
All's Well That Starts Well:
Launching Your Reading/Writing Classroom

San José State University,
7th and San Carlos Streets

Check In, Registration, & Payment:
8:30 AM–9:00 AM
Sweeney Hall
Room 229

Super Saturday Workshops:
9:00 AM–11:30 AM

Closing Presentation:
11:45 AM–12:45 PM

Buffet Lunch (Included in Registration Fee):
12:45 PM–1:30 PM
(Ongoing, informal discussion with colleagues, workshop presenters & writing project facilitators.)
San José State University

You must RSVP for lunch by Wednesday, September 7, 2011: e-mail Marisa Hankins and Alix Smith, or call (408)-924-4412.

Free parking between 2nd & 3rd Streets, just north of San Carlos Avenue
(San Jose City parking—free on weekends)

Parking at the 7th Street (& San Salvador) Garage (located right beside Sweeney Hall):
Bring $5.00 cash or credit card for the ticket machine.

Go Slow in Order to Go Fast:
Getting to Know Your Students

For K–3 Grade Teachers

Do you really know your students? Do you know how to respond to learners of this generation (generation Y)? Do you know how to raise independent learners? The first few weeks of school are the most important weeks for setting up an effective environment. If you create a classroom environment where students feel safe and connected, they will come to learn.

Maria Smith will share ideas for the physical environment as well as ideas for giving diagnostics to your students to help identify their strengths and needs. An engaging classroom is a "behavior–free" classroom. Maria will also demonstrate how using a multiple intelligence approach for choice boards, cooperative learning for language input and output, and the gradual release of student responsibility can ensure students retain learning. Build it, and they shall learn.

Maria Smith
Literacy Coach
Berryessa Union School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

Making Time:
You Don't Have Time Not To Write

For 4–7 Grade Teachers

School has started and you've done some community building and started reading your favorite books. Writing is a powerful way to deepen community as well as teach your students the academic skills they need. The problem solving our students do when they are engaged in the writing process transfers to their reading and core subjects—and those thinking skills carry over into their lives.

This session is a how to: How to manage writer's workshop, organize materials, decide what to teach, carve out the time, motivate students to write, decide what to assess, and celebrate success. And how to get started Monday.

Laura Brown
Valle Vista Elementary School
Mount Pleasant Elementary School District
SJAWP Associate Director
San Jose Area Writing Project

From One End to Another:
Organizing a Comprehensive Writing Course

For 8–12 Grade Teachers

Many English teachers enter the profession because they're already good writers. They intuitively know the process and the format. So, how do we arrange our practice into a coherent, comprehensive program that reaches all our students? This workshop will outline a month–to–month process to organize your writing program, from paragraphs and thesis statements to multi–paragraph essays and portfolios.

Kathleen Gonzales
Formerly Santa Teresa High School
East Side Union High School District
Currently Woodside Priory School
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

Closing Presentation

Elena Melendez
Escondido Elementary School
Palo Alto Unified School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

October 8, 2011

Theme:
What Are Your Students Learning/What Are You Going to Do About It?

San José State University,
7th and San Carlos Streets

Check In, Registration, & Payment:
8:30 AM–9:00 AM
Sweeney Hall
Room 229

Super Saturday Workshops:
9:00 AM–11:30 AM

Closing Presentation:
11:45 AM–12:45 PM

Buffet Lunch (Included in Registration Fee):
12:45 PM–1:30 PM
(Ongoing, informal discussion with colleagues, workshop presenters & writing project facilitators.)
San José State University

You must RSVP for lunch by Wednesday, October 5, 2011: e-mail Marisa Hankins and Alix Smith, or call (408)-924-4412.

Free parking between 2nd & 3rd Streets, just north of San Carlos Avenue
(San Jose City parking—free on weekends)

Parking at the 7th Street (& San Salvador) Garage (located right beside Sweeney Hall):
Bring $5.00 cash or credit card for the ticket machine.

Teaching Vocabulary/Writing with Keynote

For K–3 Grade Teachers

The 21st century requires teachers to find interactive and different ways to teach while keeping students motivated. This workshop will guide teachers through the use of Apple's Keynote application to teach vocabulary/writing in an engaging way. Keynote provides a number of options not available on PowerPoint that can enhance students' visual comprehension. Creating Keynote slides make it easy to integrate technology with effective writing instruction. So come learn about this dynamic teaching resource for your classroom!

Laura Guevara
Olinder Elementary School
San Jose Unified School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

Reducing My Paperload:
Ongoing Assessment Linked to Writing Instruction

For 4–7 Grade Teachers

Do my students know if their writing is improving? Do I have to collect and grade everything? This workshop will feature a variety of timesaving tips to:

Sarah Brennan
Discovery Charter School, San Jose
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

You Can Go Your Own Way:
College Readiness as a Realistic Goal in the High School Classroom

For 8–12 Grade Teachers

What will our students have learned about writing by the time they finish high school? And what will we have done to make them truly college–ready? Informed by CWP's Improving Student Academic Writing (ISAW), this workshop will examine prompts from the SAT and the writing placement tests for UC and CSU, providing strategies for using such prompts to promote higher–level thinking in the high school English classroom.

Nancy Kennett
Piedmont Hills High School
East Side Union High School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

Closing Presentation

Maria Smith
Literacy Coach
Berryessa Union School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

November 12, 2011

Theme:
Can We Talk?
Classroom Conversations for Authentic Writing

San José State University,
7th and San Carlos Streets

Check In, Registration, & Payment:
8:30 AM–9:00 AM
Sweeney Hall
Room 229

Super Saturday Workshops:
9:00 AM–11:30 AM

Closing Presentation:
11:45 AM–12:45 PM

Buffet Lunch (Included in Registration Fee):
12:45 PM–1:30 PM
(Ongoing, informal discussion with colleagues, workshop presenters & writing project facilitators.)
San José State University

You must RSVP for lunch by Wednesday, November 9, 2011: e-mail Marisa Hankins and Alix Smith, or call (408)-924-4412.

Free parking between 2nd & 3rd Streets, just north of San Carlos Avenue
(San Jose City parking—free on weekends)

Parking at the 7th Street (& San Salvador) Garage (located right beside Sweeney Hall):
Bring $5.00 cash or credit card for the ticket machine.

Tapping their Experience:
Guiding Young Writers through Conversation
to Authentic Writing

For K–3 Grade Teachers

In this era of prompted writing and scripted instruction, can authentic writing survive? Come and find out how in the world of writer's workshop, authentic writing can peacefully coexist with the demands of high–test scores and scripted writing programs.

Jennifer Kim will offer strategies for using mentor texts to help young writers explore different genres.

Jennifer Kim
Zanker Elementary School
Milpitas Unified School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

or
call: (408)-924-4412

Scaffolding for Authentic Thinking
in Students' Writing

For 4–7 Grade Teachers

It's no secret: great thinkers make great writers. Most students who struggle with writing need more than structure and format; they need help with thinking deeply, broadly, and personally about the topic at hand. This workshop will present strategies to help students develop their own ideas, opinions, theories, and connections. Once students discover the depth and complexity of their thoughts, they will speak and write in their own voices…and people will listen and learn.

Chong Vue
Quimby Oak Middle School
Evergreen Elementary School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

Validating Student Voices:
Moving Students' Personal Narratives
into the Public Spotlight

For 8–12 Grade Teachers

Many students have a treasure chest full of rich, detailed, valuable personal experiences and stories. The problem arises when they aren't aware of the validity of their experiences and/or are unsure of how to put these experiences to paper. Using reading/writing strategies, rhetorical devices, and elements of a personal narrative, students can be guided from a fleeting idea from their past to an authentic, finalized personal narrative. Workshop participants will analyze autobiographical narratives and explore how these writers moved from personal experiences to authentic stories.

Harriet Garcia
Independence High School
East Side Union School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

Closing Presentation

D. J. Quinn
English Department
San José State University
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

Breanne Romano
Burnett Elementary School
Milpitas Unified School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

Spring 2012

Super Saturday Program

Theme:
Literacy to Engage the Disengaged

March 3, 2012
through
May 5, 2012

All sections are conducted by San Jose Area Writing Project Teacher Consultants.

March 3, 2012

Theme:
Building Writing Endurance:
Breadth and Depth

San José State University,
7th and San Carlos Streets

Check In, Registration, & Payment:
8:30 AM–9:00 AM
Sweeney Hall
Room 229

Super Saturday Workshops:
9:00 AM–11:30 AM

Closing Presentation:
11:45 AM–12:45 PM

Buffet Lunch (Included in Registration Fee):
12:45 PM–1:30 PM
(Ongoing, informal discussion with colleagues, workshop presenters & writing project facilitators.)
San José State University

You must RSVP for lunch by Wednesday, February 29, 2012: e-mail Marisa Hankins and Alix Smith, or call (408)-924-4412.

Free parking between 2nd & 3rd Streets, just north of San Carlos Avenue
(San Jose City parking—free on weekends)

Parking at the 7th Street (& San Salvador) Garage (located right beside Sweeney Hall):
Bring $5.00 cash or credit card for the ticket machine.

Let's Get Real:
Teaching Nonfiction Reading and Writing

For K–3 Grade Teachers

In this workshop we will look at the components of the nonfiction genre. We will tackle the challenges that readers of nonfiction face and look at ways to help them synthesize what is on the page. I will also model successful steps for writing a nonfiction book with your students—from choosing the right topic to writing great paragraphs. You will be prepared to have your students wow their audience with the authentic look and content of their "expert books."

Alexis Doucette
Cumberland Elementary School
Sunnyvale School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

Writing with a Sense of Wonder

For 4–7 Grade Teachers

How can teachers frame classes and create writing opportunities that allow students to spend time with topics that deserve better than the ubiquitous five–paragraph analysis? Can a product review of the incandescent light bulb or other scientific invention encourage student writers to explore a science unit with more purpose and higher order thinking? Or persuasive writing in an advertisement for Gutenberg's printing press? Perhaps composing epigrams (that forerunner of the modern bumper sticker) to capture a deeper meaning of issues facing the newly formed United States? Make the writing standards work for you with assignments that create deeper and more sustained understanding in literature and nonfiction. Take a page (literally) from the Age of Romanticism and blend science and exposition, math and persuasion, social studies and narration for writing that comes from that good reader strategy "I wonder?"

Suzanne Murphy
St. Martin of Tours Elementary School
Diocese of San Jose
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

or
call: (408)-924-4412

Getting a Way with Words:
Breaking the Rules for Effect

For 8–12 Grade Teachers

In the beginning was the word, and making students sensitive to its effective use is foundational to good writing. In this session we'll examine how to increase word awareness through the use of concrete diction, figurative language, and attention to effective (and not always "correct") phrasing. We'll draw examples from the worlds of art, advertising, politics, and sports, as well as literature. Additionally, numerous professional and student–based pieces will be made available to participants.

Jeff House
College Board Reader and Lecturer
Georgiana Bruce Kirby Preparatory High School
California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS)
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

or
call: (408)-924-4412

Closing Presentation

Jim Burke
Teacher
Burlingame High School
San Mateo Union High School District
Author of
The English Teacher's Companion
and numerous other books

April 7, 2012

Theme:
Keeping It Real:
Writing Beyond the Classroom

San José State University,
7th and San Carlos Streets

Check In, Registration, & Payment:
8:30 AM–9:00 AM
Sweeney Hall
Room 229

Super Saturday Workshops:
9:00 AM–11:30 AM

Closing Presentation:
11:45 AM–12:45 PM

Buffet Lunch (Included in Registration Fee):
12:45 PM–1:30 PM
(Ongoing, informal discussion with colleagues, workshop presenters & writing project facilitators.)
San José State University

You must RSVP for lunch by Wednesday, April 4, 2012: e-mail Marisa Hankins and Alix Smith, or call (408)-924-4412.

Free parking between 2nd & 3rd Streets, just north of San Carlos Avenue
(San Jose City parking—free on weekends)

Parking at the 7th Street (& San Salvador) Garage (located right beside Sweeney Hall):
Bring $5.00 cash or credit card for the ticket machine.

Writing Beyond the Classroom:
Creating an Authentic Writing Cycle

For K–3 Grade Teachers

Come learn how to empower your students to use more authentic writing at school and beyond. You will walk away knowing how to teach students the importance of a real audience and purpose necessary for authentic writing. You will also learn how to bridge the home to real–life gap by engaging students with at–home writing experiences. Finally, you will strengthen your teaching skills necessary to create a cycle of authentic writing where students will feel comfortable sharing their personal experiences with the class and will get valuable peer and teacher feedback. Within days you will see the difference in the quality and quantity of your current students' writing.

Anne Van der Staay
Ellis Elementary School
Sunnyvale Elementary School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

Making Research Relevant: The I–Search Paper

For 4–7 Grade Teachers

In an era of assessment with the demand to teach content standards and required skills, it can be hard to find opportunities for our students to engage inauthentic, personal writing. The I–Search project, scaffolded for the middle grades, allows for both. Through personal interviews, traditional research, poetry, and reflection, students discover what their parents' lives were like at age 12 or 13, and in the process learn about themselves. The final product is impressive writing that students—and parents—treasure for years.

Carolyn Anzia
Crittenden Middle School
Mountain View Whisman School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

Journey Toward Heritage:
Creating Authentic Writing Through Student Choice

For 8–12 Grade Teachers

Nancy Kennett leads students on a writing journey toward discovering their own heritage. She begins with students' immigration stories and progresses on to in–depth heritage projects. Nancy's workshop will demonstrate how to use professional and student generated models to help students produce fully developed short stories, expository pieces, poetry, and presentations. Students take more control of their own writing when they are allowed choices of topics and genre.

Nancy Kennett
Piedmont Hills High School
East Side Union High School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

or
call: (408)-924-4412

Closing Presentation

Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate
Lecturer in the Department of English
and Comparative Literature
San José State University

May 5, 2012

Theme:
Reading/Writing: One Marriage that Lasts

San José State University,
7th and San Carlos Streets

Check In, Registration, & Payment:
8:30 AM–9:00 AM
Sweeney Hall
Room 229

Super Saturday Workshops:
9:00 AM–11:30 AM

Closing Presentation:
11:45 AM–12:45 PM

Buffet Lunch (Included in Registration Fee):
12:45 PM–1:30 PM
(Ongoing, informal discussion with colleagues, workshop presenters & writing project facilitators.)
San José State University

You must RSVP for lunch by Wednesday, May 2, 2012: e-mail Marisa Hankins and Alix Smith, or call (408)-924-4412.

Free parking between 2nd & 3rd Streets, just north of San Carlos Avenue
(San Jose City parking—free on weekends)

Parking at the 7th Street (& San Salvador) Garage (located right beside Sweeney Hall):
Bring $5.00 cash or credit card for the ticket machine.

Get Students Reading and Writing Their Best

For K–3 Grade Teachers

Research show that students write better when they write about what they know. In this workshop Molly Lecheler will demonstrate how using the five senses in a reading experience springboards students into writing. This reading/writing approach motivates kindergartners to write simple sentences and third graders to produce seven paragraph essays, all based on the five senses. Molly will share books and media that have helped her students make the reading/writing connection.

Molly Lecheler
St. Nicholas School
Diocese of San Jose
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

or
call: (408)-924-4412

"You Complete Me"
Writing's Critical Role in Meaningful Reading Experiences

For 4–7 Grade Teachers

Are your students' classroom reading experiences passionate and engaged or stuck in a rut? Years from now, will your students be able to fondly reflect on what they learned from the books you exposed them to? Or will they have divorced themselves from what happened in your classroom? For presenter Jay Richards, writing about what we read develops intellectual intimacy. Learn about the reading/writing marriage and see examples of writing assignments from throughout the school year from novels, short stories, and poems that reflect kids' positive experiences with the texts they read.

Jay Richards
Central Middle School
San Carlos Elementary School District
Teacher Consultant
San Jose Area Writing Project

or
call: (408)-924-4412

To Read or Not to Read – No longer a Dilemma

For 8–12 Grade Teachers

In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak the protagonist, Liesel, lovingly runs her hands over books in a library she fears she will never enter again. She has been "stealing" books from this home library, for in the face of the Nazi atrocities of WWII, the printed word is one sustaining and enriching factor in her life. Faced with today's shift toward diverting technology, how might we instill in our students a similar passion for reading? Marie Milner will model unconventional multi–modal responses to literature, building students' desire to read by approaching the dreaded "required reading" with engaging response strategies.

Marie Milner
Andrew Hill High School
East Side Unified School District
Associate Director
San Jose Area Writing Project

or
call: (408)-924-4412

Closing Presentation

Young Adult Author

Matt de la Peña

Matt de la Peña is the author of several successful novels and short fiction in various literary journals, including: Pacific Review, The Vincent Brothers Review, Chiricú, George Mason Review, and Allegheny Literary Review. His debut novel, Ball Don't Lie has been made into a major motion picture.

Matt received his MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University and his BA from the University of the Pacific, where he attended school on a full athletic scholarship for basketball.

Mr. de la Peña currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, teaches creative writing at NYU and visits high schools and colleges all over the country.