Super Saturdays
GRADES 8-12
College Writing: What It Is
& What It’s Not
High school teachers often feel pressured to prepare students for the demands of college writing. However, high school teachers articulate “college ready writing” in ways that often differ from what college writing actually is. How does an effective first-year college writing program develop student writers? What is valued? What is emphasized? What types of writing are expected, what work is actually assigned, and what might authentic preparation look like at the middle and high school level? What is considered “good college writing?”
In a roundtable discussion, we will bring high school teachers and college professors together to dispel myths about college writing and broaden our perspectives about the real college writing experiences our students have.
Teachers who attend will receive $100 stipends for their participation in the round table discussion. In addition, teachers are encouraged to attend our Super Saturday lab school lesson in the morning to participate in a writing class alongside students to see what real college ready writing might look like in practice. Teacher Consultant Marty Brandt will lead the Super Saturday with his lesson, Writing Without BS: Guiding Our Students Toward Authentic Analysis. All teachers who attend the Super Saturday lesson will receive a free copy of Dr. Farima Pour-Khorshid's book, Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for Educators.
SJAWP Presents a Roundtable Discussion Between High School Teachers & College Professors
GRADES 8-12
Writing Without BS: Guiding Our Students Toward Authentic Analysis
Students complain often and loudly that they hate writing. But could it be that what they hate is not writing itself, but the odious requirements we attach to it? Perhaps the real problem is not writing, but pre-determined essay forms, minimum lengths for papers, and strict adherence to formal conventions, all of which lead inevitably to BS—the true agony of writing.
What might a writing class look like if we taught our students to place their trust not in easily gamed formulas (see: ChatGPT), but in their own powers of perception and communication? And how can we balance this preference with the practical challenges of teaching writing—without BS? In this workshop we will consider what BS is, how our instruction might contribute to it, and how we can liberate ourselves from it.
Super Saturday Lab School Lesson with MARTY BRANDT
Super Saturday 2023
ABOUT
At Super Saturdays, teachers and students participate in the presenter’s workshop, which includes demonstration, mentor texts, engaging strategies, writing time, and sharing. This year, Super Saturday is offering workshops for high school teachers!
Our Super Saturdays use a "lab school" model, in which teachers and students participate in the presenter’s workshop lesson together in small groups, generally including the following: mini-lesson on writing craft, study of a mentor text, demonstration of innovative and engaging pedagogical strategies, large blocks of time for students and teachers to write, and sharing writing in small groups or whole group.
Teacher Event Schedule
9:30am - 10:00am Teacher check in, coffee, & croissants
10:00am - 10:30am Super Saturday Lesson pre-brief
10:30am - 12:00pm Super Saturday Lesson
12:00pm - 12:20pm Super Saturday Lesson debrief (teacher check in for those attending afternoon only)
12:20pm - 1:00pm Lunch
1:00pm - 1:30pm Keynote with Dr. Farima Pour-Khorshid
1:30pm - 2:30pm Roundtable Discussion between High School Teachers & College Professors
2:30pm - 2:45pm Closure
About the
Instructors
Dr. Farima Pour-Khorshid
Dr. Farima Pour-Khorshid is a Bay Area educator, organizer, and scholar. She taught at the elementary grade levels in her home community for over a decade and spent the latter half of her teaching career also supporting educators locally, nationally, and internationally through her roles as a university professor, teacher supervisor, educational consultant, and community organizer. She is now an assistant professor and teacher supervisor at the University of San Francisco in California. Much of her work is rooted in her grassroots education organizing within the Teachers 4 Social Justice organization, the Abolitionist Teaching Network, and the Education for Liberation Network which organizes the Free Minds Free People conference. She is committed to centering abolitionist teaching and healing-centered engagement within and outside of the field of education. As such, she is one of the editors, authors, and organizers collaborating on the 2021 book, "Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for K-12 Educators. This toolkit is a collaboration between the Education for Liberation, Critical Resistance, and several other grassroots abolitionist and justice-centered collectives.
Dr. Farima’s Book is Available for Purchase Here: https://www.akpress.org/lessonsinliberation.html
Marty Brandt
Martin Brandt has been teaching English at Independence High School in San Jose for 31 years. He joined the San Jose Area Writing Project in 2003 and has since won the CATE award for Classroom Excellence and been honored by the Carlston Family Foundation (now Above & Beyond) as an Outstanding Teacher of America. His book Between the Commas: Sentence Instruction that Builds Confident Writers (and Writing Teachers) was published by Heinemann in 2019.
College Professors
Scott Jarvie
Scott Jarvie is an assistant professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San Jose State. A former co-director of the San Jose Area Writing Project, Scott currently teaches English Education courses for undergraduate English majors and graduate students pursuing a teaching credential. Scott joined the faculty at SJSU after receiving his Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education at Michigan State University, where he helped with the Red Cedar Writing Project. Prior to graduate study, Scott taught high school literature and creative writing courses in the Rio Grande Valley and in the city of Chicago.
Ryan Skinnell
Dr. Ryan Skinnell is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Writing and an Assistant Writing Program Administrator in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San José State University. Since 2005, he's taught rhetoric and writing at four universities to students ranging from pre-baccalaureate freshpeople to doctoral candidates, along with seminars for faculty all over the world. Dr. Skinnell has published six books and more than 100 essays, articles, and reviews about rhetoric, politics, and higher education. He is currently writing a book about Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric.
Hillary Walker
Hillary Walker is the Director of the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) at the Berkeley School of Education. Much of her work in BAWP has focused on building teacher leadership and agency, creating rich opportunities for collaboration among educators, and coaching teachers to present on their own classroom practice. She believes that highlighting excellence in the teaching of writing supports more equitable educational outcomes for all students. Hillary’s nearly 20 years of teaching experience in the East Bay include middle school, high school, and community college courses in history, English, and writing. She is an adjunct professor of African American Studies and Ethnic Studies at the College of Alameda, where she teaches dual enrollment and traditional college courses.
Julianna Chang
Juliana Chang has been an Assistant Professor with Santa Clara University since 2001. She received her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, and has previously taught at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and at Boston College.
Roberta Wolfson
Roberta Wolfson is a Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University, where she teaches courses on writing, research, and public speaking, particularly around themes of mixed race identity, antiracist rhetoric, and the role of language and narrative in social justice movements. Her research focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first century multiethnic U.S. literatures, risk and security studies, comparative ethnic studies, and critical mixed race studies. She is published in academic journals like MELUS (Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States), American Literature, African American Review, and College Literature, and she is currently working on a book project that considers how writers of color use antiracist narrative to challenge the violence of the contemporary U.S. security state.
Norah
Fahim
Norah Fahim has been teaching First Year Composition for the past seventeen years within the United States and internationally. She now teaches at the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) as an Advanced Lecturer and previously held the position of Associate Director at the Hume Center for Writing and Speaking. Prior to teaching at PWR, Norah taught at the University of Washington's Expository Writing Program (EWP) where she received her Ph.D. in Language and Rhetoric and a Masters in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). She has also held the positions of Assistant Director and Multilingual Learners' Consultant at the University of Washington's EWP. Norah's research areas include Narrative Inquiry, Writing Program Administration, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and Second Language Writing. Norah recently served as a guest co-editor for Composition Forum's Special issue on “Promoting Social Justice for Multilingual Writers on College Campuses.” Norah is also co-editor of the edited collection, “Building a More Linguistically Just Campus: Pedagogy and Advocacy for Multilingual Writers”.
Kevin
DiPirro
Kevin DiPirro has been a member of the writing faculty in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University since 1999. Educated at Swarthmore College and U.C. Berkeley, he is a writer and theater deviser whose performance work has appeared in New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Stanford. A Hewlett Fellow for American Theatre, he lives on the coast and likes to sing, surf, garden, and cook.
Dr. Brittany S. Hull
Brittany S. Hull, Ph.D., is an interdisciplinary scholar from Chester, Pennsylvania, whose work centers Black women’s language and Black girl literacies. She holds a PhD in composition and applied linguistics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Brittany is a 2017 CCCC Chair’s Memorial Scholar and a recipient of the 2018 CCCC Scholars for the Dream award. Currently, her research examines the scholarly identity development of Black language speaking Black women teachers of English as they enter and navigate academia (specifically, the field of composition and rhetoric). She is a proud HBCU alumna of The Lincoln University of Pennsylvania and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. When not teaching, she's typically reading, listening to new music, or hanging with her friends. She is committed in her teaching and research to honoring Black language. Moreover, she's motivated to help students bring more of their whole selves to their writing.
Dr. Kath Rothschild
Kath Rothschild, MFA, PhD, is a Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University. Her academic work is published by Purdue University, Curriculum & Pedagogy, Feminist Media Studies, and Praxis and is forthcoming from Journal of Response to Writing. Her first-person essays have aired on KQED/NPR and appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle among other publications. Her novel for young adults, Wider than the Sky (Soho Teen/PRH, 2021) is available everywhere books are sold.