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Over the past decade, I have been fortunate enough to speak at dozens of events for educators K-College. Some of the topics on which I speak include:

Teaching Argument in the Real World

Every day, our students are inundated by information – as well as opinions and misinformation – on their devices. These digital texts influence what they buy, who they vote for, and what they believe about themselves and their world. Crafting and analyzing arguments in a digital world could be our greatest possibility to improve dialogue across cultures and continents… or it could contribute to bitter divides. In this workshop, we will draw from real world texts and samples of student work to share a wealth of insights and practical strategies in teaching students the logic of argument. Whether arguments are streaming in through a Twitter feed, a Facebook wall, viral videos, internet memes, or links to other blogs or websites, we will explore how to engage with and create digital arguments.

 

From Texting to Teaching: Grammar Instruction in a Digital Age

Grammar instruction continues to be more important than ever when we look at the digital landscape our students belong to today. Experts Constance Weaver and Jeff Anderson offer us wonderful ways to infuse grammar into our everyday writing lessons. However, as educators, we need to address how students write in digital spaces. We need to teach them to differentiate between the writing they do in their digital spaces and their non-digital spaces. In this interactive session teachers and educators will learn effective strategies using Google Slides along with social media, that can help students to differentiate between formal and informal writing while learning new grammar skills.

 

Teaching Critical Thinking through Argument Writing

Evaluating an author’s argument and using source material to create and bolster one’s own thesis is crucial for students to know in all of their coursework, no matter what the discipline. In the session, we will discover strategies to help move students from discovering initial sources to crafting their final draft, all the while scaffolding the process of argument through the lens of critical thinking. In short, we will learn how to coach students as readers, writers, and thinkers.

With Literacy and Learning for All

As students move from novice to expert in various fields of study, they must become familiar with specialized vocabulary, patterns of thinking, and specific uses of language. More than just integrating reading and writing strategies across the curriculum, as effective teachers we must invite students from diverse backgrounds to become fluent in what are now being labeled as “disciplinary literacies,” the spaces where content knowledge, literacy skills, and critical thinking all connect. Bring your favorite device, because in this interactive keynote we will explore a variety of tools and ideas that can help our students learn how to read, write, and think like experts in our own classrooms and beyond.

Research Writing Rewired

In our networked world, the research writing process that we once learned has become obsolete. 3×5 cards and outlines are giving way to bibliographic management tools and mind mapping software. Moreover, students are now able to engage in the research process by reading and evaluating the work of others while simultaneously using the technology in their pockets to do their own primary research. In this workshop, we will step into a high school language arts classroom where students generate their own inquiry questions, explore a variety of texts — from novels to non-fiction, from podcasts to photographs — and, through their work, rewire the research process.

Teaching, Revising, and Assessing Digital Writing

Revising words, sentences, and paragraphs presents a challenge to any writer, from novice to expert. When we add in components of digital writing such as images, audio, and video, the task becomes even more complex. In this session, we will explore how looking closely at students’ work can lead us to consider new approaches and opportunities for teaching revision in multimedia environments. Additionally, we will discuss the ways in which the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing and the National Writing Project’s Domains for Multimodal Writing Assessment can provide new lenses for teaching, revising, and assessing our students’ digital writing.

Mixing Sources, Amplifying Voices: Crafting Writing in a Digital Age

As the inputs continue to multiply, how can we help students find, evaluate, and synthesize information from a variety of sources? More importantly, how can we help them craft digital writing in effective ways, utilizing the information that they have found to develop multimedia texts? Bring your favorite device, because in this interactive keynote we will explore a variety of web-based tools and mobile applications to help students mix together a variety of sources and amplify their digital voices.

Connected Reading: (Re)New(ed) Approaches for Teaching Digital Texts

As we adopt smartphones and tablets for 1:1 instruction, we need to review our efforts at comprehension instruction for all kinds of texts, especially those that are “born digital” and require (re)new(ed) approaches for non-fiction reading. Based on a survey of over 800 adolescents, we will discuss principles of “Connected Reading” that include encountering, engaging, and evaluating texts, and we will discuss how we can adapt existing comprehension strategies in digital spaces, as well as explore new opportunities for finding, managing, and reflecting on digital texts.

Citing Sources and Preventing Plagiarism in a Digital Age

While we have programs that can track student work to see if they’ve plagiarized, it’s better if we teach them how and why to cite sources in the first place. Learn about bibliographic tools, strategies for evaluating web resources, and and how you can manage your students’ Google Docs in order to enhance the research and writing process.

Creating Your Personal Learning Network

Building your own PLN (personal learning network) has become one of the most effective ways to engage in professional development. How can social networking tools such as Twitter help you become a better teacher? In what ways can you utilize the power of RSS feeds to create up-to-date newsmagazines with Feedly or Flipboard? Bring your laptop, tablet, or smartphone to this session to sign up for these free services and find out!

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However, if you write for an online college website or want to otherwise create a sponsored post, please don’t contact me. Dan Meyer has written a clear explanation about the ways that scam search engines by requesting links, and I am not interested in being a part of it. If you send me an email, I will simply ignore it.

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