October 20 & 21

Wichita Marriott    

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Table of Contents 

 

Welcome Statement 2 

Acknowledgements 2 

KATE’s Mission 3 

KATE in Social Media 3 

Conference Agenda 4 

2016 KATE Featured Speakers 5 

Breakout Session Schedule Chart 6 

2016 KATE Conference Program 

● Thursday Morning 8 ● Thursday Afternoon 11 ● KATE Social 14 ● Friday 15

Sponsors and Exhibitors 20 

2017 KATE Conference 20 

Wichita Marriott Map 20 

****** Wireless Internet is available for attendees in all Banquet Rooms ****** 

1. With your computer turned ON, set your wireless adapter SSID to Marriott_Conference. 2. Launch a web browser. 3. Type "ibahn" in the address bar and press Enter. 4. Follow the on-screen instructions and enter the Conference Code when prompted: KATE2016  5. Note: Do not click “connect automatically” at any point.

  

Graduate Credit  Graduate Credit is available for the KATE Conference from Baker University. Please see the table outside Salons D and E for more information.

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Welcome to the 2016 KATE Conference! 

“Blazing Your Own Trail: Progress Through Passion and Persistence”  

Trailblazers work to create new paths through wild country. As English teachers, our commitment to our students, our colleagues, and our communities drives us forward through the tangled paths of education and literacy relentlessly determined to bring out the best in each person we encounter along the way. No obstacle along the trail can stop our innovative spirits because, as we know, through passion and persistence, any obstacle becomes an opportunity.  This is perhaps the largest gathering of the year for Kansas’s English teachers to share their experiences, stories and expertise. We have a diverse and excellent lineup of breakout sessions for you. Please take some time to look through the breakout session schedule, and we sincerely hope you connect with some of the truly unique people and experiences shared here.  And we feel honored to bring you award-winning author Bill Konigsberg and Tu Books publisher Stacy Whitman, two people who have forged their own paths through the world of the written word and who bring diverse literature into the spotlight.   KATE’s 2016 Conference will celebrate the progress we have made, and focus us on continuing to blaze new trails together. Thank you for coming! We’re so glad you’re here.  Natalie Skidmore KATE Vice President & Conference Chair     

Acknowledgements  

Conference Chair, Natalie Skidmore, would like to thank the KATE Executive Board, and all the session presenters for their many contributions. A big thank you to Jillian Clough for volunteering her time and talent to create the KATE logo for us this year. Additionally, thank you to KATE Co-Presidents Steve Maack and Stacy Chestnut. I received invaluable help and advice from Steve and Stacy, but also from Elaine Klincik, Suzy Myers, Julie Buzard, Barb Gigstad, Nathan Whitman, Social Media Guru, Bryan Anderson, Treasurer, Eileen Wertzberger, and Secretary, Katherine Mason Cramer. Without their help, none of this would have been possible. I am so excited to see what our conference will hold next year! Special thanks to Bill Konigsburg, Stacy Whitman, Watermark Books, and the folks here at the Wichita Marriott. And we’ve probably forgotten to thank someone really important, but no one’s more important than you, the KATE members who support English Language Arts instruction and practice throughout Kansas. Thank you! 

 

   

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KATE’s Mission 

● To provide a forum for dialogue and collegiality among Kansas teachers of English/Language Arts, pre-kindergarten through post-secondary.

● To provide leadership and direction for instruction, curriculum planning, and assessment in English/Language Arts.

● To serve as a vehicle for encouraging and highlighting students and professional writing in Kansas.

● To increase public awareness of current theory and practice on issues of literacy.

● To serve as a liaison between the community and the schools on matters pertaining to literacy and language use.

● To cooperate with other professional organizations and agencies throughout the state and nation in order to achieve common goals through political action.

● To conduct, support, and distribute current research and scholarship in English/Language Arts and to serve as a clearinghouse for information relating to English/Language Arts.

● To initiate and continue dialogue among Kansas teachers for the integration and application of language arts in all curricular areas.

       

KATE in Social Media 

 Please feel free to post your ideas, thoughts, pictures, jokes and wisdom to Twitter and Facebook.  

● Follow KATE on Twitter: @KansasEnglish  

● Our closed Facebook Group is called “Kansas Association of Teachers of English,” and if you’re not already in that group, please request to join. We’ll put you right in.  

● Throughout the conference, use the hashtag #KATECon for all things KATE Conference on Twitter and Facebook

     

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Conference Agenda 

 

Thursday, October 20, 2016 

7:30 – 8:30 a.m. Registration and Exhibitors – Hotel Lobby 

▪ Continental Breakfast

8:30 – 10:00 a.m. Opening General Session – Grand Ballroom 

▪ Keynote: Bill Konigsberg

10:15 – 11:15 a.m. Concurrent Sessions A – Salons 1, 2, A, B, C, Arkansas Room 

11:25 – 12:25 p.m. Concurrent Sessions B – Salons 1, 2, A, B, C, Arkansas Room 

12:35 – 2:00 p.m. Luncheon in Grand Ballroom 

▪ Keynote: Stacy Whitman

2:15 – 3:15 p.m. Concurrent Sessions C – Salons 1, 2, A, B, C, Arkansas Room 

3:25 – 4:25 p.m. Concurrent Sessions D – Salons 1, 2, A, B, C, Arkansas Room 

5:30 p.m. KATE Social – Public at the Brickyard 

Friday, October 21, 2016 

7:30 – 8:45 a.m. Registration and Exhibitors – Hotel Lobby 

▪ Breakfast Buffet

8:15 – 8:45 a.m. Opening General Session 

● KATE Introductions

● Officer and Executive Board Installation

9:00 – 10:00 a.m. Concurrent Sessions E – Salons 1, 2, A, B, C, Arkansas Room 

10:10 – 11:10 a.m. Concurrent Sessions F – Salons 1, 2, A, B, C, Arkansas Room 

11:10 – 11:30 a.m. Hotel Checkout and Exhibitors 

11:30 – 12:30 p.m. Concurrent Sessions G – Salons 1, 2, A, B, C, Arkansas Room 

12:40 – 2:00 p.m. Luncheon – Grand Ballroom 

● Panel Discussion: True Stories of Personal and Literary Diversity

2:30 – 4:00 p.m. KATE Executive Board Meeting, Wichita Marriott

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Keynote Speakers  

Thursday Morning Keynote: Author, Bill Konigsberg Bill Konigsberg is the award-winning author of several books for young adults, including the highly praised Openly Straight and The Porcupine of Truth which won the 2016 Stonewall Book Award in the Young Adult category. Before he switched to full-time novel writing, Bill was an award-winning journalist who wrote extensively about the world of sports. Bill lives in Chandler, Arizona with his partner. Visit him at billkonigsberg.com and follow him on Twitter: @billkonigsberg  

Keynote: Banned Words, Banished Thoughts: An LGBTQ Author Tries to Make Sense of Freedom of Expression in an Increasingly Polarized World 

Bill Konigsberg discusses his month-long tour of the Midwest and South, where he spoke to LGBTQ youth about depression and suicide. On the trip, he learned that despite recent civil rights gains, hate speech is still deadly for at-risk kids. A year later, he wonders how to meet all kids where they are without shaming or vilifying those whose opinions are not “politically correct,” and he explores ideas about how to unify an increasingly polarized country. 

  

Thursday Luncheon Keynote: Publisher, Stacy Whitman Stacy Whitman is the founder and publisher of Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books that publishes diverse middle grade and young adult fiction. Books she has edited include American Indian Youth Literature YA Award title Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac, Perfect Liars by Kimberly Reid, and Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall. In 2013, Stacy founded the New Visions Award, which honors a new unpublished writer of color. Stacy is a founding member of the CBC Diversity Committee and currently serves as a Publisher Liaison to We Need Diverse Books. She holds a master’s degree in children’s literature from Simmons College. Prior to launching Tu Books, she was an editor for Mirrorstone, the children’s and young adult fantasy/SF imprint of Wizards of the Coast. She has edited elementary school textbooks at Houghton Mifflin, interned at the Horn Book Magazine and Guide, and spent a brief stint in grad school working as a bookseller. You can find her on Twitter at @stacylwhitman.

Keynote: The Quest for Inclusive Literature for Young Readers   

Friday Luncheon Panel: True Stories of Personal and Literary Diversity College-age panel members will discuss their experiences with literature in school and how it helped them to and hindered them from understanding who they are and how they fit in. Panel Members: Tracia Bañuelos, Wichita State University; Zubair Khan, Wichita State University; Emma Lavacek, Wichita State University; Jentry McDaniel, Wichita State University; David Treviño, University of Kansas

    Bill Konigsberg  Stacy Whitman 

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  Thursday, October 20 

Session A  Session B  Session C  Session D 

10:15-11:15  11:25-12:25 2:15-3:15 3:25-4:25

Salon 1  Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know

About Publishing a YA Novel 

 Voices of Kansas 

 How to Teach Julius

Caesar as a Play 

Poor Richard: Rediscovering

Classical Education for a Generation of

Context-Poor Students

Bill Konigsberg  Nathan Whitman Clark Killion Eli Svaty

Salon 2  Miracles in the Classroom: How to Engage All Levels of Readers Using Multi-

Modal Literacy 

 Mentor Editing with High School Students 

Using Sports-Themed YAL to Confront Homophobia and

Transphobia in School Sports 

Breaking It Down to Build Each Other Up: Linking Anti-Bullying

Curriculum to the ELA Classroom 

Kelly Connelly  Melissa ButeynLindsey Bales

Katherine Mason Cramer  Jennifer Wallentine Coslett

Salon A  Supporting Military-Connected Learners Through Literature

and Literacy Experiences 

Professor Franklin's Annotated

Bibliography of Mostly Young Adult

Literature 

 Student Learning Through Visible

Thinking 

 Using Graphic Novels in the ELA Classroom 

Vicki Sherbert  John Franklin Tara Martin Caitlin Doolittle

Salon B  Join Us On the Road Less Traveled:

Standards-Based Grading 

Student Teacher to Teacher: Navigating the Metamorphosis 

Digital Poetry Books: Scrapbooking Poems, Photos, and Papers 

Your Essays are Killing Me: A Return to Meaning and the Power of Narrative

Collette Erickson,Rebecca Rufener, Jessica Smith,

Sue Frieze

Keely Tolbert Holli Boyd 

Lisa Johnson Steve Maack

Salon C  Classic Companions: Reaching Students by

Bridging Classic Pieces with Young Adult

Novels 

All the Kids in our Care: Teaching

Struggling Learners   

Books as Bricks: Building a Diverse

Classroom Library and Beyond 

Teaching for One to Three Years: How to Stay Afloat in a Sea of

Papers  

Rachael Cox  Kate Scarbrough Stacy Whitman  Alexis Fisher

Arkansas Room 

Vertical Alignment in the Middle School

ELA Setting 

Team Building and the Engaged Classroom 

Creative Interactions with Text & Objects 

Building School-Wide Reading Culture 

Nicole Tunks, Marie Preston, Beth Edmonds 

April Pameticky Susan L. Crane-Laracuente, Kevin Rabas 

Elaine Klincik, Allie Ekler, Emily Tanner 

 

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  Friday, October 21  Session E  Session F  Session G 

9:00-10:00  10:10-11:10 11:30-12:30

Salon 1   How to Teach Romeo and Juliet

as a Play   

 The Rest of the Story: Ten Kansans Who Blazed Their

Own Trails 

Reading and Writing for Social Justice: Engaging and

Empowering Students Through Real-World Purposes and

Audiences

Clark Killion  Marcia Fox Jenni Bader

Salon 2  Spicing Up Your ELA Block Presenting a Potpourri of Poetry Pedagogy 

Making Matches So Persistence Pays Off 

Erin M. Meyer  LeeAnne M. McClure Anneliece Kowalik Stephanie McNemar

Salon A  Five Minutes to Focus: Yoga Exercises for the Secondary

Classroom 

Making Learning Real: Celebrate America 

Propagating Passion: Sharing Activities to Spread Passion for

Words, Poetry, Reading & Music

Lindsay Slater  Carla Wolfe Janet M. Rehmert

Salon B  Revising Program Assessments for Kansas Licensure Standards:

A Discussion for English Education Program Chairs

Rural Arts Day: A Multi-Level Partnership Connecting Art to

Lived Experiences GLSEN: Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network 

Katherine Mason Cramer  Elizabeth HixVicki Sherbert 

Emma Lavacek  

Salon C  

Discussions About Diversity: Addressing Controversial

Topics at School  

Books as Bricks: Building a Diverse Classroom Library and

Beyond 

Jumping into Readers/Writers Workshop Without Really

Knowing What We're Doing: A Roundtable Discussion

Steve Maack  Stacy Whitman Elaine Klincik

Arkansas Room 

Conquering Ambiguity: Creativity Can Be Found and

Fostered in the Unknown

The National English Honor Society: How (and Why) To

Start Your Own Chapter

Wrestling the Elephant in the Room: Teaching About Race and Ethnicity With Courage

Stacy Chestnut  Krystal Iseminger Aaron Rife

   

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2016 KATE Conference Program 

Thursday, October 20

 

 

Continental Breakfast 

 

Exhibitors 

 

 

 

Welcome Steve Maack and Stacy Chestnut, KATE Co-Presidents  

Introduction Katherine Mason Cramer, KATE Board Secretary  

Keynote Speaker Bill Konigsberg

“Banned Words, Banished Thoughts: An LGBTQ Author Tries to Make Sense of Freedom of Expression in an Increasingly Polarized World”

 

 

 

 

A-1 Salon 1  

Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Publishing a YA Novel Bill Konigsberg  

This session will cover the writing process, revision, the road to publication, anything you may have wondered about the world of publishing.  

A-2 Salon 2 Miracles in the Classroom: How to Engage All Levels of Readers Using Multimodal Literacy 

Kelly Connelly Struggling to keep students engaged? Emerging research on multimodal literacy and the benefits for student engagement may help jazz up your lesson plans and keep your students engaged. This session will outline multiple lesson ideas, with modifications to meet your teaching style and your students’ learning needs. This session will offer an explanation of the history of multimodal literacy and how it is being used in classrooms around the world, so you can come up with your own creative and unique ways of incorporating this engaging literacy into your classroom. 

  

Registration 7:30 – 8:30 Hotel Lobby

General Session 8:30 – 10:00 Salons D & E

Concurrent Sessions A 10:15 – 11:15

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A-3 Salon A 

Supporting Military-Connected Learners Through Literature and Literacy Experiences 

Vicki Sherbert In February 2016, 100 of 105 Kansas counties reported residents who are military dependent children whose parents are Active Duty, National Guard, or Reserves members. Utilizing quality children’s, middle grade, and young adult literature combined with research-based resources and strategies for literacy development helps educators support the academic success of military-connected learners. In this session, examples of literature will be shared along with other resources and strategies for providing rich literacy experiences to help military-connected learners successfully engage in academic tasks while coping with stressors associated with deployment, military life, and other diverse circumstances.   

A-4 Salon B 

Join Us On the Road Less Traveled: Standards-Based Grading  Collette Erickson, Rebecca Rufener, Jessica Smith, and Sue Frieze 

Standards-Based Grading is not widely used at the high school level in English because few SBG programs are in place to guide English teachers in planning, record keeping, and methods of turning data into grades. We’ve done the background work for you. Participants will be able to see how our English staff uses SBG. We will share our grading models, gradebook reporting, and ways of tracking data within our English units. We don’t teach different materials; we just grade it differently. We will also share interventions our school has in place for reteaching and retesting.  

A-5 Salon C 

Classic Companions: Reaching Students by Bridging Classic Pieces with Young Adult Novels 

Rachael Cox In this presentation, teachers will explore pairing classic literature with more accessible Young Adult novels to increase student engagement and understanding. Examples of text pairings include The Giver and Brave New World, Monster and Frankenstein, and The Hunger Games and 1984. The presentation will be an overview of the concept, followed with the opportunity for collaboration.   

A-6 Arkansas Room 

Vertical Alignment in the Middle School ELA Setting  Nicole Tunks, Marie Preston, Beth Edmonds 

As ELA teachers, there is constant pressure to ensure that students have the necessary skills to read, write, speak, and listen at an appropriate ability level. However, there is so much content within each of these areas that it seems like an impossible task to teach students all that the ELA Common Core standards require. The vertical alignment that we present scaffolds these skills to ensure that students are mastering all standards at the appropriate level for their grade. 

 

 

 

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B-1 Salon 1 Voices of Kansas 

Nathan Whitman Voices of Kansas, the digital journal of the Kansas Association of Teachers of English, is looking for submissions from students in grades 3-12 for its 2017 publication! Come learn how your students can be published with others from around the state of Kansas and how this exclusive publication from the Kansas Association of Teachers of English can make a difference in the classroom. All attendees receive a free copy of the journal. 

 B-2 Salon 2  

Mentor Editing With High School Students  Melissa Buteyn and Lindsey Bales  

Mentor Editing: Build leadership and communication skills through editing and revising across grade levels in high school.   

B-3 Salon A 

Professor Franklin’s Annotated Bibliography of Mostly Young Adult Literature  John Franklin 

Come to share your love of literature, the same love you share with your students. Leave with an annotated bibliography documenting over 100 titles by more than six dozen (mostly young adult lit) authors. Participants will have a chance to advocate for titles to add to next year's bibliography.  

B-4 Salon B 

Student Teacher to Teacher: Navigating the Metamorphosis  Keely Tolbert and Holli Boyd  

Wondering what the transition from student teaching to being The Teacher looks like? Anxious about what happens after you get hired? In this session you’ll hear from two enthusiastic new teachers who have experienced this exciting life-changing transition first hand. We are new high school and middle school English teachers who are ready to help prepare you to hit the ground running as a new teacher. Come learn from our experiences as we discuss how to start preparing for the professional metamorphosis that takes place during your first year of teaching.  

B-5 Salon C 

All the Kids in our Care: Teaching Struggling Learners  Kate Scarbrough 

Teachers are faced with increasing demands. One of the most pressing is instructing struggling learners who have undiagnosed or mild learning disabilities, low achievement or motivation due to social issues, or mental/physical illness. This session identifies struggling learners and promotes instructional strategies for them.    

Concurrent Sessions B 11:25 – 12:25

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B-6 Arkansas Room 

Team Building and the Engaged Classroom 

April Pameticky Challenging curriculum doesn't change the need for a safe, inviting, and engaging classroom environment. These quick team-building activities will foster a sense of fun and curiosity in the secondary classroom.  

 

Introduction to KATE 2017 Catherine Martin 

“Between Lightning and Lightning Bugs: Electrifying Books and Writing” 

 Introduction Nathan Whitman, Voices of Kansas  Luncheon Keynote Speaker Stacy Whitman

 “The Quest for Inclusive Literature for Young Readers”

    

 C-1 Salon 1 

How to Teach Julius Caesar as a Play  Clark Killion 

In this presentation, we will look at a number of activities designed to give your students the opportunity to experience and understand Shakespeare's Julius Caesar through the dramatic realization of expressive, creative, and physical enactment. These activities are modeled after what actors and directors do in the rehearsal room, and they invite students to inhabit the imaginative world of Julius Caesar, through action, and encourage them to develop a real sense of personal engagement with the play.  

C-2 Salon 2 Using Sports-Themed YAL to Confront Homophobia and Transphobia in School Sports 

Katherine Mason Cramer Sports-themed young adult literature (YAL), including works by KATE keynote Bill Konigsberg, is a powerful vehicle for students to examine and critique the heteronormative and transphobic language that permeates familiar school sports sites. In this session, participants will engage in, discuss, and receive materials for an extended lesson that could easily fit into a unit on language and power. Using excerpts from sports-themed YAL, participants will explore ideas for engaging secondary students in pre-, during-, and after-reading activities to analyze school sites typically occupied by student athletes, coaches, and spectators—and then critique and confront language that permeates these sites.   

Luncheon 12:35 – 2:00 Salons D & E

Concurrent Sessions C 2:15 – 3:15

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C-3 Salon A 

Student Learning Through Visible Thinking  Tara Martin 

Student Learning Through Visible Thinking is an interactive session designed to share the complex thought processes of each participant, as it pertains to analysis of a variety of texts, characters, and literary concepts, through a collaborative digital journal, while enhancing one's media literacy skills. 

 

C-4 Salon B 

Digital Poetry Books: Scrapbooking Poems, Photos, and Papers  Lisa Johnson 

For those teachers who have been wondering how to combine poetry and publishing in one tidy, technology package, this session may hold the answer. A demonstration of how to use a digital photography/scrapbook site to generate creative, original poetry books will be given. Please bring a Chromebook or laptop to this session. It would be helpful if attendees had a photo file available on their laptops. Attendees will leave this presentation with lesson plans for an entire poetry unit.  

C-5 Salon C 

Books as Bricks: Building a Diverse Classroom Library and Beyond  Stacy Whitman 

Our student population is more diverse than ever, but often our classroom materials don’t keep up. In this breakout session, Tu Books Publisher Stacy Whitman will discuss culturally responsive approaches to help students of all backgrounds connect with books. Come ready to discuss students' need for “mirrors and windows,” and to reflect on your own challenges in bringing more diversity to the classroom. Learn about diverse pairings in the curriculum, where to find diverse books and how to integrate them into your teaching, what supplemental resources are available for educators, and more.  

C-6 Arkansas Room 

Creative Interactions with Text & Objects: Ekphrastic Writing & Dialogic Pathways  Kevin Rabas and Susan L Crane-Laracuente 

One way to enliven creative writing class is to field trip to art around campus or in your region and write ekphrastic poetry or prose, writing based on describing a painting, photo, or sculpture. This session will include a packet of ekphrastic writing prompts and samples along with a brief introduction to and history of ekphrastic writing. To demonstrate ways to understand poetry through dialogic interaction over time, students select a poem and develop a short presentation about the poem’s author, the student’s relevant experience, and a vocal rendering of the poem itself. Then they repeat the process, selecting a new poem and adding a reference to their first poem, a peer’s response to a specific part of their first presentation, and their own response poem. Lesson handouts will be available to participants in hard copy and electronically.

     

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 D-1 Salon 1  

Poor Richard: Rediscovering Classical Education for a Generation of Context-Poor Students 

Eli Svaty For years, I struggled to accommodate students who did not have the historical, scientific, or literary background necessary to be proficient writers and readers. However, by implementing a new regiment of readings and journals, my students have begun to read, write, discuss, and think in ways they never have before, and yours can too.   

D-2 Salon 2 Breaking It Down to Build Each Other Up: Linking Anti-Bullying Curriculum to the ELA Classroom 

Jennifer Wallentine Coslett Every day, over 160,000 students skip school due to fear of being bullied and nearly 1 in 10 high school students report having attempted suicide. A deliberate and mindful approach in the ELA classroom has the ability to spark a chain reaction of compassion toward one another. In this session, participants will be presented with, and exchange, ELA standards-based thoughtful lesson and unit designs focused on breaking down stereotypes and stigma while building self-esteem and an ELA knowledge base.  

D-3 Salon A 

Using Graphic Novels in the ELA Classroom 

Caitlin Doolittle The growing popularity of graphic novels means that teachers have access to a new form of literature they can use within a classroom. Graphic novels deal with a range of societal and cultural issues, as well present fiction or nonfiction in new and innovative ways. They cover a range of genres that include a range from classical literature to new fiction, meaning that exploration into graphic novels as a literary form has endless possibilities as well as being a valuable supplementary material to any kind of Language Arts classroom setting.   

D-4 Salon B 

Your Essays are Killing Me (and It’s My Fault): A Return to Meaning and the Power of Narrative 

Steve Maack Teachers want, more than anything, to make writing easier for students. But when we do, we often hand them formulas that take the hard work and sweat out of writing—and also the thoughtfulness and quality. This session will explore how we envision what we want students to do when they write essays, and will help reconceive the essay as a way to tell the story of each student's path to understanding and supporting an argument. Students can conceive of their writing as way to convey something they've learned rather than a way to complete a deadly assignment.  

 

 

Concurrent Sessions D 3:25 – 4:25

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D-5 Salon C 

Teaching for One to Three Years: How to Stay Afloat in a Sea of Papers  Alexis Fisher  

Grading essays and papers is a tedious task, one that takes time, diligence, and focus. These are often the traits that are difficult to carry over from the school day and which cut into planning and personal time. Revision techniques, checklists, and rubrics can increase rigor for students at the end of the writing process while simultaneously ensuring that we aren’t working harder than our students.  

D-6 Arkansas Room 

Building School-Wide Reading Culture  Elaine Klincik, Allie Ekeler, Emily Tanner

Do you want to improve your school’s reading culture but are unsure how? Need ideas on how toinspire staff and students who are reluctant readers? Come hear how one school changed a culture ofnon-readers into one that has become engrossed in books. We will share how we have improved ourschool’s reading culture, strategies for how to get staff and students involved as well as future ideas forgrowing a school wide reading culture.  

 

 The KATE Executive Board cordially invites you to experience Wichita’s Old Town by joining us at Public at the Brickyard, located at 129 N. Rock Island Road, Wichita, Kansas 67202, 316-263-4044 (directions below). Please take advantage of this opportunity to meet English teachers from around the state, and to discuss pertinent ELA-related topics, or simply get to know each other. A special cocktail and appetizer will be provided, and a cash bar will be available for your enjoyment. And don’t forget your reception ticket!   

Directions to Public at the Brickyard: 

Start out going east on E Corporate Hills Dr toward S Webb Rd. Turn right onto S Webb Rd. Take E Kellogg Ave/US-54 W/US-400 W. Take the Washington Ave exit. Turn right onto S Washington St. If you are on E Dewey St and reach S Eldora St, you've gone a little too far. Turn left onto E Douglas Ave. Five Guys Burgers and Fries is on the corner. If you are on N Washington St and reach E 1st St N you've gone about 0.1 miles too far. Take the 2nd right onto N Rock Island St. N Rock Island St is just past N Mosley St. If you reach N Mead St you've gone a little too far. 129 N ROCK ISLAND ST is on the left. If you reach E 1st St N you've gone a little too far. 

   

KATE Social 5:30 PM Public at the Brickyard

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Friday, October 21 

 

 Exhibitors  Breakfast Buffet 

  

 KATE Board & Officer Introductions Stacy Chestnut & Steve Maack, 2016 KATE Co-Presidents 

Officer and Executive Board Installation Elaine Klincik, Past President    

 

E-1 Salon 1 How to Teach Romeo and Juliet as a Play 

Clark Killion In this presentation, we will look at a number of activities designed to give your students the opportunity to experience and understand Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet through the dramatic realization of expressive, creative, and physical enactment. These activities are modeled after what actors and directors do in the rehearsal room and they invite students to inhabit the imaginative world of Romeo and Juliet through action and encourage them to develop a real sense of personal engagement with the play.  

E-2 Salon 2 Spicing Up Your ELA Block 

Erin M. Meyer As educators we can get in a rut with doing the same thing each week or every few weeks. This session presents over seven strategies for increasing success with writing as well as five strategies for increasing discussion. This session provides originals for educators to take away for immediate implementation the following week in their teaching. Teachers will leave having seen examples, video clips, and ways to integrate these various strategies into your classroom next Monday morning.   

E-3 Salon A 

Five Minutes to Focus: Yoga Exercises for the Secondary Classroom 

Lindsay Slater  

We have heard their excuses: I had to work late last night and didn’t finish my homework, I had a history project to finish, my girlfriend and I broke up, did you see the fight on Twitter last hour? English class is not the reason students cannot focus; they come to us with distractions that cause off-task behavior. A simple yoga sequence can teach students to clear their minds and concentrate on the present. In this session, participants will learn strategies

Registration 7:30 – 8:45 Hotel Lobby

Opening General Session 8:15 – 8:45 Salons D & E

Concurrent Sessions E 9:00 – 10:00

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and receive resources for incorporating yoga into class time without students ever leaving their desks. No equipment or flexibility needed!  

E-4 Salon B 

Revising Program Assessments to Align with New Kansas Licensure Standards for Middle Level and 6-12 English Teachers: A Roundtable Discussion for English Education Program Chairs 

Katherine Mason Cramer In January 2016, KSDE released new licensure standards for teachers of English. These new standards present significant changes from the previous standards, including Standard #6 which focuses on social justice, diversity, equity, and student identities. This breakout session will function as a roundtable conversation in which English Educators pose questions, share ideas and resources, and collaborate in the development of assessment practices and tools that align with the new standards. Attendees will leave this session with ideas about how other English Education programs are responding to and revising program assessments to align with the standards.   

E-5 Salon C 

Discussions About Diversity: Addressing Controversial Topics at School  Steve Maack 

Some teachers avoid discussing race, sexual orientation, or gender identity and discrimination because of fear of repercussions from families or administration, or because they lack the experience to make classroom conversations about controversial topics meaningful. This session will cover some of the current vocabulary surrounding controversial topics and some strategies for beginning to engage these topics with students.  

E-6 Arkansas Room  

Conquering Ambiguity: Creativity Can Be Found and Fostered in the Unknown  Stacy Chestnut 

We want students to be curious, display dogged drive and work ethic, take risks, and generally be creative in the ways that they solve problems and communicate ideas; these ideas are familiar to modern educators but they present a conflict with what many perceive as the current era of accountability. We may be afraid to present assignments that are ambiguous as less direction can frustrate or even anger students. However, with the intention to present ambiguity and help students work through it, we are opening up opportunities for greater insight and discovery.  

 

  F-1 Salon 1 

The Rest of the Story: Ten Kansans Who Blazed Their Own Trails  Marcia Fox 

This session features ten Kansans who expressed passion and persistence in blazing their own trail. Each of these persons faced a variety of hardships, yet they found the strength to reach

Concurrent Sessions F 10:10 – 11:10

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great heights and leave a legacy. The session is based on a Read Kansas! lesson that helps students to find “The Rest of the Story.” Participants will focus on the story behind these people and brainstorm how they can use this lesson in their own classes. Each participant will receive the lesson and an opportunity to win a complete set of elementary or middle school Read Kansas! lessons.   

F-2 Salon 2 Presenting a Potpourri of Poetry Pedagogy 

LeeAnne M. McClure Whether we read, write, or teach it, poetry is a staple in the Language Arts classroom. Participants in this session will explore how to motivate students using different strategies in approaching poetry, whether teaching, reading, or writing about it. Participants will explore innovative methods for teaching poetry and recall their own experiences in discussions to help stimulate new ideas to share with others.  

F-3 Salon A 

Making Learning Real: Celebrate America  Carla Wolfe 

Want to work with your colleagues in other disciplines as well as give your high school juniors an authentic audience for their work? Then the Celebrate America project is for you! Celebrate America is a cross-curricular project in which your students will become teachers for a day and share their knowledge with elementary students from your local community. Don't teach juniors? There will be ideas for 9th, 10th, and 12th grade cross-curricular projects, as well. 

 

F-4 Salon B 

Rural Arts Day: A University/Middle School/High School Partnership Integrating Activities and Instruction Connecting Art to Lived Experiences 

Elizabeth Hix and Vicki Sherbert Rural schools have both unique advantages and unique challenges. A student intern and a faculty member of Kansas State University’s Rural Arts Outreach Committee will share an overview of recent activities designed to support engagement and offer professional development in the arts by integrating writing, music, speaking, performance, technology, and art techniques. Also described will be the process of undergraduate and faculty collaboration in the planning and delivery of event activities. Video footage of recent events will be shared and focus for research will be discussed.  

F-5 Salon C 

Books as Bricks: Building a Diverse Classroom Library and Beyond  Stacy Whitman 

Our student population is more diverse than ever, but often our classroom materials don’t keep up. In this breakout session, Tu Books Publisher Stacy Whitman will discuss culturally responsive approaches to help students of all backgrounds connect with books. Come ready to discuss students' need for “mirrors and windows,” and to reflect on your own challenges in bringing more diversity to the classroom. Learn about diverse pairings in the curriculum, where to find diverse books and how to integrate them into your teaching, what supplemental resources are available for educators, and more.  

F-6 Arkansas Room 

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The National English Honor Society: How (and Why) To Start Your Own Chapter  Krystal Isenminger 

Want to open up a whole new set of opportunities for your students? This session details the how and why of starting a National English Honor Society chapter in your school. We will discuss how NEHS, the high school incarnation of Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society, encourages high school students to embrace their passion for language and literature through scholarship, community-building, and academic opportunities. I will also offer guidance on the application process as well as contact information for local Sigma Tau chapters. 

 

      G-1 Salon 1 

Reading and Writing for Social Justice: Engaging and Empowering Students Through Real-World Purposes and Audiences 

Jenni Bader Spark passion in students! Help them become engaged in their work and in their world! This session will explore different ways of using a social justice focus in the classroom including project-based learning, community-based learning and service extensions, technology use, and cross-curricular applications. Participants will examine possibilities for employing social justice as a unit or yearlong theme and receive information regarding specific resources, projects, and activities they may wish to use in developing their own lessons. The session will end with time for participants to discuss resources and ideas they have used successfully in their own classrooms.  

 

G-2 Salon 2 Making Matches So Persistence Pays Off 

Anneliece Kowalik and Stephanie McNemar “Making Matches So Persistence Pays Off” speaks to buildings and teachers who want to restructure their MTSS intervention groups/times. Kowalik and McNemar will share how a conversation led to an action research project which led to restructuring a middle school’s reading intervention groups. Organization, assessments, and ideas will be shared that teachers can take to implement.   

G-3 Salon A 

Propagating Passion: Sharing Activities to Spread Passion for Words, Poetry, Reading & Music

Janet M. Rehmert Passion, like laughter, is contagious. A teacher's passion can be the positive difference for indifferent students. In this session, I'll share some activities I've used to propagate passion in the classroom, kindling some fires in students' minds as well as in their pens. Join me!  

G-4 Salon B 

Hotel Checkout & Exhibitors 11:10 – 11:30

Concurrent Sessions G 11:30 – 12:30

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GLSEN: Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network  Emma Lavacek 

Curriculum that includes positive representations of LGBT people and history can affirm LGBT students, improve school climate and align with Common Core standards. This interactive LGBT History Timeline activity serves as a way to facilitate discussion among educators on how to create more inclusive curriculum in their classrooms.  

 

G-5 Salon C 

Jumping into Readers/Writers Workshop Without Really Knowing What We’re Doing: A Roundtable Discussion 

Elaine Klincik Have you read Penny Kittle's Book Love and/or Write Beside Them and been tempted to jump out of your comfort zone and try Readers/Writers Workshop in your own classroom? Are you a workshop expert? This roundtable session will give participants an opportunity to share questions and ideas for how to implement workshop in your own classroom.   

G-6 Arkansas Room 

Wrestling the Elephant in the Room: Teaching About Race and Ethnicity With Courage 

Aaron Rife Race and ethnicity are pervasive realities for students and teachers, yet too many of us feel squeamish or incompetent in vocalizing race, let alone analyzing and deconstructing it with our students. This roundtable provides an opportunity to discuss how teachers can address race and ethnicity in their teaching and in interactions with students and colleagues. Participants will also explore the opportunities and pitfalls in being frank with students about racism and ethnocentrism in society. Particular emphasis will be given to how teachers can move beyond abstract discussions of race in favor of personal reflection and application.

   

 Panel Introduction Natalie Skidmore, 2016 Conference Co-Chair   Luncheon Student Panel 

True Stories of Personal and Literary Diversity 

Panel Members: Tracia Bañuelos, Wichita State University Zubair Khan, Wichita State University Emma Lavacek, GLSEN Jentry McDaniel, Wichita State University David Treviño, University of Kansas

   

All KATE Members are invited to the meeting of our Executive Board

Luncheon 12:40 – 2:00 Salons D & E

KATE Executive Board Meeting 2:30 – 4:00

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Special Thanks to Our Sponsors  

National Council for Teachers of English Watermark Books & Café 

Public at the Brickyard Fort Hays State University 

Kansas State University Global Campus Wichita State University Department of English 

 

Please Visit Our Exhibitors’ Tables Between Sessions  

Pearson Watermark Books & Café 

 

Save the Date for the 2017 KATE Conference  Wichita Marriott 

October 12 & 13, 2017 “Between Lightning and Lightning Bugs: Electrifying Books and Writing” 

 

Conference Area Map

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Thank You 

 

The Kansas Association of Teachers of English would like to thank the Wichita Marriott for their help and support in planning this year’s KATE

fall Conference!  

9100 E. Corporate Hills Dr.  Wichita, KS 67207 

(316) 651-0333