conferences & events
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LAURA ROBB
Author, teacher, coach, and speaker, Laura Robb has completed more than 43 years of teaching in grades 4-8. She presently coaches teachers in grades K to 8 in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Robb always works with those students who need the most support from teachers.
Robb has written more than 25 books for teachers.Her most recent publications: The Reading Intervention Toolkit, by Shell Education in April 2016 and Read Talk Write: 35 Lessons That Teach Students to Analyze Fiction and Nonfiction .published by Corwin Literacy in October 2016.
Other publications include Vocabulary Is Comprehension: Getting to the Root of Complex Texts; A First Hand Curriculum: Smart Writing: Practical Units For Teaching Middle School Writers; Teaching Middle School Writers: What Every English Teacher Needs to Know; and Unlocking Complex Texts. Robb has designed classroom libraries for Scholastic for grades 3 to 9.
Robb is often a featured speaker at conferences and leads workshops all over the country and in Canada. She writes blogs for educational sites, and professional articles. Look for her latest article in the May 2017 Voices From the Middle: “ Read Write Think: Developing 21st Century Skills.” Robb was just awarded NCTE Richard W. Halle Award for Outstanding Middle Level Educator
In Robb's keynote, Read, Talk, Write: Building Analytical and Critical Thinking Skills With Literary Discussions and Writing About Reading, participants will experience how talking and writing about reading improves comprehension, clarifies thinking, and builds vocabulary. Robb will model strategies that move participants deeper into texts, exploring meanings through analytical and critical thinking.
Morning Workshop: Unlocking Complex Texts With Interactive Read Alouds
After explaining the benefits of having an anchor text to teach reading, Robb will actively involve participants in a lesson with an informational anchor text and one with fiction. In addition, Robb will show how interactive read alouds can enlarge students’ vocabulary and build their mental models of what expert readers do.
LINDA DENSTAEDT, PhD
Linda Denstaedt, co-director of the Oakland Writing Project, is a literacy consultant. She serves on the National Writing Project’s College-Ready Writers Program Leadership Team, which developed and supports an Investing in Innovation Program for rural teachers focused on the development of student argument writing. From 2010 to 2014, she worked in an out of classrooms at a high priority school bordering Detroit. She worked collaboratively coaching teachers to become students of themselves and their students as they developed instructional practices, units of study, and formative assessment to accelerate student learning and increase student achievement. In 2002, she retired from Clarkston Community Schools after teaching elementary, middle and high school. At Clarkston, she also served as Director of Writing and supported the professional learning of her colleagues as they collaboratively studied and redesigned the teaching and learning in their classrooms. Recently, Denstaedt, Laura Jane Roop and Stephen Best wrote Doing and Making Authentic Literacies for National Council Teachers of English.
Her workshop will highlight proven methods from the NWP that can help area teachers improve as writing instructors.
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LAURA ROOP, PhD
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Laura Roop, director of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project and faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, is new to the region. She directed the Oakland (MI) Writing Project for eighteen years in separate stints, and served as director of outreach at University of Michigan School of Education. She began her professional career as a high school English teacher, and eventually worked as an intermediate school district consultant in two counties and as a professional development facilitator for the Michigan English Language Arts Framework Project, a federally-funded state standards effort. From 2009-2012, she followed a cohort of students assessed in the bottom quartile from ninth grade through college, designing summer programs and organizing trips and presentations under the auspices of the Algebra Project, a national network founded by civil rights organizer and mathematician Bob Moses. On July 23, Dr. Roop was featured in the University of Pittsburgh Times (photo here credited to this article). See more about the WPWP at https://www.wpwp.pitt.edu/.
CONNIE MONROE, PhD
Chair of Graduate Education at Cal U, Dr. Monroe is an expert in English education, a member of the boards of the English Education Collaborative and Scholastic Art and Writing of Southwestern PA.
High School to College Bridges:
Kevin Jenkins, Andrew Pinneri, Dr. Dan Engstrom, Dr. Connie Monroe (I don’t remember if there was anyone else).
This panel discussion will address the experiences of students as they move from high school to college with a look at the challenges involved, the approaches universities are using to bridge the transition process, and ways that high schools can help prepare students.
KEAT MURRAY, PhD
Dr. Keat Murray specializes in early American and nineteenth-century American literature, with particular interest in James Fenimore Cooper and Native American studies. In addition to his scholarship in these areas, Dr. Murray has directed numerous undergraduate projects at Cal U in digital archiving for regional and international communities. Before joining Cal U’s Department of English in 2013, Murray taught high school English in a Pennsylvania public school for twenty-one years and college English for five years.
Dr. Murray’s workshop, “Close Reading and Critical Thinking,” will apply various critical approaches to teach close reading and critical thinking as complementary skills. Toward this end, workshop activities will explore a few selected short works in American literature through strands of historicism, cultural studies, textual studies, and staples of formalism.
KRISTEN LINK
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Kristen Link is Director of Education & Accessibility at City Theatre Company where she oversees the popular Young Playwrights program. Young Playwrights has provided thousands of local students with opportunities in playwriting and production over the past 17 years. Additionally, Ms. Link leads City Theatre’s accessibility programming, which creates inclusive theatre experiences for artists and audiences of different abilities. She is a two-time past presenter on the topic of accessibility in theatre at The American Alliance for Theatre & Education’s (AATE) national conference. Kristen is also a frequent guest speaker on the subject of theatre education at local universities, including Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Ms. Link served two terms on the Arts Education Collaborative (AEC) Advisory Council, and in 2013, received the ‘Work of Art’ Award for Established Accessibility Leader from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. BA in Theatre Arts, Bethany College; MA in Theatre Education, Emerson College.
KRYSTIA NORA, PhD
One of the co-founders and co-chairs of the English Education Collaborative, Krystia is an expert in writing and composition studies, and she regularly presents at national conferences on these topics.
Her workshop is titled:
Bridging Genres through Cross-Disciplinary Peer Review
This presentation will introduce participants to a form of peer review that can be used across disciplines to help writers and responders grow in a variety of genres at once. This peer review practice is easy enough for teenagers to master quickly, even as it facilitates intensive student growth as critical readers and writers. Dr. Nora has used this method for over ten years with success. College freshmen have credited this assignment for helping them grow as writers as well as develop into a community. It even has helped students publish in their various fields of interest.
Participants in this workshop are invited to bring copies of a page or two (single spaced) of their writing. This can be an excerpt from a larger piece. The number of copies will be specified once all workshop participants are finalized. To make sure no one feels pressured, if no one volunteers to bring writing samples, alternate writing samples will be provided. Dr. Nora will introduce the peer review methods to be used and then we will practice peer review with two or three examples of different disciplinary genres. Afterward, we will reflect on the strengths and possible limitations of this method of peer review.
JUDITH TOTTY
Judith Totty serves as co-director of English Education Collaborative. A board member of Scholastic Art and Writing of Southwestern PA, Judith organized and led Art and Writing Encounter 2016, a workshop for middle and high school students at Cal U. During her 23-year career at Washington High School, Judith developed an extensive theatre curriculum, including Theatre Movie Appreciation, Performing Arts Film, and Performing Arts Theatre. Simultaneously she served as president of Lively Arts Unlimited, a community organization that brought professional performers to local school districts. Judith began her career at Pleasant Hills Middle School, where she created a new course for all eighth graders, communications, where they produced plays and created a literary magazine.
Kristen Link and Judith Totty will present a workshop for middle school teachers on using theatre activities to enhance close reading skills, to encourage cooperative learning, to improve speaking skills, and to build writing skills. Susan Conrady from IU1 will talk briefly about grants available for the City Theatre Young Playwrights Program.
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CYNTHIA SHAFFER
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Cynthia Shaffer, is a Curriculum Coordinator for the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit. Prior to joining IU 7, Cindy worked as an elementary teacher, Title 1 reading specialist, and a technology coordinator. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Speech and Hearing and a Master’s Degree in K-12 Reading. She is also a mentor for the Pennsylvania Institute for Instructional Coaching.
ZIPORA GUR, PhD
Dr. Zipora (Tsipy) Gur, is Executive Director and Founder of Classrooms Without Borders (CWB) a non-profit educational organization in association with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and The Holocaust Center. CWB connects teachers and learners through experiential, extended term professional growth programs that result in positive changes in the way teachers instruct students.
KEVIN JENKINS
Kevin is an undergraduate student at California University of Pennsylvania. He studies English Education and is a tutor at the Writing Center, Treasurer of Sigma Tau Delta, and member of Alpha Lambda Delta. He also founded a reading and writing club for young students while teaching abroad in Ghana.
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SUSAN RUTLEDGE, PhD
"Your grammar is a reflection of your image. Good or Bad, you have made an impression. And like all impressions, you are in total control." Jeffrey Gitomer
Dr. Morris-Rutledge will be leading a workshop on grammar instruction in the secondary education classroom.Grammar and usage instruction are integral parts of language arts composition and literature instruction. Lunsford and Lunsford (2008) compiled a list of the top twenty most common writing errors writers make such as unnecessary shifts in verb tense. Using a workshop model, this approach will enable the facilitators to contextualize grammar and usage instruction to focus on the function and practical application of grammar within context, so that “sentence craft and sentence appreciation are not trivial pursuits. They engage us in the stringent and salutary exploration of the linguistic resources out of which our lives are made” (Fish 2011, 159). Participant activities will include sentence combining, grammar as it relates to communication, and criteria to teach grammar.
Rueben Brock is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh where he received a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in Psychology, Sociology, and Creative Arts. Brock also holds a Masters degree in Community Counseling from California University of PA. Brock earned a PhD in Counseling Psychology at West Virginia University on a W.E.B Dubois Fellowship. In Addition to being a Dubois Fellow, Brock is was awarded a SAMHSA Minority Fellowship through the American Psychological Association. This highly selective honor is awarded to promising doctoral students dedicated to substance abuse and mental health treatment among underserved and minority populations. Brock’s research interest is in career and academic self-efficacy among Black students.
Dr. Brock is currently on faculty in psychology at California University of PA where he teaches clinical coursework at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
A nationally certified and PA licensed counselor, Brock has been working in the social services since 1998 and his work has ranged from residential treatment of mentally ill adolescents to family therapy and drug & alcohol treatment. He is currently in private practice in McMurray, PA.
In 2009, Brock published a self-help book entitled “A Young Man’s Wisdom” which is available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
He also recently published a self-help book for young men entitled “A Young Man’s Wisdom” which is available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
BRENT HOUSE, PhD
Dr. Brent House is a native of Hancock County, Miss., where, prior to his years in higher education, he was a farmer who raised cattle and watermelons on his family farm. His father, John Bunyon House, was an avid reader when he was away from the fields, and, as a result, Dr. House was influenced to begin a career in English Studies. He still misses his life on the farm, and he will return to farming when he retires from his teaching life, but, until then, he finds that farming and teaching are similar crafts, and he enjoys planting knowledge in the minds of his students at Cal U.
Dr. House will lead a workshop with Kevin Jenkins. The goal of the presentation would be to show how poetry can be linked to prose assignments, both reading prose and writing prose.
JANICE HATFIELD
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Janice Hatfield is one of the founding members of the English Education Collaborative.
Founder and Director of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards at California University, Janice retired after 22 years at West Greene High School.
She has also taught at WVU, NC State, and Waynesburg University.
She served as a Literacy Coach for Intermediate Unit One and as a Journalism Education Association mentor.
This free-form session will be an opportunity to meet and collaborate with other middle-school teachers who share your concerns and your passion.
Participants are invited to share some of their favorite language arts lessons, strong learning opportunities that engage their students.
This may be the most productive session of the conference!
DANA DRISCOLL
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Dr. Dana Lynn Driscoll is an Associate Professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania where she teaches courses in the Composition and TESOL Doctoral program on teaching writing, writing centers, writing program administration, and research methods. Her research interests include writing centers, writing transfer and learning theories, teacher professional development, research methodologies, writing assessment, and writing across the curriculum. She has published in numerous journals including Writing Center Journal, WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship, Across the Disciplines, Writing Program Administration, Assessing Writing, Teaching and Learning Inquiry, Computers and Composition and Composition Forum. Her co-authored work with Sherry Wynn-Perdue, “Theory, Lore, and More: An Analysis of RAD Research in the Writing Center Journal, 1980-2009” won the International Writing Center Association’s 2012 Outstanding Article of the Year Award. While completing her Ph.D. at Purdue, she also served as editor of the Purdue OWL (owl.english.purdue.edu).
Teaching for Learning Transfer and Long-term Literacy Development in English Education
This interactive workshop will introduce participants to learning transfer, or the ability of students to use and adapt prior learning in new contexts beyond English classrooms. Targeted at English classrooms, participants will explore how to encourage students to draw upon prior knowledge , how to use reflective and metacognitive practices to “abstract” knowledge to new situations, and how to encourage the development of lifelong literacy practices. Participants will leave the workshop with practical skills, activities, and materials for use in their classrooms.
ANDREW MILLER
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Andrew Miller is a student member of the English Education Collaborative (EEC). He is a sophomore attending California University of Pennsylvania studying Secondary Education in English. Andrew had attended the first English Education Collaborative conference “March First” in the spring of 2015 and was invited by the board to become an official member of the EEC following his attendance to the conference.
Besides the EEC, Andrew participates in the campus ministry Students Taking a New Direction and the University Choir at California University of Pennsylvania. Throughout his education at Cal. U., Andrew has become most interested in how English Literature and Language has a tremendous impact in learning and culture beyond the English classroom. Andrew hopes that his studies in Secondary Education, English, and his participation in the EEC will prepare him to teach English abroad in the country of Romania and build “bridges” between cultures by means of the English language.
DR. TODD KERUSKIN Connecting STEM to English Language Arts
This workshop will investigate ways that Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) can connect to English Language Arts (ELA) so that the two areas can enrich each other and provide more connected learning experiences for students. Dr. Kersuskin will share examples from projects implemented at Elizabeth Forward.
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