I attended two of the sessions presented by Debbie Silver: Teaching Kids to THRIVE: Building the Other Essential Skills for Success, and Square Pegs/Round Holes-Why We Need to Pay Attention to Learning Differences. Dr. Silver did not disappoint with her insight into middle school kids and how they can best be served. She addressed the needs of the whole child and how we as middle level educators can contribute to their skill development and be more aware of their various learning differences. I particularly enjoyed how she used humor in her presentation to keep us all engaged. She always exhibits so much understanding of the middle school students and teachers and demonstrates consistent enthusiasm and excitement into her message. I came away with a refreshed sense of how to address and meet the many needs of our middle school students.
I attended a short Speed Learning Session with Vicki Meigs-Kahlenberg and enjoyed it so much that I ended up purchasing her book The Author's Apprentice . Essentially, Vicki's session was on not letting narrative writing fall by the wayside in the world of high-stakes testing. She talked about teaching students to develop their writing voices by studying the works and process of popular young adult authors such as Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds, and Lois Lowry. I have always been interested in using mentor texts to teach students writing strategies such as "Show, Don't Tell" and dialogue that develops characters, but I felt like Vicki's process takes this one step further because she has students research the actual authors and learn about their lives and writing processes. There is no one correct way to write. Every author plans, drafts, and revises differently, and I think sharing this with students makes the whole writing process seem m...
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