MCTE Fall 2007 Conference Reactions

The fall 2007 conference was my second MCTE conference in three years (attended fall 2005), and each time I attend I walk away with several wonderful, novel teaching strategies and/or ideas to bring into the English language arts classroom. Whether the presentations cover technology in the classroom, peer teaching, writer’s workshop or expanding literacy practices, they all provide teachers and future teachers alike with ways to enrich language arts instruction. Further, and most importantly, these presentations attempt to make reading and writing more meaningful to the students.
The keynote address was given by the incoming president of the NCTE, Kathleen Blake Yancey, and her focus was on “21st Century literacy.” We were asked to define this phrase, and in doing so words such as technology and networking unanimously filled responses. Throughout her address Yancey stressed using a wide-range of technologies, or literacies. Additionally, she emphasized that texts are constantly being enhanced by computers, and we must explicitly show students how to navigate these programs.
Although I garnered many quality ideas from the sessions I attended, her address was the presentation which really hit home for me. Due to computers and the internet, there has never been a time in history where so much information is widely available to the citizenry; thus, students can explore texts in multiple ways. But if they do not know how to access this information, it is useless to them. Any opportunity technology provides to further explore texts or other English language arts topics should be seized by the teacher. Moreover, when students and teachers are networked outside of the classroom (weblogs, myspace, etc) it will inevitably increase performance.
Coinciding directly with the technology theme was the Session B presentation on digital storytelling, given by two Michigan high school teachers from the greater Grand Rapids area. Instead of just writing a story or response, students can have fun (doesn’t this exist anymore!?) using a plethora of multimedia to bring their story to life by incorporating music, narrative and images. The digital story can be as simplistic as a slide show or as advanced as a mini-movie, and it can include the informational, persuasive, or evaluative genres. Usually a project such as the digital story should span approximately a two-week period, where students are given time to learn how to use programs such as Windows Movie Maker or Imovie for the Mac. Not only are the students using technology and other downloadable programs, they are allowed to make critical decisions that enhance their unique story or report. I am a little apprehensive, however, about the copyright issues, but the teachers’ pages on Wikispaces gives several links that discuss what can be taken and what cannot.