Presenting at NCTE
Late last month, I had the honor of participating on a panel presentation at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) annual convention. I was sharing details about our beloved storytelling unit on a panel about cultural relevancy, the arts, and student voice! I was lucky to be paired up with an excellent co-presenter (the panel ended up just being the two of us!) and loved sharing details about what still is one of my favorite units to teach.
I was originally slated to be on a panel with four other people, but as it worked out, only two of us were able to present. We were both able to share more details about our work and had more time for questions (which is often my favorite part). Not surprisingly, the highlight of my presentation really was the video of a student performance from our Final Stage show where every single one of our students performed a true story about their life.
Other things I loved presenting about: Anne Thomas, who was our guest speaker/storyteller and introduced the concept of storytelling as a performance with her story, Burden No More, how we used both Story District and StoryCorps as resources, the incredibly valuable tie in to social emotional learning as stories help us both understand ourselves and learn from each other, and how I wish Jacqueline Woodson’s amazing new picture book, The Day You Begin, existed when we were teaching this unit.
I truly loved seeing how the audience responded to my student’s story. I spoke about the bares bones of the unit, why it was transformative, student quotes, and resources and ideas, but the student video was far more powerful than anything I said! I also was asked many great questions about how to use storytelling with preservice teachers and adults in general. There was a lot of engagement with the idea of storytelling as validation of less prominent stories or voices, and connections to other cultures with oral history traditions (especially Native Americans and tribes fighting for state and/or federal recognition).
It was also amazing to be around so many teachers of English (and authors! And readers!)! I enjoyed all the nerdy, literary, and punny shirts and tote bags and just general love for books and authentic literacy opportunities. Thank you to my wonderful co-presenter, our audience, and all the other educators I was lucky enough to meet at NCTE!