Back to School with the LIWP!
Membership Letter
Welcome Back!
The Long Island Project is delighted to welcome you to the 2023-2024 school year and we invite you to join us as a member this year. Our theme for the year is “Navigating New Landscapes”. Scrutiny over books to share with students, learning the role of ChatGPT and other AI tools in the classroom, a renewed focus on high stakes assessments after pandemic learning loss…there is much for educators to navigate. How do we center students, their identities and stories, and equity through all of these challenges? The LIWP seeks to be a place, a professional home, where you can explore these issues with other educators who believe in the power of writing as a means to learn, reflect, and, ultimately, be an agent for change.
Your membership allows you to attend our workshops free of charge and helps support our mission to help educators and students. To join the LIWP, please fill out this form, which will point you towards the location to pay the $25 annual dues.
Fall Workshops
Teaching Readers, Writers, and Thinkers in the Age of AI
In November 2022, ChatGPT brought on concerns that “the essay is dead” and that students would find new ways to evade the kinds of critical thinking that strong readers and writers must possess in order to be successful across disciplines. Indeed, in this age of AI, we as educators have a renewed responsibility to teach our students how to be digitally literate, and to engage in practices that the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has described as “interconnected, dynamic, and malleable.” We will take a top-level look at multiple tools including ChatGPT, Rytr, Sudowrite, and Perplexity to get a sense of what AI tools are, as well as what they can -- and cannot yet -- do with and for our students. You will help make this session happen, so please come prepared to interact, learn, and think about how to integrate AI tools into your teaching through active participation. Please know that while you can use most of these tools with a smartphone, a laptop or tablet would be more conducive for working with these AI tools. This workshop is facilitated by Dr. Troy Hicks.
Dr. Troy Hicks is Professor of English and Education at Central Michigan University, where he collaborates with K–12 colleagues to explore how they implement newer literacies in their classrooms and teaches master’s and doctoral courses in educational technology. He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Teacher and Special Education. He is also Director of the Chippewa River Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project. A former middle school teacher, he has received numerous awards including the Michigan Reading Association Teacher Educator Award and the Central Michigan University Excellence in Teaching Award, and is an ISTE Certified Educator, a trained facilitator in digital storytelling through StoryCenter, and an affiliate faculty member with the Media Education Lab.
Date: September 30, 2023
Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Nassau Community College (in-person)
Saturday, Sep 30, 2023, 10:00 AM
Nassau Community College, Education Drive, Garden City, NY, USA
What is News Literacy and How Can It Help You Teach Writing?
News Literacy is an emerging academic discipline currently being taught at a growing number of Long Island schools. It is designed to teach students how to distinguish between credible and unreliable news and information. Its key lessons harness critical thinking skills in the service of evaluating sources, evidence, and offer powerful opportunities for reflective, argumentative and research-based writing assignments based on current news stories This workshop will introduce you to one of the curriculum's foundational lessons: Know Your Information Neighborhood. It will be facilitated by Howard Schneider.
Howard Schneider is the Executive Director of Stony Brook University's Center for News Literacy, the former Founding Dean of what is now the university's School of Communications and Journalism and the former editor of Newsday. Under his tenure as managing editor and then editor, the paper won eight Pulitzer Prizes. In 2007, Schneider developed the nation's first undergraduate course in News Literacy, designed to teach students how to identify reliable news and information. Since, the course has been taught to more than 11,000 Stony Brook students and the curriculum has been adopted by more than two dozen other U.S. universities and by academics in 15 countries. In 2018, Schneider and his colleagues, convinced that instruction had to begin much earlier, created the Institute for News Literacy Education to support the work of the region's K-12 school districts.
Duration: 2 hours
Date: October 26, 2023
Time: 4:00 pm -6:00 pm
Zoom registration link:
https://ncc-zoom.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqduitpzMqHtDgJHjf3-c7f_Logparzofm
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Thursday, Oct 26, 2023, 04:00 PM
via Zoom
Building Racial Literacy & Writing the [Archaeology of] Self
Individuals who develop racial literacy are able to engage in necessary personal reflection about their racial beliefs and practices, and teach their students to do the same. Racial literacy in schools includes the ability to read, write about, discuss and interrupt situations and events that are motivated and upheld by racial inequity and bias. Sustaining racial literacy across the life span is possible by engaging in an “Archeology of the Self” – an action-oriented process requiring love, humility, reflection, an understanding of history, and a commitment to working against racial injustice. Through writing excavation exercises, participants will explore their racial literacy. This workshop is facilitated by Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D.
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D. is a Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research has appeared in several top-tier academic journals. She is co-editor of four books and is co-author of the multiple award-winning book Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces where she examines her concept of Archeology of Self in education. At Teachers College, she is founder of the Racial Literacy Roundtables Series where for twelve years, national scholars, teachers, and students facilitate conversations around race and other issues involving diversity. Yolanda appeared in Spike Lee’s “2 Fists Up: We Gon’ Be Alright” (2016), a documentary about the Black Lives Matter movement and the campus protests at Mizzou. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Love from the Vortex & Other Poems, was published in March 2020. Her sophomore book of poetry, The Peace Chronicles, was published in July, 2021.
Duration: 90 minutes
Date: Saturday, December 2, 2023
Time: 10:00am - 11:30am
Zoom registration link:
https://ncc-zoom.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcudO6upj4rHdKXMUSR46ZTB-12ex-V9cQ0
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Saturday, Dec 2, 2023, 10:00 AM
via Zoom
Reflecting on Last Year
Grant Work
In 2022-2023, the LIWP was part of a grant from the NWP and the NEH entitled “Towards a More Perfect Union: The Intersection Between Our Stories and US History”. Educators engaged in reading, writing, listening and sharing about identity, immigration, equity and bias for a week in July 2022. Partnering with the Holocaust Museum and Tolerance Center and the Anti-Racism Project, educators then took their learning back to the classroom and collaborated throughout the fall, winter and early spring. The group also read and discussed How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith, and held a Zoom workshop where Clint Smith presented. The grant work culminated in a conference in March 2023, where poet laureate Richard Blanco was a keynote speaker. A digital anthology was created, featuring the writings of the educators who were part of the grant, as well as lesson ideas and resources. You can explore them here.
Deeper Dive on Write Now Teacher Studio
The LIWP also hosted a Deeper Dive on the NWP Write Now Teacher Studio. The theme was “Writing Across Borders.” Heather Glick presented "Why is Change so Hard?: American Racial Diversification and the Upending of the Status Quo." Kathleen Neagle Sokolowski shared "Re-imagining Writing Time: Incorporating Writing Throughout the Elementary School Day." Victoria Wanser presented “Voice and the Voiceless: Analyzing Holocaust Artifacts to Uncover Individual Stories.” The workshops were via Zoom and educators throughout the NWP were able to participate and interact with the facilitators.
Writing Group
The LIWP boasts a long-running writing group, comprised of ten educators, who meet monthly to write, reflect and share, on issues both personal and professional.
Podcast Guest
Co-director Kathleen Neagle Sokolowski was a guest on the Two Writing Teachers podcast, talking about planning for summer writing. Kathleen had been a co-author of TWT from 2015-2022. You can hear the episode by clicking this link.
Join the LIWP this year!
We hope that you will be part of the Long Island Writing Project for the 2023-2024 school year and beyond! Please reach out to our Director Darshna Katwala with any questions you have!