Thursday, 7:15 p.m.

I found one session this afternoon: "Talking Writer to Writer: Rediscovering the power of conferring".
The idea was to show teachers how to do small conferences with writers, single writers or groups of 3 or 4 typically. They showed us some interesting videos of conferences. The sad part for me was that I know I could never do such a thing. My students would never behave well enough to permit me to confer with a small group. Even silent reading is a battle to keep them reasonably quiet. I might be able to so some of this with my honors class.
The most interesting video was a poet named Sarah Kay. I'm embarrassed to say I'd never heard of her but this evening I discovered a treasure trove of YouTube videos of her reciting her poems. I think I might be able to use some of them. On that same YouTube page I discovered a poetry video by that rapper woman named Hill; I forget her first name.
During the presentation I sat next to a woman who teaches young people aged 17-22 basic literacy skills in downtown Boston. She has no technology and little financial support as best I could tell. I have it easy compared to her.

I decided that my first session tomorrow will be "Then the power keg explodes: why do students resist literacy?" It's by three college professors. I generally don't like the sessions by college folk as they don't realize the problems of a high school teacher, but it sounds like this group might be different.

Thursday, 1 p.m.

So what do you do on the first day before there are any sessions? Here’s what I propose to do:

1. Talk about books I can get for you from here.

2. Show you the process I go through in selecting which sessions to attend.

A. Let’s peruse the NCTE bookstore. They have about 300 books on exhibit and I can’t tell you about all of them but let me tell you about a few that caught my eye. I’ll list the title and the author. I’ll bet if any one is of interest to you it can be researched at www.amazon.com where you can see readers’ reviews (click on the book title, page down to the reviews). I’ll also list the price. If you want me to buy you a copy just send me an email (heverlyj@yahoo.com) and I’ll bring it back with me after the Thanksgiving break).

(Or we could share a book and split the cost)

The Writing Process in Action by J. Proett $10.95

Reading Shakespeare with Young Adults by Ellen Dakin

Accent on Meter: Handbook for Readers of Poetry by J.Powell $24.95

Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels by J.B. Carter $22.95

Teaching Poetry in High School by A. Somers $21.95

Reshaping High School English by Bruce Pirie $14.95

Language Learners in the English Classroom by D. Fisher, et. al. $26.95

Substitute Teacher’s Lesson Plans (I found some interesting lesson ideas here) $9.95

Activities for an Interactive Classroom J. Golub $12.95

Teaching Reading in High School English Classes B. Ericson $19.95

Reading and Writing and Teens C. Fleischer $24.95

Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice A. Benjamin $21.95

Dancing with Words: Authentic Vocabulary Instruction R. Lederer $16.95

B. Now let’s look at tomorrow’s first sessions. There are 51 possibilities for 9:30 a.m., Friday.

There are also 14 “Poster Sessions” where someone stands in the hallway and chats with visitors about their subject of research. Lynda did one a couple years ago and it was very interesting. Occasionally these can be more valuable than the hour-long sit down sessions.

There is also an “Author Strand” where you can go hear one or more authors talk about their books.

I quickly scan the descriptions looking for things I can easily eliminate: elementary school sessions; topics I’ve heard before; highly political sessions; and things that just seem too vaguely described:

I’ve narrowed my list to about ten possibilities:

a. Poster Session: “The impact of audio books on reading development”

b. Poster Session: “E-books in the classroom”

c. Regular sit-down session: “The Problem of Background Knowledge and Intertextual awareness in teaching classic and modern texts” {How to teach background info before you teach tough literature}

d. Regular: “Visions and Decisions: Creating Relevant Writing Curriculum” {5 high school teachers talk about how to ‘reclaim’ writing as a tool for understanding and shaping social worlds.}

e. Regular: “Motivating All Students to Write by Focusing on Student strengths, using quality literature, and implementing a school wide collaborative approach”

f. Regular: “Are we doing anything fun today? Creative Fun ways to engage middle school students in reading and writing”

g. Regular: “Then the Powder keg exploded: Examining student resistance to critical literacy in English education” {why do students resist literacy?}

h. Regular: “This Time it’s personal: Teaching Creative Nonfiction” {how personal writing helps students understand their own identities and the larger world}

i. Regular: “Reading for a brighter future: Using graphic novels to transcend apathy”

j. Authors: “Preparing Today’s Students for Tomorrow” this has Jim Burke of Burlingame and Carol Jago, two of the smartest people in NCTE + Arthur Applebee & Mark Bauerline.

I'll let this sit for a couple hours, then narrow down my list to a couple best choices. Then I'll do the same process for the next sessions (there are about six/day!)

For now I'm headed to a session. I found two scheduled for today. I picked one, which I'll describe later today.

Arrival in Chicago, Thursday

10 a.m., Thursday, Hilton Hotel, the Loop, Chicago:

You feel it first in your ears. I forgot that. I lived in the Chicago Area in 1967; North Chicago; the US Naval Training Station, on the lake, north of here on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway.

I’ve visited a few times since but this is the first time in 44 years that I’ve experienced the wind coming off the lake, carrying that freezing air into your bones, and, especially, into your earlobes and fingertips. It didn’t help that I lost my coat at SFO. I slung it over a chair while I checked my email, and then discovered it was missing as I was boarding the plane. So I’ve been walking around with just a sweater. I’m convinced I’ll leave here with a cold. I can just feel the viruses celebrating. “The fool has left his piddly California defenses at home. We can take over now!”

I’m staying at a hostel on the North Side. If you’ve seen the movie, “The Fugitive”, you know the neighborhood, where the one-armed guy lived; brick multi-story structures on tree-lined streets. Chicago, more so than most American cities, is starkly and definitively segregated. A broad east-west avenue divides the city in half, black and Hispanic to the south, white in the north; Comiskey Park vs. Wrigley Field; the old meat packing plants vs. the new technology companies; drug crime vs. quiet, somewhat dull streets.

They are playing Christmas music in the Hilton, already; and in the downtown malls. The convention is at the Hilton Hotel in a somewhat seedy part of the Loop. You don’t need statistics to see the difference between the sclerotic American economy and the dynamic Chinese. Just walk the downtown streets of Chicago (or San Francisco) and Guangzhou (or Hong Kong). The streets here are nearly empty at 9 a.m. The central business district is populated by chain stores, furniture stores, fast food, the high-margin, high-fat, high-interest rate businesses that prey on the urban poor. “Nothing down, pay for that sofa for the next three years.” In a Chinese city you navigate your way gingerly through the teeming masses who fill the wide sidewalks from wall to avenue; you feel the energy. In Chicago the proverbial cannon ball sent down Lake Street would go unnoticed.

I rode the el into downtown. I’m always curious if reading is dying out so I typically count the number of people texting or listening to music vs. the number who are reading. In my train car I saw approximately 75 people; ten were using electronics, ten were reading, 55 were staring off into space trying to avoid interacting with the odd person they assumed was sitting or standing next to them.

I was also struck by how few people wore hats. I’d guess about 20 of the 75 passengers had something covering their heads, mostly ski caps. Women had their natural defense against the cold—long hair. There was not one hoody in the car. And most of the ski caps were set high on the heads, either not covering the ears at all or protecting the top half of the ear. But, of course, most of those people would only be on the street for a minute or two till they got to their office building; hence the empty boulevards.

I have a feeling I’m not going to like the setup of this convention. It’s split between two hotels (about ten blocks apart) and spread out vertically within the hotels so it will be hard to feel a sense of camaraderie with other teachers because I won’t see most of them. When the convention is splayed out horizontally you meet more people, and have more chance conversations.