Session (A) 10:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m.

Workshop A1

Special Focus: Middle School

Description:

Author Joanne Levy on

Motivating Kids to
Write

Workshop A2

As an author, Joanne Levy knows that finding the motivation to write can
be an uphill battle. This can be very true for kids who may not know what
to write about or who are afraid of putting their work out there. But there
are many ways to get kids excited about writing and sharing their work!
Using modern media and concepts, the opportunities for kids to write are
endless and this workshop will showcase several ideas and ways to get kids
writing and sharing their work.

Facilitator:

JOANNE LEVY is the author of the middle grade novel, Small Medium at
Large, published by Bloomsbury in 2012. Joanne has visited many schools,
telling kids about her book and getting them excited about reading and
writing. Joanne was a contributor to 59 Reasons to Write (Messner,
Stenhouse Publishers 2015).

Special Focus: Interdisciplinary Studies

Description:

Literary Connections:
An Interdisciplinary
Path to Understanding
the World

At Hillfield Strathallan College, we have integrated the intermediate English

courses with the Canadian history and the Canadian geography courses.
This interdisciplinary approach has been highly successful and has
enhanced students appreciation for all subjects. Literature sheds light on
the human condition: people write and create in order to make sense of
the world around them. By marrying English with other courses, these
connections become real to students; we have found that this approach
fosters a love of reading and underscores the importance of writing. This
workshop will provide concrete examples of interdisciplinary assignments
and teaching techniques. It will provide clear direction as to how to
structure and implement cross-curricular and integrated courses. It will also
provide examples of assessment (rubrics and exemplars) and how
assignments can be used for multiple disciplines.

Facilitator:

KATHERINE WEBBER is the Chair of the English department at Hillfield

Strathallan College. She has been teaching for over 20 years, 15 in the
public system with the Waterloo and Halton boards. She was nominated for
the Premiers Teaching Award of Excellence in 2006.

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Workshop A3
Description:

Active Exploration of
Literature through
Drama

In this workshop, participants will explore several drama techniques that

can be used in the classroom to promote engagement with the text and
deeper understanding of character and theme. We will see how these can
be applied to some of the most commonly studied Shakespearean texts,
such as Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and King Lear, as well as to other
literary texts on your curriculum. Participants will not be acting out roles in
a traditional sense but exploring them through rehearsal exercises that can
both enhance and uncover students understanding of the text. Become an
archetype, let your chair express your true feelings, and forget that its rude
to point! No drama background required. Sharing of favourite Englishdrama resources and ideas at the end of the session is encouraged.

Facilitator:

DAVID NEWMAN is currently at St. Johns-Kilmarnock School, where he

teaches drama and English. David has also taught in Bristol, England and
Calgary. David directs student drama productions and has also organized
theatre trips to the UK featuring workshops at the reconstructed Globe and
the Royal Shakespeare Company. David studied drama at Queens and has
an M.Ed. from Western.

Workshop A4
Description:

Fast Facts: Writing

News in Real Time

Want to teach journalism, but don't know where to start? This workshop
will offer teachers practical strategies and original resources for delivering
an authentic journalism assignment or unit in a high school English class. In
keeping with this years CITE theme, this workshop will focus on writing
news for print and online sources. Workshop attendees will leave with
assignments, activities, handouts, and rubrics. As your students become
participants in real-time reporting simulations, they will find news stories
within the school community, think critically about information and
sources, meet challenges that arise during reporting, make ethical
judgments about publication, and write concise copy to a deadline.

Facilitator:

DREW HALFNIGHT is an award-winning journalist who has written news,

features, and columns for the Montreal Gazette, National Post, and other
publications. He now teaches English and French at Royal St. Georges
College. He strives to apply his journalism experience in the classroom to
empower students to become critical producers and consumers of media.

Workshop A5
Description:

Infusing a Spirit of
Inquiry in English

During this workshop, Garfield will share a framework for infusing critical
thinking and inquiry in teaching with a focus on the study of English.
Considering ways to frame invitations for thinking and to nurture the five
intellectual tools for quality thinking, participants will leave with practical
ideas related to teaching for thinking.

Facilitator:

GARFIELD GINI-NEWMAN is a Senior Lecturer at OISE/University of Toronto

and a Senior National Consultant with The Critical Thinking Consortium.
Prior to joining OISE, Garfield taught in York Region DSB for 20 years as well
as at UBC and York University.

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Workshop A6
Description:

Write What You Know:

Teaching Auto Fiction

'Write what you know' is a directive often repeated by creative writing

instructors. However, many students who attempt creative writing reach
outside of the realm of their own experience to create stories they deem
'exotic' or 'exciting.' In this workshop you will learn how to encourage your
students to fictionalize lived experiences in order to create authentic
stories with unique voices.

Facilitator:

AGGIE MAKSIMOWSKA is the Head of English at Crescent School, where

she has taught English and Writer's Craft for ten years. She is the author of
the 2013 Toronto Book Awards shortlisted novel, Giant, published under
the name Aga Maksimowska.

Workshop A7

Digitally Native and

Reluctant to Read:

Using 21st century skills

to engage students in
reading and literary
retention

Description:

What tools can we use to ensure students are engaging in deep reading,
and creating retention and critical thinking around literature? Faced with
the problem that even senior level language and literature students do not
have the stamina to read traditional long or complicated texts, I have
undertaken a project to answer that. Through digital tools and
collaboration with my students, I will present the tools we have built to
engage with and retain T.S. Eliot (poetry), Shakespeare (drama), and
Antigone (classics). Students will co-present.

Facilitator:

ASHLEY BAILEY teaches at TMS School in Richmond Hill; she is an IB

Language and Literature teacher.

Workshop A8*
Description:

Assessing Creative
Writing

Responding to and evaluating creative writing takes sensitivity, since, for

many students, these assignments feel more personal than their expository
works. However, creative writing assignments should be more than
exercises in self-expression. This session will provide participants with
strategies for integrating assessable skills into their expectations on
assignments. It will assist teachers in learning how to mark creative writing
with confidence. Participants will leave with new self-assessment and peerassessment techniques for students, ideas for student-teacher conferences,
rubrics, writing scales and sample comments.

Facilitator:

PATRICIA WESTERHOF is an award-winning author of two books of fiction,

The Dove in Bathurst Station and Catch Me When I Fall. Her co-authored
textbook, The Writers Craft, is used widely across Canada. Westerhof is
Head of English at St. Clements School in Toronto.
*NB: This workshop is repeated in Session B (1:20-2:20)

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Session (B) 1:20 p.m. 2:20 p.m.

Workshop B1

Special Focus: Middle School

Description:

Creative Ideas and

Connecting with
Colleagues

Are you a Middle School teacher looking to try some new things? Perhaps
you have some great ideas of your own that you would like to share. This
workshop will present several student-centred approaches to class
activities and enrichment opportunities (Write Across the College,
connecting globally to do on-line projects, a Day of Undiluted Autonomy, a
student driven novel study, CSI mystery unit, etc.), leaving with a few
takeaways that you can use in your own schools. Following this there will
be an open discussion for workshop participants to collaborate, make
connections, and share unique ideas that they are using to make their
classrooms richer and more meaningful learning environments. Please
bring examples with you if you have things to share. If you don't, you can
also just come to listen.

Facilitator:

Workshop B2

SHARON NEIBERT teaches Grade 6 and Grade 8 English at Hillfield

Strathallan College. She is also the Instructional Leader for Middle School
English.

Special Focus: Interdisciplinary Studies

Description:

Bridging the Great

Divide: Connecting
English to the MathMinded Student

While much has been made of integrating numeracy with language arts
instruction in the lower grades, the divide between the disciplines of
mathematics and English seems to increase with every grade level. Bridging
that divide through formal and informal cross-curricular connections can
address some of the issues regarding subject fragmentation and isolated
skill instruction. It can also provide math-savvy students with a more
personalized learning experience in the English classroom and offer mathleery students a better appreciation of the relationship between the two
disciplines. This session will offer resource suggestions for combining the
study of literature with mathematics via genres and forms such as poetry,
short-stories, memoir-writing, historical fiction, graphic novels and media
studies. As Albert Einstein said, Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry
of logical ideas.

Facilitator:

MELISSA POREMBA is a former secondary school mathematics teacher. She

now works in the Learning Commons at Hillfield Strathallan College and at
the Oakville Public Library. Her passion is to share the way her mathematics
background impacts her vision of library service provision.

Workshop B3
Description:

Join Chris Atkinson in a discussion of the current and ongoing challenges of

teaching English in the Intermediate and Senior classrooms. Bring your
dilemmas of pedagogy and practice, sticky wickets with students,
administrators and parents, questions about texts, media use and inclusion,
and an open mind.
Facilitator:
CHRIS ATKINSON has taught in public and independent schools as well as
spent time as a consultant and educational writer. Chris also serves on the
CITE executive overseeing Professional Development.

Issues of Pedagogy and

Choice: A Discussion

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Workshop B4
Description:

Why Feature Writing

Works

Some students enjoy writing essays, but every student will love writing a
magazine-style feature story on a topic of choice. This workshop will offer
teachers practical strategies and original resources for delivering an
authentic journalism assignment or unit in a high school English class. In
keeping with this years CITE theme, we will focus on writing features for
print and online sources. Your students will learn to choose a subject,
conduct research, learn the art of the interview, practise descriptive
writing, and submit their finished work for publication. Workshop
attendees will leave with assignments, activities, handouts, and rubrics.

Facilitator:

DREW HALFNIGHT is an award-winning journalist who has written news,

features, and columns for the Montreal Gazette, National Post, and other
publications. He now teaches English and French at Royal St. Georges
College. He strives to apply his journalism experience in the classroom to
empower students to become critical producers and consumers of media.

Workshop B5
Description:

Writing from Life:

Teaching Creative
Nonfiction

Making up stories and poems is easy, but once a student is faced with
writing from his or her own perspective, things become intimidating and
writer's block sets in. In this workshop you will gain ideas, techniques and
resources to help your high school students validate their own experiences
in order to write compelling creative nonfiction stories. Creative nonfiction,
or Memoir, as a literary genre is on the rise; when approached properly it
can become one of the most rewarding and fruitful units in an English
classroom.

Facilitator:

AGGIE MAKSIMOWSKA is the Head of English at Crescent School, where

she has taught English and Writer's Craft for ten years. She is the author of
the 2013 Toronto Book Awards shortlisted novel, Giant, published under
the name Aga Maksimowska.

Workshop B6
Description:

Nurturing Visual
Literacy

In an increasingly visual and multi-literate world, visual literacy is more

important than ever. During this session, participants will explore the use of
a variety of strategies that can help students to become more visually
literate.

Facilitator:

GARFIELD GINI-NEWMAN is a Senior Lecturer at OISE/University of Toronto

and a Senior National Consultant with The Critical Thinking Consortium.
Prior to joining OISE, Garfield taught in York Region DSB for 20 years as well
as at UBC and York University.

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Workshop B7*
Description:

Assessing Creative
Writing

Responding to and evaluating creative writing takes sensitivity, since, for

many students, these assignments feel more personal than their expository
works. However, creative writing assignments should be more than
exercises in self-expression. This session will provide participants with
strategies for integrating assessable skills into their expectations on
assignments. It will assist teachers in learning how to mark creative writing
with confidence. Participants will leave with new self-assessment and peerassessment techniques for students, ideas for student-teacher conferences,
rubrics, writing scales and sample comments.

Facilitator:

PATRICIA WESTERHOF is an award-winning author of two books of fiction,

The Dove in Bathurst Station and Catch Me When I Fall. Her co-authored
textbook, The Writers Craft, is used widely across Canada. Westerhof is
Head of English at St. Clements School in Toronto.
*NB: This workshop is repeated in Session A (10:30-11:30)

Workshop B8
Description:

Literary Terms We
Never Teach Our
Students

By having participants take a hands-on approach to exploring the works of

major Western writers, this workshop will examine the most frequently
overlooked literary and rhetorical features that we should be teaching our
students. Most of these are never mentioned in a high school English
classroom, let alone studied, but knowing them can develop powerful
critical faculties in our students when they come to examine literary forms
like drama, poetry, and speech-writing. Many of these literary devices are
crucial in understanding the great works of the Western Canon and yet, in
truth, nobody thought to teach these to us when we were students.

Facilitator:

GLEN DOWNEY is an award-winning children's author and graphic novelist,

currently serving as Chair of English and Drama at the York School in
Toronto. He is a reviewer for PW Comics World, the graphic novel division
of Publishers Weekly, and writes for the Sequart Research and Literacy
Organization in the US.

Workshop B9
Description:

Lending a Voice to Our

Students

This workshop will explore the theme of Voices in the English classroom.
Our primary focus will be three units: banned books, the silence and
censored voices of the Holocaust, and slam poetry. The through-line of
these units will be why some voices are silenced and censored through
persecution, war or banned literature, how we can offer a voice to those
that are voiceless, and how the student can also find a way to be heard.
Through the sharing of a number of units, powerful culminating tasks,
banned author titles, slam poetry, activities, and student work, we will
attempt to answer the essential question of our class: Whose voice
matters?"

Facilitator:

DANIELLE GANLEY has been teaching senior English for 12 years at Holy
Trinity School (HTS) in Richmond Hill. She also supports student writers in
the HTS writing centre. Danielle has a passion for writing and technology
with a focus on encouraging student voices.

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Session (C) 2:30 p.m. 3:30 p.m.

Workshop C1

Special Focus: Interdisciplinary Studies

Description:

Leading with
Interdisciplinary
Instruction

Interdisciplinary instruction is an essential element of teaching and learning

in the 21st century. Now expanding into CIS schools, AP Capstone is an
interdisciplinary program that fosters a wide range of 21st-century skills
through the exploration of a variety of texts and topics drawn from
different subject areas. Capstone has much in common with AP English
Language and Composition, and emphasizes the importance of reading,
speaking and writing well. If you are curious about this new AP program or
about how to use interdisciplinary instruction to enhance the learning
experiences in your English classroom, join me to hear about my recent
adventures. You will learn about the course design process, participate in
an interactive lesson, and receive a variety of resources. After our
concluding conversation about how and why English teachers are ideally
suited to lead the way with interdisciplinary instruction, you will leave
inspired!

Facilitator:

Workshop C2

Planning for
Instruction, Teaching,
and Assessment
in the Middle School
English Classroom

JAIME MALIC has taught many courses in the English, Languages and Social
Sciences Departments at St. Clements School in Toronto. She currently
teaches Grade 9 English, Grade 10 English, Grade 11 AP English, and the
Grade 11 AP Capstone Seminar. Jaime is also pursuing her Ph.D. in
Educational Administration at OISE.

Special Focus: Middle School

Description:

Planning and teaching with assessment in mind, managing the load of a

large student group, and providing regular opportunities for Middle School
students to grow as writers will be discussed. Some tips, strategies, and
rubrics will be shared along with some teaching tools for the six traits of
writing.

Facilitator:

CHRIS ATKINSON has taught in public and independent schools as well as

spent time as a consultant and educational writer. Chris also serves on the
CITE executive overseeing Professional Development.

Workshop C3
Description:

The Story of Change

Integrating current events, blogging, authentic audiences, media literacy

and "personal change missions" to enhance student writing. Teachers will
gain hands on experience using the tools of this project.

Facilitator:

CELESTE KIRSH is a Grade 7 English and Social Studies teacher at The Bishop
Strachan School and a facilitator for Cohort 21.

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Workshop C4
Description:

Amplifying and
Authenticating the
Student Voice

How can we amplify our students voices, giving them the resonance they
need to reach beyond the walls of the classroom? Adrian will lead a
discussion of ways we can authenticate student writing in project-based
experiences. He will draw on 12 years of experience producing the Poem
Repair Shop Radio Show. Adrian will introduce you to his favourite purveyor
of free classroom-busting software and propose a collaboration amongst
like-minded teachers.

Facilitator:

ADRIAN HOAD-REDDICK is a teacher, poet, radio host, wordsmith, and

Lead Idea Farmer at Hoadworks, Inc., a new media company championing
creativity and literacy by providing innovative educational content,
resources and games. Adrian has twenty-eight years of English language
and literature teaching experience; he never grows any less inspired by the
closing lines of The Great Gatsby or by the opening lines of Watership
Down.

Workshop C5
Description:

Media Decoder's Cafe

Join your host to explore and exercise the what/how/why technique for
decoding media texts. We'll look at a range of examples and then set you
loose with your colleagues to apply and share the results of your decoding.
The what/how/why technique targets the media studies strand, can be
used at all levels, is not copyright protected and may be used without the
facilitator's prior written consent. Bring your laptop and a pair of earbuds
for best results. Neophytes and experts welcome -- secret agents too.

Facilitator:

GREGORY DOMINATO is Head of English at MacLachlan College in Oakville

and has been teaching media studies for "a while." He also serves as the
Chair of the CITE Executive.

Workshop C6
Description:

The Art of Visible

Thinking

This workshop explores one of the most powerful activities we can share
with our students: visible thinking. Serving as a bridge between the way we
think and the way we write, visible thinking empowers us--students and
educators alike--to approach, understand, and interpret texts in ways that
are uniquely our own. This hands-on workshop will give teachers the
unique opportunity to use visual brainstorming and visible thinking
activities to tackle challenging questions about the works of major Western
writers. Before its over, workshop participants will already be planning
how and when to use visible thinking with their own students.

Facilitator:

GLEN DOWNEY is an award-winning children's author and graphic novelist,

currently serving as Chair of English and Drama at the York School in
Toronto. He is a reviewer for PW Comics World, the graphic novel division
of Publishers Weekly, and writes for the Sequart Research and Literacy
Organization in the US.

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Workshop C7
Description:

Lead with Words

through Blogging

This workshop will demonstrate how the blogging experience can enrich
teachers and students value for the learning process through posts and
shared responses. Through blogging, teachers and students can engage in
meaningful dialogues about various forms of written expression. Students
learn to use blogging as an academic forum that goes beyond their current
contributions to and activities on social media. They come to understand
that blogging is a powerful tool in which they can express their opinions on
issues of local, national or global concerns; maybe even initiate a
movement or change. Through blogging, teachers are able to provide
immediate feedback and to empower students through constructive
dialogue. Blogging is the opportunity for teachers and students to create
digital writing portfolios that become meaningful teaching-learning
opportunities in the 21st century.

Facilitators:

SALLY MASTROMONACO and CHIARA BITONDOSally Mastromonaco has

been teaching for 17 years. She is the Department Chair of English/Religion
at Villanova College. She participated in the first series of workshops with
Cohort 21, where she gained her passion for blogging and teaching-learning
strategies for the 21st century. Chiara Bitondo has been teaching for four
years at Villanova College. She attended the Klingenstein Summer Institute
in June 2014, where she honed her skills of fostering collaborative and
constructive feedback in the English classroom.

Workshop C8
Description:

Process Writing:
Reading and
Writing with Teens

Often, when English teachers think of writing, they think of assigned

compositions as finished pieces of work. Understanding what writers do,
however, involves thinking not just about what final products look like
but also about the strategies young writers employ to produce those texts.
Using personal anecdotes and recent research Santino Bellisario and
colleague Marc Labriola will introduce workshop participants to their
personal experiences with writing process. They will describe the steps
taken to create a "writing workshop" for students in their classrooms. This
will include discuss about how to introduce the workshop approach or
process writing to students, the use of mini-lessons, how to coach students
through successful peer-responses to each others writing and how to value
and evaluate students' writing. The approach easily aligns itself with the
assessment and evaluation guidelines outlined in Ministry of Education
documents like Growing Success that emphasize fairness, transparency, and
equity for all students. The writing workshop approach lets students and
parents know that evaluations are based on evidence of student learning
and that there is consistency in the way grades are assigned with the same
courses taught by different teachers and across school departments. This
session will walk participants through some of the steps that can make this
technique successful. Emphasis will also be placed on developing the
professional judgment of teachers of writing at all levels, as well as the
ability of teachers to work together and to build trust and confidence
among parents and students. Process writing also depends on the
continuing efforts of strong and enthusiastic teachers within their learning
CONTINUED on page 10

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communities to clarify and share their understanding of Ministry policy and

to develop and share effective implementation practices. For example, the
Grade 9-10 Ontario English Curriculum states, To develop these
competencies, students need a supportive classroom environment, with
opportunities to extend and refine their skills in using the writing process
and doing research. In other words, evaluating the processes of writing
that students followthe decisions they make, the attempts and the risks
they take along the wayare as important as evaluating the final
product. This presentation hopes to offer some advice about how to
support this complex process in our classrooms.

Facilitator:

SANTINO BELLISARIO and MARC LABRIOLAAn English teacher and a

department head for nearly thirty years, Santino Bellisario has taught at
several Toronto-area high schools before settling in at De La Salle College
"Oaklands." In addition to running an annual summer credit programme in
Rome, Italy, he is president of the Pro-Con Debating Forum of Ontario.
Marc Labriola has taught English at the Grade 9, 10, and 12 levels. He has
also taught English as a Second Language to students from around the
world. He has worked as an editor and a freelance writer. His works of
fiction have appeared in several American literary magazines.

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