Weekend Workshops

Weekend Workshops

Come join practicing teachers as they share techniques and strategies that work in their classrooms.

The Bay Area Writing Project is excited to provide high quality professional development opportunities at an affordable price for teachers throughout the Bay Area, led by practicing teachers who share techniques and strategies that work in their classrooms. This workshop series is perfect for teachers, administrators, coaches, coordinators, student teachers or anyone interested in the teaching of writing.

Really succinct - not too much information and it was really helpful to have it framed with a real classroom example
8th Grade Humanities Teacher

Saturday, March 23rd, 2024: Voice, Identity, Access and Equity

Remote Session

Classrooms can provide courageous spaces for exploring collective and individual identities. Writing often plays a critical role in this exploration and provides a humanizing lens through which students can see each others’ experiences. These workshops will focus on strategies, protocols and content that support students to contribute their stories, share their truths and invite others into conversation through writing.

Schedule:

Zoom Link Open: 9:30 am

Opening Remarks: 9:30 am

Session 1: 9:45 am - 11:00 am

Break: 11:00 am - 11:10 am

Session 2: 11:15 am - 12:30 pm

Registration:

  • $25.00 Register for Voice, Identity, Access and Equity (Saturday, March 23rd, 2024) REMOTE Offering
  • $80.00 Register for the Weekend Workshop Series (4 sessions)

Discounts:

--  Groups of 3 or more get a 20% discount (must register at the same time and the discount automatically deducted during check out)

Session 1: “Can I Show You A Cool Thing?” Using Targeted Modeling and Conferencing To Build Students’ Writing Skills

This workshop grapples with a dilemma that exists across writing classrooms: how do we target our instruction to each student’s unique strengths and growth areas, particularly when concerning high-stakes tasks such as summative essays or personal statements? Together, we will explore two interventions: first, we will look at how to use live modeling (and revision) to expose students to the skills and knowledge they need to build as writers. Second, we will work through a conference protocol that’s designed to empower students to identify and think through their own challenges in the writing process. Ultimately, these strategies put the responsibility and opportunity of thinking right back where it belongs–in the hands of our students.

Bio: Before Mo was a classroom teacher, he was a poet and domestic violence advocate: it was their belief that language could help young people express and empower themselves, however, that led them to education. He started his teaching career at Leadership Public Schools - Hayward, where he had the pleasure of learning and growing alongside his 10th grade English students; currently, they serve as the 12th Grade Program Manager at SEO Scholars, a program helping students from low-income and first-generation backgrounds pursue their college educations. Outside of teaching and writing (or trying to), you can find Mo tackling new problems at the rock climbing gym and curating a sick collection of frozen dinners.

Session 1: Youth Rising and Writing to the Now: From Workshop to Publication

In this era of AI, how do we bring live and in person excitement about writing and the creative process to the classroom? Karla Brundage will share ways to connect with Bay Area poets and how to invite them to lead workshops with your students. Her work with Youth Speaks, 826 Valencia, Colossus Press, Black Freighter Press and City Lights books gives her a wealth of resources to share. Learn how students respond to multimedia and text poetry and how this inspires them to create their own chapbooks and ready them for publication. The Bay Area has a long tradition of being a leader in poetry movements. Local writers speak to current issues faced by students and inspire them to bring their ideas to the page.

Bio: Karla Brundage, a passionate educator and poet, intertwines her love for teaching with a dedication to poetry and cross-cultural exchange. Born in Berkeley during the Summer of Love amidst the free speech movement, she embraces this historical backdrop as a challenge to inspire young writers. Her twenty-five year teaching journey includes a Fulbright Teacher Exchange in Zimbabwe and three years in Cote d'Ivoire. In West Africa, she founded the West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange (WO2WA). She is a Member of The Writers Grotto and has published three books of poetry.

Session 2: Revving the Learning Engine: Using personal "Habits of Work" trackers for student accountability, agency and voice

As educators, we are deeply aware of the importance of consistent feedback as a way to keep students engaged in their learning journeys.However, most students get individual feedback once a week (if lucky) about how they are showing up in the classroom or how they are progressing in their skills. As teachers (especially those with large caseloads), it feels rare to get time and space for direct and frequent conversations with students about how they are contributing to the classroom environment as well as how they are growing in their skills. These conversations often happen in a rushed frenzy at the end of a marking period when a student notices a low grade, and many times they don't happen at all. Re-structuring our classrooms so that students have access to visible and direct feedback on a daily basis allows for students to grow in their ability to take accountability for their behaviors and their skills development.  And most importantly, it allows them to practice advocating for themselves when student and teacher perceptions of the classroom diverge. This session will explore the possibilities of using "Habits of Work" trackers with students and will include opportunities to hear from the voices of students who engage with these trackers daily as well as time to plan and integrate these ideas into your own practice.

Bio: Asha (she/her) currently teaches English and Ethnic Studies to 9th graders in the Oakland Unified School District where she supports her students in their critical consciousness and literacy journeys as well as holds herself and her students accountable to the joyful, loving and often difficult task of learning in community with others.

Session 2: Closer to Home: Engaging Disengaged Learners with Literature of Place

This session will show participants how to utilize literature of place to engage disengaged learners. Participants will experience the dialogic practices Trey utilized to introduce my students to the racial literacies needed to put texts in conversation with their lived experiences and their communities, and analyze the writing students produced for their final essays (and beyond). 

Bio: Vernon (Trey) Keeve III taught at Community Day School in Oakland, CA for seven years. He is currently a doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University researching interventions and alternatives for expulsion and suspension. He is the author of Southern Migrant Mixtape which received the PEN Oakland, Josephine Miles Award in 2019.