What are you doing next Monday and Tuesday? Well, I will be at the ALAN Workshop, but not before I spend several days at the NCTE Convention. This workshop is always the Monday and Tuesday after the main National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) convention. Most of you who follow this blog know about ALAN, but for those who don’t, ALAN stands for The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE. ALAN and The ALAN Review have been around for enough years (the journal is now in its 46 volume and I believe that the assembly started that year or the year before) that most of the founders are gone or it is difficult for them to attend. Their legacy and commitment to education and reading is not to be forgotten.
You can read a good history of the journal and the organization in Volume 40 Issue 3. It is free in the archives now and can be found at this link. It is worth the read. It has reports from the early editors of the journal and some of the authors who appeared in the first 40 years of the journal.
You can read a good history of the journal and the organization in Volume 40 Issue 3. It is free in the archives now and can be found at this link. It is worth the read. It has reports from the early editors of the journal and some of the authors who appeared in the first 40 years of the journal.
The ALAN Workshop is well established and now has an annual attendance of 500 people. This year it is in Houston. I am looking forward, not only to the program, but to meeting the people who are attending the workshop for the first time. I hope you introduce yourself. I will be trying to introduce myself to as many people as possible. If you aren’t attending the workshop, but are attending NCTE I hope to see you at some of the ALAN related events during the main NCTE convention.
The current President of ALAN, Mark Letcher, has put together a dynamite program. I am sorry if you can’t be there, but you can certainly browse the program, be inspired, and start planning on joining us in 2019 in Baltimore. It is not too early to start thinking about how to get there.
The current President of ALAN, Mark Letcher, has put together a dynamite program. I am sorry if you can’t be there, but you can certainly browse the program, be inspired, and start planning on joining us in 2019 in Baltimore. It is not too early to start thinking about how to get there.
Every year I try to recruit attendees to write a couple of paragraphs about their favorite parts of the workshop. Last year, quite a few people were willing to help. Check out this link to see who contributed last year (By the way, I hope they all sending me a paragraph this year. I will keep my fingers crossed.) If you are attending the workshop, I hope you consider sending me a paragraph and photo or two.
I have the privilege of introducing one of the sessions. I am very excited about this opportunity to introduce Ellen Hopkins and Kody Keplinger. They both have relatively new novels dealing with guns, gun violence, and school shootings. Ellen’s book is People Kill People and explores some of the reasons people feel the need to have guns and the consequences of those choices. Kody’s book is That’s NOT What Happened. This book tells the story of a school shooting through the voices of some of the survivors. I can’t wait to introduce them and to listen to their discussion. Guns and gun violence is an issue that is too frequently front and center in the minds of teachers and students. It shouldn’t be, but it is. I am looking forward to hearing about their motivations for writing the books and the reasons they framed their novels in the way they did.
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It is a topic that worries me quite a bit. I prepare teachers to go into classroom. I never worried about this as a teacher and now I would be remiss if I did discuss the issue of guns and gun violence with preservice teachers. I also have grandchildren that attend public schools. Is this an issue we should have to worry about?
I have written about the issue too many times on this blog. I wrote directly about the Orlando shootings at the Pulse Night Club. I live in Las Vegas and a little over a year ago I wrote about the horrible mass shooting that took place in my home town. The day after last Valentine’s Day I found myself writing about the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings in Parkland, Florida. To top it off I could be writing about several more shooting--Sutherland Spring, Texas; Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh; and, just a week ago in a night club frequented by college students in Thousand Oaks, California. I, for one, have had enough.
Last March, I joined with Shelly Shaffer and Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil in a book project that took on the issue. We recruited quite a few people in the English Education and in the YA communities to write a chapter around their expertise. We are happy to announce that the book is in print and the official release date is Dec. 15, 2018. It is entitled Contending with Gun Violence in the English Language Arts Classroom. If you find one of us at NCTE or the ALAN Workshop we will have fliers with a discount code. (or you can download it here) We will be highlight the book on the blog around the official release date.
Here is the image and a flier with the details on how to get the book with a discount.
I have written about the issue too many times on this blog. I wrote directly about the Orlando shootings at the Pulse Night Club. I live in Las Vegas and a little over a year ago I wrote about the horrible mass shooting that took place in my home town. The day after last Valentine’s Day I found myself writing about the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings in Parkland, Florida. To top it off I could be writing about several more shooting--Sutherland Spring, Texas; Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh; and, just a week ago in a night club frequented by college students in Thousand Oaks, California. I, for one, have had enough.
Last March, I joined with Shelly Shaffer and Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil in a book project that took on the issue. We recruited quite a few people in the English Education and in the YA communities to write a chapter around their expertise. We are happy to announce that the book is in print and the official release date is Dec. 15, 2018. It is entitled Contending with Gun Violence in the English Language Arts Classroom. If you find one of us at NCTE or the ALAN Workshop we will have fliers with a discount code. (or you can download it here) We will be highlight the book on the blog around the official release date.
Here is the image and a flier with the details on how to get the book with a discount.
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For awhile now, Michelle Falter and I have been working on a two books about grief and death. It has been a labor of love. The contributors have been wonderful and the books are officially in the world on November 23, 2018, the day after Thanksgiving. Come on, it will be Black Friday, maybe you should consider buying a couple of books.
Most of the contributors will be presenting on their chapters at this Roundtable session at NCTE. The wonderful and dynamic Sharon Draper has agreed to be the keynote. Her name isn't in the program, so spread the word. It is an early session on Sunday morning. Make sure that you put it on your schedule.
Most of the contributors will be presenting on their chapters at this Roundtable session at NCTE. The wonderful and dynamic Sharon Draper has agreed to be the keynote. Her name isn't in the program, so spread the word. It is an early session on Sunday morning. Make sure that you put it on your schedule.
Below are images of the book covers and a flier with the opportunity to get the books with a discount.
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I hope to see many of you at NCTE Convention and the ALAN Workshop. If I know you, I will be looking for you so that we can sit and chat a bit. If I don’t know you yet and you are there, please say hello.
Until next week.
Until next week.
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