The Ohio Department of Education added three new literacy-focused courses to Ohio’s Learning Management System. These courses take 5-8 hours to complete. Participants can receive a certificate for contact hours for completing the courses. The courses include:

• Leading Adolescent Literacy: This course provides an overview of the importance of building leadership to ensure an effective approach to adolescent literacy. It also provides an overview of the core components of adolescent literacy. The target audience includes building and district leaders along with those leading literacy initiatives such as coaches and curriculum directors.
• Peer Coaching for Literacy: This course guides participants to develop a peer coaching model at their buildings or districts that supports effective literacy instruction and continuous instructional improvement. The target audience includes building and district leaders, coaches, teacher leaders and anyone else who is interested in developing or improving a peer coaching program.
• Instructional Coaching for Literacy: This course covers the key strategies, knowledge and skills that highly effective literacy coaches need to support educators in their buildings or districts. The target audience includes current coaches, building leaders, teacher leaders and anyone who is interested in supporting educators to improve their practice.

Educators interested in taking these courses can find information about accessing the Learning Management System and courses on the Department’s LMS page. Send questions to LMSsupport@education.Ohio.gov.

-Here is the PAGE FOR ALL UPCOMING STUDYSYNC WEBINAR DATES.

Below are the StudySync webinar offerings for the month. If you register and cannot attend, you will be sent a recording. StudySync is the core Tier 1 Resources for Secondary English. The CORE ELA Units are used in English 6-12. Items from the StudySync Library are used in all alternative English courses (Humanities Language Arts 8, Humanities English 9 & 10, African American Literature, Major British Writers Seminar, Shakespeare's Literature, and Women's Literature) and many of the elective courses (e.g., Essay Writing 6, 7, and 8).

Monday, December 19, 2022

• 4:00 PM - 4:30 PM EST Keep Reading Relevant: Teaching a Blast Lesson Register Now

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

• Ask-An Expert Session: Dec. 20 3:15-3:45

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

• 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM EST Basic Training: How to Navigate Your New StudySync Account Register Now

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

• 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM EST How Administrators Can Best Utilize StudySync Register Now
• 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM EST Basic Training: How to Navigate Your New StudySync Account Register Now

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

• 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM EST Basic Training: The Reading Routine - Reading & Rigor in StudySync Register Now

Thursday, January 5, 2023

• 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM EST Basic Training: Create and Grade Assignments Register Now

The video above gives you an overview for Secondary English Curriculum. Use the Quick Links on the landing page of the ELA 6-12 Webpage for easy navigation to English Curriculum items (Curriculum/Instructional Resources 6-8 Quick Link; Curriculum/Instructional Resources 9-12 Quick Link). To access many curricular and district items, you must be logged into Google using your CCS credentials and not a personal account.

Curriculum Maps & Folders:

• Middle School Curriculum Google Doc
• High School Curriculum Google Doc

Adopted Curriculum Resources:

You can see all courses with core resources for English 6-12 in the items linked below:

• Course Resource Spreadsheet with Visuals and
• CCS Adopted, Supplemental, and Intervention Resources List.

The TIER 1 Instructional Resources

• StudySync: English 6-12, Alternate English courses, and some Electives
• StudySync Info Page (access, tutorials, trainings, and more)
• Bedford Texts/Launchpad: Honors and AP English
• Bedford/Launchpad Info Page (access, tutorials, trainings, and more)
• Some Elective Courses will have single resource adoptions.

• Achieve3000 (6-9) The contact person for this resource is Sonja Dill.
• Achieve3000 Info Page (access, tutorials, trainings, and more)
  
• Progress to Success (9-12) You can request copies by emailing Carla Mae Phillips.
• Core Enrichment (6-8) This course can be used for Tiers II/III Intervention.
• College/Career Ready Literacy (6-12) This course can be used for Tiers II/III Intervention.

• TeachingBooks is the where the lists of novels available for teacher use from the warehouse, the curriculum office, in StudySync, and in Course Folders, are found.
• TeachingBooks Info Page (access, tutorials, trainings, and more)

Secondary Literacy Plan

• The CCS Secondary Literacy Plan provides teaching strategies/PD (how to teach) that can be used with the texts/lessons from your adopted resources (what to teach) to address these components of the plan: Academic Language, Reading Comprehension, Writing Competency, and Classroom Discussion. It is rooted in Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement and guided by the Adolescent Simple View of Reading. The plan spans from intermediate literacy that crosses curricular areas to disciplinary literacy that reflects the demands of specific disciplines while allowing for individualized intensive interventions, as needed. Inherent in the plan is that students are reading, writing, and discussing every day in classrooms.
• CCS Secondary Literacy Plan Info Page

---

NEW TEACHERS: If you are new to teaching a secondary English course and did not attend the new teacher orientation sessions, here are some links for you to the items you may have missed.

• New Teacher Orientation Folder (Secondary English)
• Recording: Getting to Know Your Secondary English Resources
• Recording: StudySync for New Users

• English 6-12 Tiered Resources Crosswalk for I-Ready Domain Results

OCTELA CONFERENCE WILL BE IN-PERSON THIS YEAR!

OCTELA 2023 will be held on February 24 and 25, 2023 at DoubleTree Hotel Columbus-Worthington. Register HERE! Featured Speakers | FAQ

Apply HERE. Learn more HERE.

Conexiones: Communicate, Collaborate, Create

#NCTE23 will be in Columbus, Ohio from November 16-19, 2023!

"I can’t wait to cross paths with you all in person in November 2023. I want to learn from the narratives you tell of the pathways you and your students have traveled. Our time together will be a conexión that brings us together to communicate, collaborate, and create and then release expanded versions of ourselves back out into our vast networks of being and meaning, teaching and learning, leading and loving." —Shelley Rodrigo, 2023 Program Chair and NCTE President-Elect

-Learn more about the Conference Theme here.

-MAKE CCS PROUD: This Call for Proposals page has a January 18th Deadline. Think about presenting in your hometown to a national audience!! Below are the presentation types.

Explanation of Session Types

• Committee Meeting: for business meetings of NCTE committees, assemblies, caucuses, conferences, or associations
• Half-Day Workshop: longer session devoted to a topic; registration fee will be charged
• Individual Proposal: with 1-2 presenters; will be combined with 2-3 other proposals to create a panel under a new session title and description
• Panel Presentation: with 3 or more panelists
• Poster Sessions: physical poster presented at a poster board
• Roundtable Session: multiple presenters present on topics; attendees usually listen to 2-3 talks during the session
• Special Interest Group: for NCTE assemblies, caucuses, or conferences

LOCAL POET EVENT WILL FEATURE RETIRED CCS TEACHER, SANDRA FEEN

Join five local poets—Charlene Fix, Chuck Salmons, James Borders, Sandra Feen, and R. Nikolas Macioci—in an evening of readings and conversation at Gramercy Books on Tuesday, January 10th at 7pm. Registration for this event is free. Get Tickets!

THE STANDARDS INSTITUTE (UNBOUND ED) WINTER 2023

The Standards Institute™ happening February 6-10 in Anaheim, CA, is an immersive and transformative five-day in-person learning experience. Educators who attend the Standards Institute™ commit to adaptive change within themselves while enhancing equitable practices focused on GLEAM™ (grade-level, engaging, affirming, meaningful) instruction.

Register and Learn More HERE.

SOMETHING NEW THIS SUMMER: COLUMBUS BOOK FESTIVAL

The Columbus Book Festival will happen July 15-16 in the heart of the city’s downtown Discovery District. The two-day event featuring national and local authors, exhibitors, entertainment and more will showcase Columbus Metropolitan Library’s historic Main Library, the adjacent Kaufman Plaza and Topiary Garden Park. Call for authors, exhibitors and entertainers is now open! Get Involved/Learn More; About the Event Here.

GIVEAWAYS

• TeachingBooks December Contests & Giveaways
• Bulk Bookstore Discounts & Contests (People really do win: I won a $150 shopping spree from the November drawing:)
• We Are Teachers Contests & Giveaways

Encourage your Sophomores to apply to be part of Columbus Journalists in Training, a six-session opportunity to work with print/digital and broadcast journalists in central Ohio as they learn about journalism and create stories for CCS and Dispatch.com.

You can download and copy this COLUMBUS JOURNALISTS IN TRAINING FLYER to hand out to your students.

• 30 CCS Sophomores

• 6 Saturday Training Sessions (January 28-May 6)

• Media Professional Mentors (print/digital and broadcast)

• Final Projects for CCS/Dispatch.com

Apply: https://tinyurl.com/CJIT2023

General Information

It's never too early to begin forming your CCS Poetry Slam teams. This year, there will be a chance to attend two field trips to Spruce Run with your team (December 8 and February 28) to prepare for the District Slam which will happen on April 29th at Eastmoor Academy (5-9pm). Think about having some school slams to form your team and/or having writing gatherings for interested students.

• SLAM INFO/REGISTRATION

• $25 registration fee

• MS (8 poets), 4 slots: individual or group (2 to 6)

• HS (6 poets), 4 slots: individual

• HS Group poem round optional (up to 6 poets)

• Spruce Run Field Trip

• February 28 REGISTER HERE by 2/15!!

• Slam Happens April 29th (5-9pm) $5 admission

• Poetry Slam 2023 Flier

February Field Trip Information

• February 28 REGISTER HERE by 2/15!!

The Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) is sponsoring its annual high school poetry contest, offering prizes and publication to winners in eight categories. A grand prize-winning poem will be published in Common Threads, OPA’s annual poetry journal. Eligible poems will be sent to the Manningham Trust Student Poetry Contest sponsored by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies.

SEE THIS OPA CONTEST DOC FOR MORE INFORMATION. See the OPA site HERE.

CONTEST CATEGORIES & SPONSORS

1. Ethos – Ethos is a Greek word defined as the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution or the fundamental character or spirit of a culture. Write a poem that reflects in some way your own ethnicity or cultural heritage. Any form. 30-line limit. Sponsor: Chuck Salmons

2. Free Verse – A poem of no more than 15 lines on any subject. Sponsor: Jessica Weyer Bentley

3. Humor – A poem that makes us laugh—amusing, humorous, funny (but clean enough to print) in any form. 30-line limit. Sponsor: Pat Snyder Hurley

4. Metrical Measures – Write a poem in any form that is metrical, e.g., sonnet, villanelle, blank verse. 30-line limit. Sponsor: Betsy Hughes

5. Lyric Poem – Any subject. Forms include sonnets, villanelles, pantoums, ghazals, elegies, odes and dramatic monologues. Sponsor: Simple Simons Press

6. Nature Poem – A poem of any style, up to two pages in length, about flowers, seasons, animals, weather, water, trees, or anything else that expresses an appreciation of the natural world. Sponsor: Kerry Trautman

7. Bill Molina: Celebration of Life’s Journey – Poems can be up to 30 lines, formal or free verse, focusing on an actual journey or an internal one. Submissions that are optimistic, even joyful, are appreciated. Sponsor: Kelly Sagert

8. Meter and Rhyme – Write a poem in any form that has meter and rhyme. Examples include the sonnet, the limerick, the rondeau, the ballad, and the villanelle. 30-line limit. Sponsor: Mark F. Stone

PRIZES & PUBLICATION

Awards for each category are $25, $15, and $10, with the possibility of honorable mentions. All judges reserve the right not to award a prize in a category if entries do not meet the category criteria and/or judge’s requirements. Chapbooks with winning poems will be sent to each school by mid-April. Please email or mail all poetry submissions by January 25, 2023.

Email: studentcontest@ohiopoetryassn.org

Regular mail: Send submissions in one envelope to:

Jessica Weyer Bentley, OPA Student Contests, P.O. Box 2, Roundhead, OH 43346

The Columbus Metropolitan Library is bringing back for a fifth year its Winter Reading Challenge, in which students can earn prizes just by reading over break. A twist on CML’s Summer Reading Challenge, Winter Reading Challenge aims to keep reading skills strong when students are out of school over the holidays. From Dec. 1 through Jan. 31, K-12 students can pick up a game board at CML’s 23 locations throughout Franklin County. The annual program challenges students to track their progress as they read for 20 days and complete five activities on their game boards. Examples of game board activities include “Read a book about science,” “Read a book in a series,” “Read a book about a holiday” and many more. Just for signing up, students can select a prize from the library’s Treasure Box. Students who complete the program will earn a book to keep, as well as a drawstring bag.

Prof. Chris Solís Green from DePaul University has invited CCS teachers to submit student work to the inaugural issue of an anthology he is editing, DePaul’s Blue Book: Best American High School Writing 2022. The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2023.

DePaul’s Blue Book Submissions

Being selected to this national anthology would certainly enhance any student’s college applications and will also inspire selected students to continue to pursue writing in college.Copies of the anthology will be distributed nationally, and a free e-book will be available for teachers to potentially use as a resource in classes.

Flip the Page: Central Ohio's Teen Literary Journal

Flip the Page is written, staffed, and produced by Central Ohio teens. The mission is to provide a showcase for the work of young local writers and offer opportunities to learn about submission, critique, editorial design, and publication. All accepted writers and artists receive a complimentary copy of the journal, which is sold on Amazon. Submissions are juried by a committee of teen writers from Thurber House's Young Writers' Studio (see above). Learn more and submit here: Flip the Page Site. The deadline is January 28th.

Writing Submission Guidelines

• Must be a resident of Central Ohio (Franklin, Delaware, Union, Madison, Pickaway, Fairfield, or Licking counties)
• Open to teens ages 13 to 19 years old
• They are interested in short stories, poems, songs, essays, play excerpts, and especially humor pieces
• Maximum of 800 words per piece
• Limit of two entries per person
• Accepted formats are Word documents and shareable Google documents

Prompts are now available for the 2023 Achievement Awards in Writing and Promising Young Writers contests! NCTE encourages educators to share information on these school-based writing awards across the middle and secondary levels. The 2023 contests feature key changes to contest guidelines, eligibility, and scoring designations. Details are available on each contest’s webpage, and a breakdown of the changes can be found here.

Here are key dates for the 2023 contests:

• November 2022: contest opens for submissions.
• February 15, 2023: submission window closes.
• May 2023: winners are announced.

Learn more about the Student Writing Awards today!

The 2023 Writing Competition is open. The deadline to submit is March 31, 2023 (11:59pm CDT)

• SEJONG WRITING COMPETITION PAGE
• Sijo Poetry Competition Specifics
• Essay Competition Specifics
• Application Page

Sijo category

The sijo is a traditional three-line Korean poetic form organized technically and thematically by line and syllable count. Using the sijo form, write one poem in English on a topic of your choice. For examples of sijo, more information, and teaching materials – including teaching guides for sijo, please visit this website.

The goal of our sijo category is to introduce students to a lesser-known style of poetry, the traditional Korean sijo. Read about how to write sijo, or see last year's winning entries.

Adult division (age 19 & older)
Pre-college division (age 18 & younger)

Sijo Category Prizes:

• Adult division: First ($1,000), Second ($750), Third ($500)
• Pre-college division: First ($500), Second ($400), Third ($300)
• Honorable mention (for both divisions listed above): Friends of Pacific Rim Awards ($50 each)

Essay category

Focusing on introducing students and young adults to Korean culture and history through literature, this essay category utilizes folk tales and contemporary literature to explore Korean culture, past and present.

Adult division (age 19-30 years): Contestants are to read Kim Jung-hyuk's short story “The Glass Shield” and write an essay in response to the provided prompt.

Snior division (grade 9th - 12th): Contestants are to read Ha Seong-nan's short story “Waxen Wings ” and write an essay in response to the provided prompt.

Junior division (grade 8th and younger): Contestants are to write an essay in response to one of two provided prompts regarding a folktale of the contestant's choice. Contestants must choose one of the stories listed on this folktales page.

Essay Category Prizes:

• Adult division: First ($1,000), Second ($750), Third ($500)
• Senior division: First ($500), Second ($400), Third ($300)
• Junior division: First ($300), Second ($200), Third ($100)
• Honorable mention (for all divisions listed above): Friends of Pacific Rim Awards ($50 each)

Mission: The goals of the Sejong Writing Competition are to discover children and young adults talented in writing and to encourage them to learn and write about Korean and its culture. Through this writing competition we hope to increase the awareness and understanding of Korea’s cultural heritage amongst the younger generations growing up in the United States. Note: Only one entry per category per applicant is permitted.