English Language Arts Dispatch
June 2016
Have a Great Summer!
Updates & Announcements
Unfilled Summer School Positions
The following sites need teachers to teach summer school. Curriculum is already developed! Please contact Dr. del Rosario if you are interested.
CVH - ENGLISH 9-A, ENGLISH 10-A, ENGLISH 10-B, ENGLISH 11-B
ORH- ENGLISH 11-A, ENGLISH 11-B
SYH- ENGLISH 11-A, ENGLISH 11-B, 9-B
GJH- ENGLISH 7A, ENGLISH 7B
Important Upcoming Dates
As soon as we receive dates for 2016-17 ELA Cohort & Zone PD, we will communicate those via the July Newsletter.
Updated High School ERWC Training Dates
ERWC HS
Cohort A
Day 1: Thursday, July 28th
Day 2: Friday, July 29th
Day 3: Tuesday, August 16th
Day 4: Wednesday, October 19th
Cohort B
Day 1: Monday, August 1st
Day 2: Tuesday, August 2nd
Day 3: Wednesday, August 24th
Day 4: Tuesday, October 25th
English Language Arts Accolades 2015-2016
OTAY RANCH HIGH SCHOOL - On April 15th, Mr. Dan Kray and Ms. Karen Saiki organized the 1st Annual Otay Experience Forum. Their English 12 students welcomed a panel of local sheroes that have significantly impacted our community. Panelists included a CA State Assemblywoman, SUHSD’s Superintendent, a Superior Court judge, an SDSU Assistant Dean, two television news journalists and a U.S. Navy aircrew survival equipment man. This was the culminating event of a year-long pilot that used Luis Alberto Urrea’s Into the Beautiful North to have honest conversations about race, gender and finding the hero within.
BONITA VISTA HIGH SCHOOL -
Newspaper
Their newspaper, Crusader was awarded 1st place at the San Diego Fair. Seniors Danica Cajigas, Segan Helle, and Juliette Nguyen earned recognition on the National Scholastic Press Association’s Honor Roll.
Speech & Debate
Eleven students qualified for the California High School Spech Association’s State Championships held this April 15-17 at Mission College: Danielle Bloom (Policy and a semi-finalist in Expository), Tanner Hamilton (Duo Interpretation), Segan Helle (Public Forum & Oratorical Interpretation), Gilbert Neuner (Lincoln Douglas), Katherine Neuner (Policy), Shreya Ranganath (Duo Interpretaition), Gilbert Rosal (Duo Interpretation), Trevor Swafford (Finalist in Congress), Mary Talamantez (Expository), Camila Tellez (Duo Interpretation), Alex Vergara (Public Forum & Original Oratory).
Four students qualified for the National Speech & Debate Association’s National Championships to be held June 12-17, 2016, in Salt Lake City, Utah: Danielle Bloom (Informative Speaking), Segan Helle (Public Forum), Trevor Swafford (Congress), and Alex Vergara (Public Forum).
We have one student who is recognized as an NSDA All-American (top 150 competitors in the nation): Segan Helle, currently ranked in the top 40 (37).We have 8 students recognized as NSDA All-State (top 150 competitors in California): Segan Helle (ranked 4th), Trevor Swafford (ranked 15th), Alex Vergara (ranked 28th), Kaiden Gipson (ranked 45th), Danielle Bloom (ranked 84th), Mary Talamantez (ranked 95th), Alek Komatina (ranked 107th), and Gilbert Neuner (ranked 111).
MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL - Evan Fairbairn, Tala Kosa and Nancy Schmerbauch organized a field trip which introduced around 90 AVID students to three different colleges: UCI, CSU Long Beach and CSU Dominguez Hills and took them to an LA Galaxy game. Five of Jessica Jepsen’s seniors have entered the essay contest for the La Jolla Literary Society. We will find out results soon!
PALOMAR HIGH SCHOOL- So far this school year, Palomar seniors have been awarded:
5 Kiwanis scholarships, CABE scholarship, Salute to Education/Ford dealers' scholarship, American Legion scholarship, 4 Chula Vista Woman's Club scholarships, Windows of Opportunity scholarship and 2 Judge Lowell Howell scholarships.
EASTLAKE HIGH SCHOOL- At Titan Expo Night, the 10th grade English PLC had students work with their parents to annotate a text from Shakespeare. Then they used Kahoot to check understanding with the requirement that parents had to be the technology users. We offered a small prize for the top five finishers. It was a fun competition and both students and parents were very engaged.
SUHSD ELA TEACHERS
Kimberly Lepre of Hilltop Middle School was selected as a2016 Sweetwater District Teacher of the Year.
Diane Ince of Castle Park Middle School was selected as a2015 Sweetwater District Teacher of the Year
John Patel of San Ysidro High was selected as 2016 Greater San Diego Reading Association’s District Honoree.
Ed Gillet of Eastlake High led a module writing seminar with ERWC leadership and teachers from around California. The ERWC module writing seminar involved 5 visits to Los Angeles to collaborate with CSU faculty and the other module writers, along with extensive online collaboration, to take ideas for new ERWC modules from inception to completed curriculum ready for implementation in grade 6-12 classrooms.
Karen Wubenhorst of Palomar High was selected as a fellow in the Teachers for Global Classrooms program this school year. This is a program of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is funded by IREX. It is a professional development program where she completed coursework, collaborated with 82 fellows nationally, and participated in a symposium in Washington DC in February, and she will have international field experience in Colombia this summer.
Follow Us on Twitter
Twitter 101: Understanding the Basics
How to use Twitter with Students?
50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom
Ed Camp 619
Join us at Sweetwater High School on Saturday, August 27th 8 am to 12 pm for Ed Camp 619!
We have a website here.
If you are unfamiliar with Edcamps, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr7teMAk-hA&feature=youtu.be
Saturday, Aug 27, 2016, 08:00 AM
Sweetwater Union High School District, 2900 Highland Avenue, National City, CA 91950, United States
Call for Manuscripts!
DIFFERENTIATION IN THE CLASSROOM: THE MULTI-HEADED HYDRA
Publication Date: September 2016
Accommodating a broad array of students in the same classroom can be difficult even under the best of circumstances. Have you seen evidence of a “contraction to the middle” in your own teaching or as a result of emphasis on raising test scores? Are your gifted students’ needs being me? Is it too much to ask of teachers to try to tailor assignments for so many? How do you differentiate instruction for the most advanced students in your class? What are some qualities of successful assignments aimed at differentiation?
Deadline for submissions: August 1.
Please send submissions to California English editor, Carol Jago. Articles should be limited to 2,500 words. Please submit manuscripts via email to jago@gseis.ucla.edu.
CATE Professional Writing Contest for Teachers & Educators
2016 PROMPT
As educators, we seek to inspire our students to improve their lives by becoming more literate. How do we inspire students to become more literate? Think of a text (print, digital, electronic) that has spoken to your students, given them guidance in the midst of their complex lives, or inspired them to reflect upon or change their lives in some way. Write a reflective essay about how the text has enabled your students to lead more literate lives.
Deadline for submissions: August 31, 2016
Please send submissions to okdelph@aol.com. Also, please mail back-up, hard copy to:
Olga Kokino CATE PWC Coordinator 2122 Chapala St. Santa Barbara, CA 93105. Articles should be limited to 1,500 words. Include writer’s name, address, phone number, school and district.
“Beyond the Dream:” Black Textual Expressivities between the World and Me
Guest Editor: David E. Kirkland, with Julie Gorlewski and David Gorlewski
Publication Date: March 2017
Teachers, researchers, activists, and public intellectuals are encouraged to contribute manuscripts of 2,500–3,750 words, written to an audience of secondary educators, addressing questions of Black textual expression in English language arts. Black textualities, like Black bodies, are contested in American classrooms, complicated by competing interests that wrestle daily for an ethical place in the consciousness of English language arts. However, in English language arts classrooms, Black textualities have the power to move our assumptions about past beliefs that strip away Black humanity. They can also bring us closer to those complex narratives of people that build humanity and nurture sensitivities that abolish internal and external contracts of bigotry and violence. Through such textualities, English language arts teaching takes on a new meaning. Here, it means instructing the mind as well as the heart. It means teaching for justice, which is always and only about teaching (to) love.
Deadline for submissions: July 15, 2016
Textual Revolution: Reading and Writing the Word and the World
Publication Date: May 2017
Texts reflect society in that they are continuously evolving. This evolution is inevitable, even welcome, and tends to be incremental. The idea of “continuous improvement” often associated with classroom practice is a form of evolution. Revolution, by contrast, is a daunting, comprehensive concept, analogous to the field of education and large-scale reform. This issue of EJ challenges teachers to provide examples of how they and their students shift from passive evolution to active revolution. Questions that submissions might consider include the following: How do students enact and reveal changes in text, in media, and in language? How can interacting with text contribute to the development of learners as engaged participants in social change? In what ways do reading, writing, speaking, and listening in secondary English reflect and construct the worlds we inhabit? How can students, teachers, and texts intersect to interrupt existing structures? What texts can change the world, and how?
Deadline for Submission: September 15, 2016
Culturally Responsive Teaching within Middle Grades
Publication Date: March 2017
In his Presidential Address at the 2014 NCTE Annual Convention, Ernest Morrell reminded us that “the diversity in our English classrooms is our greatest strength.” This issue challenges us to consider the ways we engage our middle level students in learning that is culturally and socially relevant and responsive. How do we develop student voices, skills, and understandings in a way that empowers all students to speak their truths? What are the texts that help us to come together in understanding our differences and our sameness? Where are our collective and communal struggles? What classroom teaching engages middle level students in developing their skills as critical readers and writers? How can student readers and writers do work that actually changes their communities? We invite you to guide our readers in seeing the multiple and authentic ways in which we create opportunities for all of our students to tell their stories and engage in social action.
Deadline for Submission: June 1, 2016
What’s Next in Teaching Reading
Publication Date: May 2017
Middle level readers are an exacting bunch, and recent professional texts have helped teachers create experiences that offer study of process and skills along with time to simply read. We’ve constructed classroom libraries and collaborated with students to create useful anchor charts. But, what’s next? This issue invites us to share our most recent discoveries and lessons when it comes to growing the skills, practices, and identities of middle level readers. What kinds of assessment are most useful in helping students to understand and, eventually, self-regulate their practices? How are you using digital tools and technologies to support student readers of electronic and print texts? What are the texts that feed your students’ interests, imaginations, and craft as writers? We invite you to share the ways in which you and your students are working together to become even stronger and more thoughtful readers.
Deadline for submission: August 1, 2016
PD Opportunities
Courageous Creativity Conference
The California Arts Project (TCAP) along with Disney Imagineering presents the Courageous Creativity Conference in June of each year. The conference is held at Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel. This unique conference is open to educators and administrators in kindergarten through 12th grade, post-secondary, district, and state levels and provides insight into the link between visual and performing arts education and the arts, media, and entertainment careers. The conference provides a behind the scenes look at arts and entertainment in action, a panel of Disney Imagineers, informative breakouts, and guest speakers, including Martin Sklar, retired Executive Vice President and "imagineering ambassador." For more information, please see the event flyer and registration form.
Teacher Leadership Academy SDCOE
http://www.sdcoe.net/lls/ccr/Pages/teacherleaders.aspx
ELA/ELD Framework
http://www.sdcoe.net/lls/ccr/Pages/NewCaliforniaELAELDFramework.aspx
ELA Curriculum Team
Contacts
District ELA Curriculum Specialist, Contact for Zones: 1A, 2B, 3B, 4A
Rhea Faldoenea-Walker
District ELA Curriculum Specialist, Contact for Zones: 1B, 2A, 3A, 4B
SpEd ELA and Read180
English Learner Programs Instructional Specialist: SEI/BIL/DL
Rebecca Robinson
ELD Curriculum & Instructional Specialist
Lisa Burgess
Email: gina.vattuone@sweetwaterschools.org
Website: https://sweetwaterschools.instructure.com/courses/1110585
Phone: 619-691-5500