High School English Teacher Summer Summit

Session 1

Ignite Your Choice Reading Program 

We all want to help our students fall in love with reading. One key element to get there is through a solid choice reading program. In this session, Betsy Potash walks you through:

• Why designing an effective choice reading program is so essential in the HS English classroom
• How to be a book PR agent
• Simple ways to keep your students accountable for reading (without reading check quizzes or standard book reports)

You’ll finish this session with a clear, actionable roadmap for implementing a choice-reading program for your students this fall. 

Session 2

Practical Ways To Bring AI Into Any Class

If you have struggled to know what AI Literacy means and where it fits into your classroom, this session is for you. Matt Miller breaks down:

• What exactly AI Literacy means and why it's so important
• Bite-sized ways to bring AI Literacy into your classroom without any elaborate lesson planning
• Specific ways to preserve critical thinking in your classroom 

You’ll finish this session with a renewed hope that your classroom can absolutely foster critical thinking and written expression even in an AI-age. 

Session 3

Using a Reader Identity Quiz To Support All Students

Danielle Hicks explains how to use a multiple-choice Reader Identity Quiz to give your students their reading profile early in the school year. In this session, Danielle walks you through:

• What typical reading surveys miss and what to do instead
• Her easy-to-use reader identity quiz
• How this insight gained from this strategy helps both teachers and students

After watching this session, you'll have a tool to give your students a reader profile that helps them understand their reading habits and tendencies. You'll also be armed with data to help support them all year long.

Session 4

How To Run a Hybrid Book Club That Deepens Students' Skills

Jeanmarie McLaughlin explains how to combine traditional, structured book clubs with the flexibility of digital tools to build a highly engaging "hybrid" reading community. In her session, Jeanmarie breaks down

• What a hybrid book club is and what it looks like in her classroom
• How this method maximizes student choice
• Resources and strategies for how to incorporate a hybrid book club in your classroom

After watching this session, you’ll have a clear, step-by-step framework for launching book clubs that don't fall apart or require endless teacher tracking. You'll also be equipped with the exact layout needed to keep high schoolers talking about books and enjoying it!

Session 5

How To Be Happy: Strategies for Implementing Joy Into the English Classroom

Veteran teacher for 20 years, Corinne Skott walks you through the "Happiness" unit she's designed for AP Lang (although it's easily adaptable to other grades and levels).  In this unit, Corinne breaks down:

• How to reframe suffering as resiliency 
• Simple strategies to infuse joy into any unit
• EQs, summative suggestions, multimedia texts, and so much more so you are equipped to bring a happiness unit into your own classroom

After watching this session, you'll have strategies and detailed lesson ideas you can use right away. 

Session 6

Poetry Without The Pressure: Go-To Strategies For Teaching Poetry Without Over-teaching It  

Teaching poetry can be intimidating, and many of us fear "over-teaching" it.  In this session, Lesa Smith breaks down:

• Ways to engage every level of learner in experiencing poetry before they analyze it 
• How to avoid over-teaching poetry so students can experience the fun of it
• Simple methods for weaving poetry into your school year to avoid the once-a-year, isolated poetry unit

After watching this session, you'll be excited to weave poetry into your current units in fresh ways!

Session 7

Creative Disruptions For the High School English Classroom

Are you tired of fighting student apathy? It's time for a creative disruption. Join Nate Seaburg as he shares what has worked to get his students to buy in. He shares:

• Unconventional, high-engagement strategies that bring novels to life (i.e. character trials)
• What it looks like to stage a character wedding or funeral and how this models a love of reading
• How to leverage real-world partnerships with local theater groups for your Shakespeare unit 

You’ll finish this session with strategies that will shake up your classroom (in the best way possible) and resources for setting up a mock trial.

Session 8

A Step-by-Step Guide For Using Podcasts In Your Classroom

Interested in using podcasts with your students, but not quite sure where to start? In this session, Missy walks you through 

• The research (how actively listening to podcasts actually leads students to become stronger readers)
• Specific strategies for podcast lessons and complete podcast units
• Her top 10 list of podcasts to use in the high school English classroom

You’ll walk away with a clear idea of how you can use podcasts in any unit as a supplemental text or even do a full unit with a podcast as the anchor text!

Session 9

From Panic to Practice: How Teachers are Actually Navigating AI 

A Panel Discussion on Professional Use and Student Impact

AI has affected all of us. That's why we've opened up the conversation to discuss what's happening and what to do as English teachers. In this panel discussion, veteran teachers discuss:

• How they are using AI in terms of lesson planning, providing feedback, and more 
• To what extent they are (or aren't) incorporating AI into assignments
• What this all means for writing instruction and how they are  preserving the writing process

This session invites you to join the ongoing professional dialogue on navigating AI in the classroom.

The AI panel discussion will be added soon.