The Asilomar Conference is based on sustained group discussions following the teachers-teaching-teachers, collaborative learning philosophy. Resource and chair persons in each group do not function as lecturers. Rather, participants share information and insights as the discussions evolve. The emphasis is on good conversation and the pursuit of intellectual interests. For the group to maintain integrity, it is necessary that the same people stay together for the weekend. It is also essential that people prepare by reading the suggested books for the section they choose.
Asilomar 59 Group Sessions
1. Works of Nobel Note VII: William Inge
GENERAL ENRICHMENT
Mid-century playwrights explored postwar USA; William Inge revealed its midwestern underbelly with themes common to all his major works: “ the complexity of human love, loneliness, failure, frustration, and the overwhelming need to accept life as it is” – themes from his own life. We shall read his plays, discuss them, and ask why they are now seldom revived.
PRE-CONFERENCE READING: Four plays, William Inge [ISBN 978-0802132093]; Splendor in the Grass (the play), William Inge, adapted by F.A. Leslie [ISBN 978-0822210665]
2. Dorothy Allison: Two or Three Things I Know for Sure
GENERAL ENRICHMENT
Dorothy Allison presents an unflinching vision of the ugliness and injustices of poverty in her works. Yet, she holds faith in the redemption and power of love, one of the major themes in her works. Join us as we read aloud from Bastard Out of Carolina and Two or Three Things I Know for Sure as we further explore the theme of the human search for love and acceptance.
PRE-CONFERENCE READING: Bastard Out of Carolina, and Two or Three Things I Know For Sure by Dorothy Allison
3. Teaching Fight Club
GRADES 9-12 TEACHING MATERIALS PROVIDED
Chuck Palahniuk’s 1996 novel is intense, engaging, and highly literate. Participants will discuss what makes Fight Club teachable, and will examine the struggles, responsibilities, and rewards involved when teachers include this or other challenging works in our curriculum. We will model, practice, and create classroom lessons.
I am Jack’s discussion group. Chuck Palahniuk’s 1996 novel is intense, engaging, and highly literate. Saying you’ll teach Fight Club raises blood pressure in some colleagues, pulses with some students, and smiles from anyone who’s read it. Participants will discuss what makes Fight Club teachable, and will examine the struggles, responsibilities, and incredible educational rewards involved when teachers include Fight Club or other challenging and challenged works of literature in our curriculum. We will model, practice, and create classroom lessons full of great ideas for teaching Fight Club, with possible topics of focus to include: Getting Fight Club approved; , Use of Second Person Narration; The Place of History; The Individual vs. Society; Real vs. Artificial; Gender; Existentialism; Fight Club and the High School Literary Canon; & any and all other ideas the group members have.
PRE-CONFERENCE READING: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk; visit www.chuckpalahniuk.net
4. A Culture of Discontent: Steinbeck and the 21st Century
GRADES 9-COLLEGE GENERAL ENRICHMENT USEFUL FOR NEW TEACHERS DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION TEACHING MATERIAL PROVIDED
Through the eyes of Steinbeck, explore the cultural forces of his writing and the
parallels between today’s times and that of the turbulent early decades of the twentieth
century. According to Steinbeck, “Man grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his
concepts, and emerges ahead of his accomplishments.” Discussion will focus on The Grapes of Wrath,
Of Mice and Men and The Pastures of Heaven and their applications for the classroom.
PRE-CONFERENCE READING: The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and/or The Pastures of Heaven.
5. Who's Afraid of Opera?
GRADES 9-COLLEGE
GENERAL ENRICHMENT
Curious about opera but don’t know a great deal about it or love opera but would like better background
knowledge? The leaders of this group will offer you an insider’s look at the world of opera. Using
videos and audio examples, the group will focus on listening skills to help you increase your enjoyment
of opera. No previous opera experience or knowledge is necessary. We will focus on one opera that will
be performed at the SF Opera during the 2010 - 2011 year, along with a number of other opera selections.
Suggestions for including opera within the English curriculum will be offered.
6. Iran in Search of Itself
GRADES 9-COLLEGE GENERAL ENRICHMENT
A sensitive and compelling story told through the eyes of a seventeen-year old boy in Tehran during
the summer of 1973 provides the raw material for Mahbod Seraji’s debut novel
The Rooftops of Tehran that reveals life in
Iran on the verge of social and political revolution. Discussion includes Iran then and now through
this ALA selection for young adults. Discussion will also provide insight into classroom applications
for this novel.
7. Young Adult Literature: Fostering Hope and Compassion
GRADES 9-COLLEGE USEFUL FOR NEW TEACHERS
Young Adult literature's relevance makes it an appealing and motivating genre, one which can also serve to develop a sense of global citizenship. We will explore text-based activities that link the award-winning YA texts to broader social and political issues. A reading list will be provided in advance but please bring copies of your favorites.
Young Adult literature's relevance and immediacy make it an appealing and motivating genre, one which can also serve to develop a sense of global citizenship. The question I would like to explore with you is the following: How can we use these texts to create an awareness that is both compassionate and hopeful, one that creates a sense of positive engagement with the world. We will explore text-based activities that link the award-winning YA texts to broader social and political issues, share favorites, and consider strategies to create compassionate citizens of the world.
Related resources:
The Bellwether Prize for Fiction: http://www.bellwetherprize.org
Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/yalsa.cfm
Richie’s Picks
http://www.richiespicks.com
PRE-CONFERENCE READING:Reading list and relevant articles provided in advance.
8. River of Words
GRADES K-COLLEGE USEFUL FOR NEW TEACHERS TEACHING MATERIAL PROVIDED
In this poetry writing session we will write a lot, focusing on the importance of place. Learn fun and engaging ways to spark your students’ (and your own) imaginations by writing that informs and inspires. River of Words® is a place-based K-12 program created to promote watershed awareness, literacy and the arts
PRE-CONFERENCE READING: Reading list and relevant articles provided in advance.
9. Writing on the Road
GRADES K-COLLEGE GENERAL ENRICHMENT USEFUL FOR NEW TEACHERS
Teachers of writing rarely have time to practice the craft of writing themselves. Participants select a local destination and are given the time to write. Group members respond to one another’s drafts. Spend a weekend writing and brushing up on how to get students to respond to one another’s writing.
PRE-CONFERENCE READING: None
10. Thinking through Nature
GRADES K-COLLEGE GENERAL
ENRICHMENT USEFUL FOR NEW TEACHERS
DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION TEACHING MATERIAL PROVIDED
This session focuses on using interdisciplinary outdoor education
to foster identification with the environment. Activities will include
eco-critical readings of Steinbeck and Ricketts, as well as practice with
eco-composition and field journaling. Presenters have led groups to bioregions
including Baja, the Monterey Area, Humboldt County, and regions of Oregon.
This three-part workshop will take place mostly outdoors. Presenters
will introduce existing research on and arguments in favor of outdoor
experiential education. Second, the group will spend the day in the field
practicing both reading and writing in a context that highlights the natural
world, and discuss how these practices enhance interdisciplinary education.
Participants will be encouraged to keep a journal. Finally, the group will
workshop the writing they did over the weekend, and discuss how these activities
can be used in a variety of classroom settings.
PRE-CONFERENCE READING: None
11. The Personal Juice of Learning and Teaching: Engagement Through Fun and Meaning
GRADES 9-COLLEGE GENERAL ENRICHMENT USEFUL FOR NEW TEACHERS DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION TEACHING MATERIAL PROVIDED
Before achievement, God created engagement. Learning should bring our students alive! How can your unique teaching personality best enliven your students’ learning, growing souls? How indeed? Make some fun. Make some meaning. Then think about standards. Pondering principles and practices, sharing tools and techniques, we’ll leave this session ready to guide our students to the juicy springs of engaged learning. Bring classroom examples.
An early-career English department chair joins forces with a veteran teacher/author to explore the roles personalities play in engaged learning. How can we assess our own teaching personality types and find methods to interact with our students’ personalities to optimize learning engagement in our classrooms? Interactive, risky, random quizzes and games build interest –and fun. Sustained purposeful reflection, ubiquitous questioning, and award-winning projects build meaning. In this interactive session, we’ll have fun building meaning as we learn new ways to engage our students in learning.
12. Film as Discourse
GRADES 6-COLLEGE USEFUL FOR NEW TEACHERS DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION TEACHING MATERIAL PROVIDED
From satellite television to websites to mobile phones to movies, film/video continues to integrate with and change both society and how people “receive” information. Participants will explore the filmmaking-literacy connection through a fun, intensive filmmaking seminar, taking ‘projects’ through concept, shooting, editing, and finishing phases. If possible, bring video cameras.
13. Beyond the Bells and Whistles: Connecting Students with Literature Using 21st Century Skills
GRADES 9-COLLEGE GENERAL ENRICHMENT USEFUL FOR NEW TEACHERS DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION TEACHING MATERIAL PROVIDED
Participants will learn effective strategies to help their students gain the following: a better understanding of literary criticism and effective strategies for comparing major literary works, exploring literary allusions and improving their research skills. They will create “Google sites” incorporating all of these components and share their sites with the class. Laptops with wireless capabilities would be very helpful for participants.
PRE-CONFERENCE READING: A website will be created prior to Asilomar 59 for pre-conference information and materials. Check back for a link to that site.
14. Civil Rights History and ELA & SS State Standards
USEFUL FOR NEW TEACHERS DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION TEACHING MATERIAL PROVIDED
This interactive workshop will explore how Civil Rights history can be taught throughout the school year as part of one’s scheduled curriculum. We will provide handouts of film, book and curriculum resources accumulated by the SF Freedom School in collaboration with middle and high school teachers.
We will ask the participants the share what they believe are the underlying principles of U.S. history or literature—e.g., democratic themes or threads that recur from the colonial conquest to today. We would also like everyone to share an example of how they teach such basic principles. Handouts will include suggestions as to how to tie Civil Rights History to the revised California state standards, emphasizing the organizing tradition in U.S. history. By exploring how ordinary, everyday people make change (and not just the leaders or “heroes”), we hope to provide teachers with some ideas of how to further “dismantle the master’s narrative” as well as help teachers present a multi-faceted approach to empowerment. We believe the detailed story of the Civil Rights Movement can inspire students to feel empowered today.
Links to Related Sources:
San Francisco Freedom School / Education and Democracy
Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement
Rethinking Schools Civil Rights Teaching Resource list
Liberation Curriculum at the King Institute, Stanford
Teaching Tolerance: Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching
Without Sanctuary
Sojourn to the Past
Civil Rights 2.0
15. Having Hard Conversations
GENERAL ENRICHMENT USEFUL FOR NEW TEACHERS TEACHING MATERIAL PROVIDED
As administrators, coaches or teacher leaders, we often encounter situations where difficult topics must be addressed. What are the best strategies for those moments? What questions should we be asking ourselves before we speak? Based on research around conflict and interpersonal communications, this session will provide action plans and scripting tools for having those necessary hard conversations.
16. Cross-Cultural Fluency among High Schools, Here and There
GRADES K-COLLEGE
Explore how to adapt online technologies to promote writing and Cross-Cultural Fluency (CCF).
Focus is on the evolving uses of (Internet) genres, e.g. blogs, email, etc. to create and refine
written exchanges with outside cultures. Participate in designing prompts and assessing the effects
of interacting with remote audiences on students’ writing improvement and cultural fluency.
PRE-CONFERENCE READING: Visit Cross Cultural Fluency Website