Book Research, Action Research: Strategies for Digging into Local Issues
In this workshop we'll consider balancing responsible internet research practices with "action research" strategies that bring students into their communities in search of local experts. Together we'll consider the benefits of both "seat" research and "feet" research as kids move back and forth from the computer desks to the outside world in search of answers to their questions about community issues. Teachers will walk away with concrete strategies to launch and support inquiry projects that encourage kids to get involved locally.
Pablo Wolfe is a Washington DC-based educator who promotes civic education as a means to improve student engagement, celebrate student identity, and embolden the next generation of activists. He’s been a public school administrator, a staff developer with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, a teacher, and a parent, and in all of these roles has sought to make school a training ground for civic life. Pablo is also the author (with Mary Ehrenworth and Marc Todd) of The Civically Engaged Classroom: Reading, Writing and Speaking for Change (Heinemann, 2021). In “Tackling the Bias Within”, we will ask the critical question: How do we teach students to handle their implicit biases in the literacy classroom? In this workshop, Pablo will provide practical methods for teaching middle and high school readers the metacognitive tools to explore and question their reactions to the texts they read and watch.