NCTE to meet in Chicago November 2011, so planning begins now... Chicago: the place to change education
On Nov. 19, 2010, a remarkable thing happened at the 99th annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in Orlando. A motion was brought to the assembled house by Stephen Krashen, Carol Mikoda, Susan Ohanian, and Joanne Yatvin.
Sense of the House Motion
November 19, 2010
The NCTE expresses disapproval of the concept of national standards to be applied to all students and of the specifics of those written by the National Governor's Association.
NCTE will alert its members to the dangers of expending major efforts on standards and tests, which make meaningful teaching impossible.
NCTE members vote at such gathering by waving an orange card. So there’s no place to hide This motion provoked heated debate and passed by a considerable margin.
Now the NCTE Executive Committee needs to hear from a concerned membership.
Please note: For its 100th convention, NCTE will return to Chicago, where it was born in 1911 to fight for teacher autonomy and appropriate curricula. The date is November 17-20, 2011, and the convention theme is “Reading the Past, Writing the Future.
This convention provides a wonderful opportunity for the most vibrant teacher union in the country to be heard. NCTE vice-president Keith Gilyard is calling for program proposals. The deadline for online proposals in Jan. 19, 2011:
https://secure.ncte.org/proposals/annual/login.aspx
(You need to be an NCTE member to use this form.)
The surface mail deadline is Jan. 12, 2011: NCTE 2011 Convention Program, 1111 W. Kenyon Rd., Urbana, IL 61801-1096.
Faxed proposals are not accepted.
Join NCTE and work for change.
EDITOR'S NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS THE ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT THE 2011 CONVENTION FROM THE NCTE WEBSITE:
Plan Now to Attend the 2011 Annual Convention!
"Reading the Past, Writing the Future", November 17-20, 2011 Chicago, IL
Post-convention workshops - November 21-22, 2011
Call for proposals from Program Chair Keith Gilyard
As Ralph Ellison’s embattled character Jessie Rockmore would know, it is important to recall the best lessons from history to inform present deliberations and try to set the most desirable course for the future. This is the spirit in which the distinguished Erika Lindemann edited the sterling new history of the Council, Reading the Past, Writing the Future, and is the timbre and theme by which we invite proposals for the centennial convention of the National Council of Teachers of English. Our organization’s past as a force in the arena of literacy education must be understood fully--must be “read”--so that we can meaningfully provide guidance as professionals. Of course, we must write the past as well and be astute about reading the future as it unfolds and lurches, as surely as it will, somewhat beyond our control as “writers.”
For next year in Chicago, where our organization began with great determination in 1911, we plan to offer a program that features testimony, inquiry, reflection, experimentation, analysis, and speculation. With the rich history of NCTE as a backdrop--from the rebellious founders who were combating elite-university encroachment on high school curriculums to courageous opponents of racist, sexist, and homophobic instruction to committed supporters of productively principled teacher autonomy and cultural inclusiveness--we will gather to take stock of our collective journey and to renew ourselves. We will push for greater clarity on such matters as reading instruction, writing initiatives, literature study, rhetoric, technology, assessment, and professional development. We will ponder the links among literacy learning, informed citizenship, democracy, and social justice. We will consider government policy and the challenges that lie ahead for the Council and the education enterprise at large as we work to improve the educational prospects of our nation’s splendidly diverse student body.
NCTE was founded as the nation both sped and stumbled through the early years of the twentieth century. Progressivism was wedded to problems. Schooling both helped and hampered. As we work through the early years of the twenty-first century with all of their promise and vexation, our group, honoring the best of its history, as Rockmore would have it, must continue to strive to make literacy education a force for the common good. The centennial conference in Chicago, our hometown, is part of that effort.
Submit a Proposal for the 2011 Annual Convention — Don't forget to submit your proposal for next year! NCTE is now accepting program proposals for "Reading the Past, Writing the Future," the 2011 Annual Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
IF YOU ARE AN NCTE MEMBER, YOU CAN Submit your proposal online. Deadline is January 19, 2011, for ONLINE submissions
