News Release
November 2003
(Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)— Four Lehigh Valley area teachers,
graduates of Moravian College’s Master of Education Program in
Curriculum and Instruction, will present literacy research conducted
in Lehigh Valley public schools during the 93rd Annual Convention of
the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), to be held in San
Francisco, California, November 20–25, 2003.
Danielle Gilly, 8th grade teacher and coordinator
of writing K-8 in the Saucon Valley School District, will present
a paper titled “Writing
Where [It Seems] No One Has Written Before,” chronicling her
efforts to form a support group for teachers of writing.
Susan McGinley and Beth Wolford, primary teachers
in the Easton Area School District, will share the results of a year-long
joint teacher
action research study in their presentation “Language and Literacy
Through Free Exploration and Play: Two Case Studies.”
Sue Smeltzer, a former elementary teacher in the
Wilson Area School District, conducted a two-year study of writing
workshop practices
in the second grade and will share her findings in her presentation “Pushing
the Envelope: Introducing Student Choice and Voice in Our Schools.”
The Moravian graduates will be introduced by Dr. Joseph Shosh, assistant
professor of education and director of the Moravian M.Ed. program,
who will explain the critical framework used by the teachers to analyze
their research data. Dr. Margot Ely, professor of teaching and learning
at New York University, will question the panel and lead audience discussion.
Some 6,000 teachers and supervisors of elementary,
middle, and secondary school English; English instructors at two-year
colleges; college faculty
in English and rhetoric; and teacher educators from across the United
States and around the world will attend this year’s NCTE Convention.
On the agenda for the meeting are nearly 600 concurrent sessions and
workshops focusing on all aspects of the teaching of English, talks
by well-known educators and authors, exhibits of new teaching materials,
sessions of working committees, and business meetings.
The National Council of Teachers of English, with 60,000 individual
and institutional members worldwide, is dedicated to improving the
teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels
of education.
