Writing with Love and Agency: An Invitation to Annotate with Marginal Syllabus

For this conversation, we are joined by Bronwyn Clare LaMay, author of Personal Narrative, Revised: Writing Love and Agency in the High School Classroom (2016, Teachers College Press and National Writing Project). Guests explore how students and teachers can bring their whole selves to the classroom and how drawing on their personal experiences via narrative writing can lead to a richer exploration of literature and other academic subjects. We dive deeper into Chapter 5 of the book, titled “Revising Narrative Truth,” in collaboration with the organizers of Marginal Syllabus; this conversation kicked off a week-long “annotathon” hosted by Marginal Syllabus, which can be viewed here.

More about Marginal Syllabus:

The Marginal Syllabus is an informal educator professional learning effort that convenes monthly annotation conversations, or “annotathons,” about issues of educational equity. Marginal Syllabus organizers partner with authors and education experts whose scholarly perspectives may be considered marginal to dominant conventions of schooling and education. The openly accessible texts of partner authors – whether book chapters or blog posts – are selected as online forums for conversation among K-12 and postsecondary educators via the open educational practices of web annotation (conversations that occur in a text’s margins). Both the individual texts where monthly dialogue occurs – and the syllabus as a cohesive, growing document – represent a dynamic conversation that seeks to open texts as contexts for educators’ interest-driven learning.

Participants for this Webinar include:

• Christina Cantrill (host), Associate Director of National Programs at the National Writing Project
• Jordan Carter, Teacher, Rangeview High School in Aurora Public Schools in Colorado
• Joe Dillon, Teacher, Rangeview High School in Aurora Public Schools in Colorado and Denver Writing Project Teacher Consultant
• Remi Kalir, Assistant Professor of Information and Learning Technologies at the University of Colorado Denver School of Education and Human Development
• Bronwyn LaMay, High school teacher at Impact Academy of Arts and Technology in Hayward, CA and author of Personal Narrative, Revised.

Resources for this Webinar:

• Writing Love and Ourselves in the Classroom and Beyond (includes full details on annotathon associated with this webinar)
• Marginal Syllabus
• Personal Narrative, Revised at Teachers College Press
• Personal Narrative Revised: An Interview with Bronwyn LaMay at NWP Radio
• Defining Love: An Assignment That Can Reveal Students’ Perspective on Life
• Hypothes.is
• Digital Annotation with Hypothes.is – Online Course from KQED