SESSION TYPE: Featured Speaker SESSION TITLE: The Thread I Follow STRAND: English Language Arts DAY: Saturday TIME: 11:15 - 12:15 pm LOCATION: Beekman Parlor, 2nd floor

Nancie Atwell will present a case study of a student who struggled: a boy who entered her school as a severely-below-grade-level eighth grader but who became a prolific writer and a passionate reader under the influence of the workshop approach to literacy learning and its two key tenets: the essential role that choice plays in students’ writing and reading development, and the centrality of self-expression and stories to the human experience.

***BOOK SIGNING AT ONSITE BARNES & NOBLE BOOKSTORE TO FOLLOW SESSION (click here for schedule)

BIOGRAPHY

Nancie Atwell is the founder of a non-profit demonstration school and is a teacher of 7-8 English. She is the first classroom teacher to receive M.L.A.’s Mina Shaughnessy Prize and NCTE’s David Russell Award, both for distinguished research. Her books include In the Middle and The Reading Zone.