Register here: https://memberlink.mbteach.org/Event.axd?e=2963

MATE - Manitoba Association of Teachers of English

Conference Title: Promising Practices in the Teaching of ELA

Location: Virtual

Time: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

- Conference and Membership Fees -
MATE Conference & Membership Fee ...... $30 until Oct 21 / .... $40 as of Oct 22
MATE Membership Fee ............................... $20

Cancellation Policy: Cancellations with refunds will be accepted until October 21, 2025.

If you require any additional information about this conference, please contact Elizabeth Bourbonniere at (204) 955-2078 or by email at ebourbonniere@shaw.ca.

If you require assistance with conference registration, please contact Linda Ferguson at (204) 255-1676 or by email at mate@mts.net.

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Sessions - 9:00 AM-3:00 PM

Session Descriptions

This year’s conference will be delivered online via ZOOM Events. After you complete registration, you will receive an email two days before the event with instructions for accessing the conference site. You will have access to all sessions.

Session A: Better, Faster Feedback
9:00 am - 10:00 am

Feedback can be a deeply powerful teaching tool, but the time and effort needed to provide it can also be a tremendous weight upon teacher time and psyches. Better, Faster Feedback—led by Matthew Johnson, a full-time classroom teacher and author of the bestselling book Flash Feedback—will explore feedback best practices from the perspectives of efficiency and effectiveness, with much of the session discussing the surprisingly large number of places where more efficient practices are also more effective practices.

Presenter: Matthew Johnson, Author of Flash Feedback

Matthew Johnson is a father, husband, and high school English Language Arts teacher in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is the author of Flash Feedback: Responding to Student Writing Better and Faster – Without Burning Out, Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Middle and High School ELA, and Good Grammar: Good Grammar: Joyful and Affirming Language Lessons That Work for More Students. He also is a contributing writer for the New York Times Learning Network, EdWeek, and Edutopia and blogs regularly about writing instruction and pedagogy at www.matthewmjohnson.com
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Session B: Better, Faster Feedback in Action
10:15 am - 11:45 am

This second session is a follow-up to the keynote where participants will explore on-the-ground feedback practices and tools. Specifically, it will look at how to create flash feedback and whole-class feedback-based assignments, teach and cultivate strong self and peer feedback, build feedback literacy, and use technology—including a discussion of when and how research says it might be appropriate to use Generative AI for feedback. It will offer a host of practical resources, and there will be time to discuss and begin to apply the practices and tools to your own teaching practice.

Presenter: Matthew Johnson, Author of Flash Feedback

Matthew Johnson is a father, husband, and high school English Language Arts teacher in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is the author of Flash Feedback: Responding to Student Writing Better and Faster – Without Burning Out, Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Middle and High School ELA, and Good Grammar: Good Grammar: Joyful and Affirming Language Lessons That Work for More Students. He also is a contributing writer for the New York Times Learning Network, EdWeek, and Edutopia and blogs regularly about writing instruction and pedagogy at www.matthewmjohnson.com
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Session B2: Sparking Stories Start-to-Finish

Author and creative writing coach Karin Adams discusses the seven-step story writing method from her bestselling book The One Week Writing Workshop: 7 Days to Spark, Boost or Revive Your Novel and how it can be adapted for classroom settings. Karin will highlight key experiences from her years as a guest artist in Manitoba schools with an emphasis on harnessing group energy to inspire individual success. The session will include a practical component where we'll experiment with author-inspired writing tactics you can put to use in your classrooms right away, as well as a Q&A about classroom writing strategies.

Presenter: Karin Adams, Author of The One Week Writing Workshop

Bio

Suitable for:
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Session C1: The Writing Teacher’s Guide to Pedagogical Documentation
12:45 pm - 3:00 pm

This engaging session invites educators to expand their understanding of how students express knowledge and understanding through multiple modalities—visual, aural, spatial, visual, gestural, and linguistic. Discover how traditional assessment often captures only a fraction of student capability, while multimodal approaches honor the diverse ways learners make meaning and demonstrate understanding. You'll explore practical strategies for creating classroom environments where students can express themselves through various modalities, attuning you to strengths and needs that common assessment approaches fail to surface.

This session introduces pedagogical documentation as a deeply human assessment method that captures the richness of student learning journeys. Through careful observation, thoughtful collection of artifacts, and reflective analysis, you'll learn to document the subtle yet significant moments that traditional assessments miss. This approach situates assessment as a revelatory practice that illuminates student thinking, helps you recognize capabilities that might otherwise remain hidden, and guides more responsive teaching. By the end's end, you'll leave inspired to implement these practices in your classroom, equipped with practical tools to see your students more completely and serve them more effectively—honouring the full spectrum of how they learn, create, and understand their world.

Presenter: Angela Stockman

Angela Stockman is the author of seven books and numerous articles related to school culture, inclusive learning design, multimodal composition, and the meaningful integration of artificial intelligence in academic settings. Her most recent publication, The Writing Teacher’s Guide to Pedagogical Documentation: Rethinking How We Assess Learners and Learning (Routledge, 2024) was endorsed by Dr. John Hattie and named a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title by the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Suitable for: All Educators
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Session D1: What if I Let Them Choose? How Giving Students Choice Transformed my Classroom Literacy Practices
12:45 pm - 1:45 pm

Several years ago, some of my Grade 4 students really didn't want to read independently. In fact, for many of them, though they were adequate and, in some cases, quite skilled, readers, they just didn't want to read on their own. They wanted to read with a buddy instead. At first, I wasn't sure about what would happen if I said yes. And I didn't know how agreeing to "buddy reading" would begin a journey of discovery about classroom literacy practices that continue to shape my classroom teaching. This session is about what happens in my classroom when the students are allowed to choose how they spend their literacy time. It is also about where the idea of student choice comes from and the research that supports these practices. This session will include some examples of student work, some attention to assessment practices and a discussion of how these practices are grounded in Manitoba curriculum and academic research.

Presenter: Jamie Dyck

Jamie Dyck is Grade 4 teacher in rural Manitoba and a graduate student at the University of Manitoba.

Suitable for: All Educators
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Session D2: MATE Book Club: Discussion of Flash Feedback
12:45 pm - 1:45 pm

This session will provide teachers attending with the opportunity to discuss Matthew Johnson’s book Flash Feedback and to explore teaching strategies that are directly applicable and meaningful to their practice. Participants should have read the book prior to attending the session. The session will be led by Jay Nickerson and Carolyn Creed, members of the MATE Executive.

Presenters: Jay Nickerson and Carolyn Creed

Suitable for: MY, SY
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Session D3: Using Horror to Engage Reluctant Readers
12:45 pm - 1:45 pm

Learn how to use horror to engage those reluctant readers in your classroom. This session will include recommended books and sample lesson plans.

Presenter: Chelsea McKee-Trenchard

Chelsea McKee-Trenchard, owner of Raven's End Books, is a former teacher who is in love with horror. From her time instructing and running her store, she has seen how horror can be a welcoming place for those intimidated by the world of books.

Suitable for: MY, SY
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Session E1: Media Literacy in Middle Years
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Unlock the power of media literacy in your middle school classroom! In this session, we'll dive into why it's essential for students to become savvy consumers of information in today’s digital world. As children spend so much time on devices, it is essential we educate students about safety and how to navigate media appropriately. Explore fun ways to dissect social media and ads while teaching students to spot bias, evaluate prejudice, and discuss attention-seeking behaviours. Leave with fresh, creative ideas to bring media literacy into your English lessons and help your students become smart, critical thinkers in the media-saturated world around them.

Presenter: Hilary Ferguson

Hilary Ferguson has been a middle years ELA teacher since 2015 and has created a media literacy curriculum for grades 6-8.

Suitable for: MY
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Session E2: Teaching VISUAL LITERACY: How to Prep Grade 12 Students for the Provincial ELA Exam
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

While most of us are bombarded with visuals all day, we don’t often take the time to get below the surface, to fully understand what’s going on in a photo, painting or even in an advertisement. So, how do we teach students to READ A VISUAL on the exam, and get it right? Having taught ELA and photography since the mid 1980s as well as written many provincial ELA exams over the years, and as a current graphic design and photography teacher, I teach visual literacy daily. It’s my passion. Understanding how to prepare students for the visual question on the exam, guarantees they will have a solid handle on responding with insight and intelligence. (Please note that while the session is focused on the Provincial Standards Test, the content would be valuable to any teacher teaching about visuals).

Presenter: Paul Reimer

Paul Reimer has been teaching ELA, graphic design and photography since the mid 1980s. As a professional travel, sports and wildlife (we shall include people here) photographer, his expertise is VISUAL LITERACY. Paul teaches at Steinbach Regional Secondary School.

Suitable for: SY