The Bay Area Writing Project is excited to provide high quality professional development opportunities at an affordable price for teachers throughout the Bay Area, led by practicing teachers who share techniques and strategies that work in their classrooms. This workshop series is perfect for teachers, administrators, coaches, coordinators, student teachers or anyone interested in the teaching of writing.
Upcoming Sessions
Registration now open for our 2024/2025 season!
Schedule:
Zoom Link Open: 9:30 am
Opening Remarks: 9:30 am
Session 1: 9:45 am - 11:00 am
Break: 11:00 am - 11:10 am
Session 2: 11:15 am - 12:30 pm
Registration:
- $25.00 Register for Workshop #1: Harnessing AI as an Instructional Tool (Saturday, September 28, 2024) VIRTUAL Offering
- $80.00 Register for the Weekend Workshop Series (4 sessions)
Discounts:
-- Groups of 3 or more get a 20% discount (must register at the same time and the discount automatically deducted during check out)
Saturday, September 28, 2024: Workshop #1: Harnessing AI as an Instructional Tool
Virtual Event
With the continuing expansion of AI tools (even Google is adding an AI component), teachers must grapple with the reality that AI is here to stay, and that students will use it. This workshop will provide creative ideas and strategies for utilizing AI as an instructional tool for writing, critical thinking, and feedback. When used intentionally and thoughtfully, it is possible that AI can provide useful scaffolds for students, and not become merely a substitute for original thought.
Session 1:
9:45 AM - 11:00 AM
Teaching Critical Thinking About AI and Writing Through Model Texts
Is there value to the five-paragraph essay in the age of ChatGPT? What can we learn from AI to improve our writing? In this workshop, you will learn how to use AI model texts to spark these types of conversations regarding AI and writing with your students. Through the side-by-side analysis of human-created and AI-generated model texts you can develop your students’ critical thinking and writing skills. By identifying the affordances and limitations of AI-generated writing, your students will be able to reflect on what makes something “good writing” versus “great writing,” and whether AI can actually mimic what makes writing human.
Molly Montgomery is a writer and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She teaches high school English and ELD and is particularly interested in using educational technology to support students’ writing development. She was a Stanford CRAFT AI Literacy Teaching Fellow during the 2023-24 school year.
Session 1:
9:45 AM - 11:00 AM
Feedback on Demand: Using Gemini to Supplement Peer Editing
Can we use AI in the classroom to create better peer editors and drafts? Empower student writers to leverage Google Gemini as a tool for first-round peer editing. In this interactive workshop, we'll explore how AI can help students develop better drafts through effective prompting strategies and improve their own peer editing skills. Learn how to guide students in transforming peer editing goals into effective AI prompts, use AI to constructively critique focused aspects of writing based on student’s own critical thinking, test this framework on your own writing, and discuss ways to make the process more effective.
Kevin Dublin is an educator and author of Eulogy (2023) and How to Fall in Love in San Diego (2017). He holds an MFA from San Diego State in Creative Writing, MA from East Carolina University in English, BA in Writing & Technology, and BFA from UNC - Wilmington in Creative Writing. He is the director of The Living Room SF and has taught writing in the form of composition or creative writing at Duke University, San Diego State, East Carolina University,
Session 2:
11:15 AM - 12:30 PM
Using ChatGPT as an Example Machine to teach Big Ideas
In this interactive workshop, you’ll learn a versatile, high leverage strategy for teaching big ideas and concepts. The strategy is backed by learning sciences and involves using contrasting examples to help students construct knowledge. You’ll experience a learning activity using the approach, learn about how AI tools like ChatGPT can help you design similar activities, and have time to apply what you learned to your own classroom curriculum.
Chris Mah is a PhD student at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a BAWP Teacher Consultant. He researches learning technologies, teacher education, and writing. Before Stanford, he taught high school English in Minneapolis.
Session 2:
11:15 AM - 12:30 PM
Can Generative AI Help New Teachers Coach Writers More Thoughtfully?
Join us as we talk about teacher decision making employing AI to explore the creation of higher order learning goals, rich tasks, analytic rubrics, and progress guides to promote students’ critical thinking while augmenting drafts of writing across the curriculum. We’ll discuss tools and processing from preservice teacher portfolios in several subject areas.
Carrie Holmberg is a lecturer at SJSU’s College of Education. She is a twice nationally board certified teacher and writes books on formative assessment and feedback.