Holly’s NCTE 2025 Wrap

1. List essays are a great way to kick off personal narratives. I have students who mostly have college-bound intentions, so practicing personal narratives for college applications and eventual reflections in college is a must. I was struggling with how to introduce it until I went to Kelly Gallagher’s session, “Moving Students from Compliance to Engagement.” This session was packed so much that I was sitting on the floor with several others. I couldn’t see his slides, but he did mention list essays as a practice he has used in his own teaching. Mentioning Questlove’s “My Life in 27 Records,” a Medium article titled “Things I Learned at 14: A Pivotal Age” by Nolan (no last name given), Jason Reynolds’ “Ten Things I’ve Been Meaning to Say to You,” and Taylor Swift’s “30 Things I Learned Before Turning 30,” I couldn’t help but think about how a list essay would be a good way to start a personal narrative unit, especially since personal narratives should center the reflection about the experience—what was learned or what action was taken to overcome a challenge. I recently started this in my class, and I’m getting things like “10 Things I’ve Learned from My Dad,” “Things We Can Learn from Dumbasses” (the students were shocked I allowed it), and “What High School Can Teach Us.” My own list essay? “Holly’s NCTE 2025 Wrap,” of course! These lists will open the door for my students to reflect on how to construct these experiences to highlight these lessons through narrative writing.
2. AI, AI, AI. Almost every session I went to talked about AI in some way, including my own! One session in particular, hosted by Penny Kittle, was on writing feedback. The session, which was also packed but did not require me to sit on the floor, featured Dennis Magliozzi and Kristina Peterson, who wrote AI in the Writing Workshop. They both use different AI platforms, Brisk and SchoolAI, respectively, to engage students in feedback. They gave some great advice on how to use these tools to create agentic feedback that students can use to improve their writing, rather than having AI do the work for them. The biggest emphasis about AI from all the sessions I attended, including my own, is to show students how to engage with AI to support their thinking, not do it for them, and have them think critically about how AI can affect their learning.
3. It’s overwhelming but invigorating, especially the surprises. I’ve been going to NCTE for a few years now as a presenter, and finding my sessions is still overwhelming. What I decided to do this year was take a topic and search for that topic, going only to those sessions. I decided “feedback” would be my topic of interest this year, mainly because I’m always interested in how others incorporate it into their classes. I did, however, end up going to one with a friend when the feedback session I listed was too packed, and my back couldn’t take any more floor sitting. And I was glad I did! I attended “Writing with Purpose: How Adolescents’ Writing Improves by Connecting with an Authentic Purpose” with Jocelyn Washburn and Suzanne Myers from the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. I’m implementing their SIM Writing with Purpose Guide in my AP Seminar and English 10 classes next semester. This tool will allow students to consider writing metacognitively, exploring the moves mentor text authors make and applying them to their own writing. Their research in classrooms is inspiring, so check it out on their website!
4. People are using our book! During our author strand session, I talked to several teachers who are using our book, Joyful Literacies in Secondary English Language Arts, in their departments. These teachers told me about how they have done some of the activities with their teachers and the creativity those teachers brought as professionals to impact their students. AND I LOVED IT! Until our session, I hadn’t talked to many teachers who were applying or adapting the units in our book in their classrooms, but hearing from teachers throughout the country was gratifying! We wrote this for teachers, and listening to them describe how they were using the book was awesome. In fact, it made me realize we need to get out there more and talk to teachers, although how to do this has stumped me a little. I mean, I teach full-time (IYKYK), but I would love to attend more conferences to highlight our work. I’m going to put my thinking cap on about this because hearing from teachers was pure joy for me. Nothing reinvigorates me more than talking with other professionals about education and, more specifically, about our joy! So here’s a big ask: Email me and let’s chat about joyful literacies, or suggest a conference we could attend to talk to more teachers! I would love it.

Overall, NCTE 2025: Dream Boldly brought many great ideas for my classroom and reinvigorated my practice in both expected and unexpected ways for the end of the semester. Looking forward to next year’s convention, “Imagine. Innovate. Inspire.”, in Philadelphia, where we will (if our proposals are accepted) bring joyful literacies once again!

Also, we’re on Instagram, @joyful_literacies, so join us there as well!