MCTE Fall 2026 Conference

MCTE Fall 2026 Conference

Welcome to MCTE’s Fall 2026 Conference!

5:30pm EDT

Pre-Conference Red Cedar A/BTroy Hicks • Trixie Smith • Angela Knight • Kel Sassi • Lindsay Ellis • Jonathan Bartels • Jill Hoort • Leah Barnett • Tyler Detloff

7:00am EDT

Exhibitor Space Centennial Room C

7:30am EDT

Land Acknowledgement, Membership Meeting, Welcome, and Continental Breakfast Big Ten AKel Sassi • Benjamin Woodcock • Tyler Detloff

8:30am EDT

Keynote: title tbd Big Ten ARob Montgomery • Amanda Montgomery

9:50am EDT

Amplifying New Voices: The Future is Now! Exploring 21st – Century Teaching Ideas with the Next Generation of English Teachers Heritage RoomAmanda Stearns-Pfeiffer • Allen Webb • Katie Sluiter • Lindsay Ellis • Danielle Alexander • Greg Bartley • Joanne Marciano Keynote Follow Up: Title TBD Big Ten ARob Montgomery • Amanda Montgomery Mindfulness Space Room 104B Picture Pathways: Writing—and Righting—the Places We Call Home tbdAnna J. Small Roseboro Using Place-Based Learning as a Conduit to Disciplinary Literacy Room 102Laura Gabrion • Dr. Rosalyn Shahid • Jeffrey Austin College as a Foreign Language: Teaching Academic Discourse for Success Room 61Melanie Rabine-Johnson Examining Opportunities and Challenges in Teaching Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) in the ELA Classroom Michigamme RoomNatalie Herman • Vaughn W. M. Watson • Joanne Marciano • Lara Slee • Benjamin Woodcock Write 313: Cultivating Detroit Writing Teacher Identities through Multiliteracies, Space, Place, and Joy Room 103BJanikka Winfree • Mary Neville Neuroplasticity, Literacy, and Humane Classrooms Room 110Sara Diana Stories Rooted in Place: Indigenous Mentor Texts for Authentic Writing Instruction Room 103ACaitlyn Schmitigal • Jamie Johnson • Daniel Comps MCEE Meeting Room 104A What Makes Me, Me? Exploring the Identities of Characters and Ourselves Room 62Allison Phillippe

10:50am EDT

Building Writing Identity Through Choice and Place-Based Writing at the Elementary Level Room 110Lori VanHoesen • Jill Hoort • Miranda Shaffer • Paige VanAtta It’s All About Relationships! Collaboration and Connection in the Middle School ELA Classroom Room 104ADr. Karen Vocke • Samuel Gannon Mindfulness Space Room 104B Opening the Door: How Cooperating Teachers Help Student Teachers Build Classroom Relationships Room 104AAllie Banfield • Kailey Buettner Students Read and Write Climate Flash Fiction and Flash Memoirs Michigamme RoomAllen Webb • Zenaida Castillo • Julian Carney The Power of a Book: How Secondary Classroom Literature Can Be an Instrument for Racial Justice Room 102Anne Gere • Iffat Islam • Jenifer Rizo-Perez • Maci Wilcox Understanding Artificial Intelligence through Environmental Advocacy Room 103BAshley Kluting Verse by Verse, Voice by Voice: Using Novels-in-Verse as a Collaborative Gateway to Student-Authored Historical Narratives Room 61Dana VanderLugt • Corrinne Mielke • Valerie Davies When Nature Speaks Back: Shakespeare, Climate, and Place-Based Teaching Heritage RoomSheridan Steelman Where We Stand: Creating community partnerships for teaching place based justice Room 62John Lennon • Eric Hemenway Your Story is My Story: Using Graphic Novels to Explore Personal, Cultural and Historical Identities Room 103AAnnette Kelly • Cat Weaver Grounding the Immigrant Teacher: Developing a Critical Transnational Pedagogy of the Commons Willy RoomAmna Gilani

11:45am EDT

Luncheon Big Ten A

12:10pm EDT

Luncheon Address: tbd Big Ten AKristin Arola

1:10pm EDT

Mindfulness Space Room 104B "Make Every Day Meaningful:" Student-Centered Approaches to Teaching in a Youth Detention Center Classroom Room 61Mary McConnaha • Jerilyn Williams 20 years of place-based writing: The benefit of returning to write in the same place year after year Room 102Eric Wilkinson • Lindsay Ellis • Kaley Obney Affirming Students’ Voice and Choice: Enacting Inquiry-Based Grammar Instruction in Culturally-Relevant Ways Michigamme RoomDr. Christina M. Ponzio • Ian Striz • Jennifer Collard • Jocelyn Farkas • Kallie Crouch Beneath Our Feet, Above the Horizon: Using Local History and Science to Drive Student Writing Room 103BCourtney McCampbell Shared Values, Shared Voices Heritage RoomDerek Miller • Danielle Alexander What Campbell Can't See: Placing Indigenous Narrative Alongside the Hero's Journey in Secondary ELA Classrooms Willy RoomJohn Duffy Whose Stories Travel Here? Route Maps to Narrative Vignettes Room 103AStefania Morelli-Hutchins Literacy Justice in Action: Reimagining Early Intervention Through Family and Community Room 62Antoinette Bowen-Debardelaben Writing/Righting AI: Critical Literacy, Place, and the Myth of Neutral Technology Room 110Jonathan Bartels Claiming Place and Voice: Decolonizing Literacy Instruction in the Upper Elementary Classroom Room 104AMichelle Grace-Williams

2:10pm EDT

DIJE Equity: Title TBD Room 104A DIJE Inclusion: Title TBD Michigamme RoomKaren Rayner Mindfulness Space Room 104B Constellations of Care: Humanizing the English Curriculum Room 61Jason Westra-Hall Rooted in Identity, Grounded in Place: Using Intersectionality to Rewrite the Narratives Our Students Inherit Heritage RoomJessyca Mathews Teachers at the Helm: Building Sustainable School Culture Through Teacher Inquiry Room 110Courtney Parker There's No Place Like Home: Poetry as Sanctuary Room 103A/BYlisse joell Yepez Who Gets to Go Off Script? Positionality, Place, and Antiracist ELA Teaching Writing Room 102Rebecca Lee • Jeff Savage Centering Transnational Students’ Voices and Affirming Their Assets Through Visual Storytelling in ELA Willy RoomJeevan Karki