Conferences and Workshops
(Click here for the 2019-2020 Professional Development Series PDF)
 

This wildly amusing, wholly interactive and intellectually nourishing workshop will leave teachers more knowledgeable about the mechanics of writing and how they might deliver these to students in a way that results in genuinely improved outcomes for them, both in terms of results and as a way of enhancing their experience of life. It is a joy to be able to write well. This course will help teachers give that joy.

This workshop will emphasize the importance of literacy in all subjects and ensure all teachers have full possession of the rules that children need to access in order to write successfully. Teachers will be equipped with the language they need to communicate improvements in writing while providing a full range of speaking and listening activities to improve oracy.

By the end fo the day, teachers will have achieved the following:

They will know the rules of punctuation, how these connect with grammatical ideas and will be better writers themselves.  They will be able to teach so that the students become better writers.  They will be in possession of a grounding in how grammar works and will be able pass this on so that students can use this understanding in their textual analysis.  They will be better teachers of spelling and will have a variety of interesting and exciting activities that can be used to improve students’ achievement in the writing and analysis of both fiction and non-fiction.  They will have a variety of strategies to improve the quality of student talk and will understand why this is so important. They will have some new perspectives about why poetry might be particularly useful for boys.

Participants will learn:

The Technical Aspects of Writing

• an examination of the fallacies around punctuation 
• writing as restrained music Melodic and rhythmic aspects of writing 
• subjects and predicates – simple, compound and complete Sentence varieties – simple, compound and complex 
• periods and intervals 
• commas and how to use them
• subordination and coordination – the key to getting syntax right 
• ways of marking off parenthetical clauses

More on the technical aspects of writing

• semi colons and three ways to use them
• the colon: let me tell you about it! 
• apostrophes – contractive and possessive 
• varieties of noun, adverb placement and the royal order of adverbs 
• what is a transitive and intransitive verb and how does this help? 
• the connectives and conjunctions conundrum 
• prepositions: spatial, temporal, logical 
• using parts of speech to drive improvements in writing: parts of speech consequences game 
• the ‘myths’ around spelling: A brief history of English spelling: the Roman alphabet and digraphs What are the rules and do they work? Spelling strategies that do work: chunking, double consonants, word within words and spelling error analysis

Speech into writing

• the fallacies around the relationships between the three versions of literacy 
• the link between speaking and writing 
• improving the quality of student talk 
• varying sentence length: a solution to an age-old problem Slow writing using prescribed poetic techniques 
• using guided visualization activities to provide the narrative

This workshop is for teachers of students in grades 2-12.

Phil Beadle is best known in Australia for his role in The Unteachables, which aired primetime on ABC1 and for which he won a Royal Television Society Award for best onscreen newcomer that year, Beadle has a long history of delivering transformational results to schools in challenging circumstances. Schools in which he has worked have been the most improved in the country, had the highest value-added scores in London. He is a former winner in the United Kingdom Secondary Teacher of the Year Award and the winner of the London Secondary Teacher of the Year award. He is a literacy and behavior management expert. He is also a vastly experienced teacher trainer. Responses to the training he provides include “the most inspiring speaker ever”. He has written for every newspaper in the UK, most memorably as an education columnist for The Guardian during which time he was nominated for a European Commission Award. Beadle has written nine books on teaching and learning. He is the editor of the How to Teach series and wrote the first book in the series, which was awarded 10/10 by the Times Educational Supplement, along with How to Teach Literacy, Why are You Shouting at Us?: The Dos and Don’ts of Behaviour Management (with John Murphy), Bad Education, and others. He has worked in Australia, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S. 

Location of Workshop
The workshop will take place at the ISACS classroom at 55 West Wacker Drive, Suite 702, Chicago, IL. 

Directions, Parking & Public Transportation
The location is located in the heart of Chicago, with easy access to public transportation.

Click here for directions to the ISACS classroom including driving, parking and public transportation directions. Parking is available at several area garages. To secure discounted rates prior to your arrival in Chicago, visit www.parkwhiz.com. If possible, we suggest taking public transportation.

Air Travel
Both Midway and O'Hare airports are easily accessible to the ISACS classroom. Fly into Midway (on Southwest Airlines) or into O'Hare and take the "L" (Chicago's public transportation) and be at the ISACS classroom in less than an hour.  

​GO Airport Express (Share-a-Ride) Shuttle Service
ISACS has negotiated a special rate with GO Airport Express for ISACS members – 15% off the standard rates. Reservations MUST be made in advance and online to receive the discounted rate.  The standard rate per person to/from O’Hare is approximately $28 one-way; $49 round-trip. The standard rate per person to/from Midway is approximately $24 one-way; $40 round-trip. To receive the 15% discount off the standard rates, please click here for the Go Airport Express website to make a reservation in advance. A credit card is required and charged at the time of reservation. Airport walk-ups are not eligible for the discounted rate. Parties of two more reserving at the same time receive a discount. Please visit their website for more information.  

Hotel Accommodations
ISACS has secured discounted hotel accommodations at The Godfrey Hotel Chicago: a luxury boutique hotel with commanding southern views of the city skyline. To make a reservation, please contact The Godfrey Hotel Chicago at 312-649-2000 and make sure to identify yourself as a member with the Independent Schools Association of Central States (ISACS) and provide them with the Group Code: ISACS Improving Writing Across the Curriculum Workshop. Credit cards are required to book all room reservations. If you would prefer to book online please click here to make your reservation. For directions to The Godfrey Hotel Chicago, which also includes walking directions to the ISACS classroom, click here. 

If you are looking for another option or the room block is full, please take a moment to check out the other hotels which ISACS has partnered with in the Chicago area. The hotels are within walking distance of the ISACS classroom and, as a member of ISACS, you have access to the discounted rates all year long for your professional and personal travel. Click here to find out how to make a reservation at any of the hotels and select the option that meets your travel needs. We recommend booking your hotel room early. 

If you have any difficulties booking a room at The Godfrey Hotel Chicago or any other property, please contact the ISACS office at 312-750-1190.

Registration Fee

• $190 member fee 
• $240 non-member fee 
• The first person pays the full fee, each additional registrant receives a $20 discount.
• Workshop includes coffee/tea, light breakfast, lunch and refreshments.
• Phil Beadle is also presenting a workshop on Thursday, March 1 entitled "Behavior Management to Maximize Learning." If you are interested in attending both workshops, you must register for each workshop separately. 
• Please review the Registration Confirmation information below.

Registration Confirmation Communications from ISACS
Once registration for the workshop has been completed the following communications will be sent from ISACS:

• Once registration is complete, an email will automatically be sent to the contact person on the registration confirming that registration has been completed.
• Approximately three weeks prior to the workshop, ISACS will send a confirmation email to the registrant with details for the workshop.
• Approximately one week prior to the workshop, ISACS will send a final confirmation email to the registrant with details for the workshop.

If you do not receive these emails prior to arriving at a workshop, please call the ISACS office at 312-750-1190. It is possible your email address was entered incorrectly OR your registration was not completed.

Cancellation Policy
Cancellations for workshops held at the ISACS classroom must be received in writing to ISACS by emailing programinfo@isacs.org 10 business days prior to the event to receive a refund. ISACS will determine the refund amount, if any, on a per workshop basis and may be unable to determine the refund amount until the workshop’s conclusion. At any time, registration may be transferred to another member from the same school. If a workshop has a waitlist and ISACS can identify a replacement, a full refund will be provided. ISACS reserves the right to cancel the workshop for insufficient enrollment. In this case, participants will be notified and given a full refund.