workshops and presentations
The research on ninth-grade success makes one thing abundantly clear — ninth grade is a key indicator of future success in high school and college. In this presentation, you’ll hear actual students describe their challenges as they enter high school, telling what they need in order to make that critical transition work better for them.
Related book: Fires in the Middle School Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from Middle Schoolers, by Kathleen Cushman and Laura Rogers (New Press, 2008)
The Ninth-Grade transition
Whatever our roles, we tend to think of a successful high school as something adults pull off — by investing our time, energy, thought, and hard work. But I like to think of school as an enterprise with partners who also invest — and our most important investment partners are students. This presentation uses their words to show how that partnership fosters learning on both sides, and a more positive school culture.
Related books:
Sent to the Principal: Students Talk About Making High School Better,
by Kathleen Cushman
(Next Generation Press, 2005)
Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from High School Students
(New Press, 2003)
bringing high school students to the table
5 sample keynotes bringing student voices to bear on best practices in education
First-Generation students talk about college access and success
Low aspirations is usually not what keeps students from going to college — as the students in this presentation make clear. Their voices and stories reveal the human face of the research on key factors that influence whether they will arrive and thrive at college. And they bring out the practical and effective steps that schools and colleges can take to inform, support, supplement and encourage low-income students on their path to a college degree.
Related books:
First in the Family: Your High School Years
First in the Family: Your College Years
Advice About College from
First-Generation Students
by Kathleen Cushman
(Next Generation Press, 2005, 2006)
Click here to inquire about this presentation (separate versions for high school and college educators)
As teachers of writing, our challenge is to help students find their own voices, and their strengths as people with something important to say. This presentation calls on many examples in which students have experienced the writing and publishing process as they document their own lives and learning, with coaching from What Kids Can Do. I share our techniques and invite the audience to connect this work to other classroom projects, past or future.
Related books:
Interviews by Youth with Mentors that Matter
edited by Kathleen Cushman
(Next Generation Press, 2008)
Stories of New York City Immigrant Workers
(Next Generation Press, 2004)
POWERFUL LITERACY IN THE ADOLESCENT YEARS
Fourteen students from the Bronx, NY—the poorest Congressional district in the U.S.—worked with teachers and Kathleen Cushman to probe and describe the culture of minority youth in urban schools. The result — borrowing the format of the SAT — questions the perspectives and assumptions of both students and educators who “take the test.” Get out your Number 2 pencils! And prepare to think hard about complex questions of diversity and equity in a democracy.
Related books:
Do You Know What Bronx Kids Know?
by students from Bronx Leadership Academy 2, Shannon O’Grady, Kristin Ferrales, and Kathleen Cushman
(Next Generation Press, spring 2008)
SAT Bronx: DO YOU KNOW WHAT your URBAN students KNOW?
