The subtitle for yesterday’s Academic Literacy Summit was Writing to Think and Learn in All Content Areas. Definitely Giving Voice to Students was also an common thread running through all sessions – starting with my EETT team presentation Integrating Digital Literacies into Upper Elementary Classrooms;-).

Our lunch break was amazing. Students from the Sacramento Area Youth Speaks project shared their passion for poetry. If you are an educator in the greater Sacramento region, I encourage you to share the video below, get the word out to students in your district about the SAYS summer program – and find out how to arrange a SAYS site workshop!

1st Annual SAYS Summit (MAY 2009) from SAYS on Vimeo.

It would take a powerful speaker to follow on the heals to the SAYS presentation. Brandy DeAlba’s compelling, straight-from-the heart keynote (a mini-workshop in itself) was the perfect choice –

Through writing, students can discover their voices and be heard. They can learn to use writing as a learning tool as well as a powerful platform to success. Writing can help students find their place in our schools.”

Sorry but no sessions were streamed…I’m sending that on as a strong suggestion for next year’s event!