English professor to present at conference

Kim Van Es, lecturer in English at Northwestern College, will present a service-learning project at the Iowa Council of Teachers of English (ICTE) conference Oct. 8–9 in Johnston, Iowa.

Presenting with Van Es at the conference will be nine Northwestern students enrolled in her Methods of Teaching Secondary English and Speech course.

Van Es’ project, “Units From the Next Generation,” is a proposition for a secondary senior English class that can be taken as an alternative to a college-prep course. The project was created in collaboration with Courtney Sandbulte, a 2010 Northwestern graduate who teaches English and journalism at Gehlen Catholic High School in Le Mars, Iowa. Sandbulte invited the English teaching majors in Van Es’ course to prepare a unit that could be taught in her senior English class at Gehlen.

The project was designed to teach pre-service teachers about the real world of course design while infusing fresh ideas into the high school-level course. In addition, the related ICTE presentation provides the opportunity to participate in their discipline’s professional organization.

Student presenters will include Danielle Cupp, a junior from Chino, Calif.; Brianna Darling, a senior from Worthington, Minn.; Sharla DeBruin, a senior from Pella, Iowa; Whitney Jorgensen, a senior from Alton, Iowa; Nicole Montgomery, a senior from Fenton, Iowa; Sarah Morren, a senior from Allendale, Mich.; Savannah Sheets, a junior from Missouri Valley, Iowa; Erin Vande Vegte, a senior from Sioux Center, Iowa; and Caleb VanderBaan, a senior from Lakewood, Calif.

During the conference, Van Es will also lead a session about editing errors that travel with students from high school into college.

The ICTE is a volunteer organization that facilitates connections and professional learning face-to-face and online for English and language arts teachers of all stages. The organization’s annual fall conference will feature the theme, “The Play’s the Thing: Catching the Conscience of the Iowa Core.”