English students and faculty are resurrecting the Murray State chapter of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the NCTE had a strong presence at Murray State. For around ten years, the program was large and organized enough to regularly attend conferences. The pandemic, combined with the retirement of the chapter’s adviser and the graduations of its student officers, caused it to dissolve over the last few years.
In September, Andrew Black, professor of English, sent out an email to English education majors proposing the reinstatement of the NCTE with him as their new faculty adviser. With a goal of setting a strong foundation for the chapter in years to come, Black invited Debbie Bell, former adviser to the Murray State NCTE, to their meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
“I wanted her to come because she was a beloved teacher here in the ed program and her enthusiasm about English is something that’s really inspiring,” Black said.
Bell met with the new members to overview Murray State’s curriculum requirements, tips for professional development and offer advice to help teachers of any experience level improve their classrooms.
“I have a passion for teachers (being) the most that they can be,” Bell said. “So if you want to be an English teacher, the first thing is NCTE. I think it’s really important that you belong to your national affiliation.”
Throughout her career, in public schools and at Murray State, Bell has found many strategies for helping students through their English classes. These strategies covered in-class discussions, textbook previewing and reading comprehension.
One of Bell’s recommended strategies was to have students keep writer’s notebooks in which they can record any and all information in the way that best helps them. She brought a stack of her own notebooks to illustrate her point, showing the new NCTE students how she turned composition books into something closer to a scrapbook.
“I like the writing journal idea, which is something I actually picked up from her (when she taught at Murray State),” Black said. “I like to do reading notes as opposed to reading responses. They can even be more colorful and creative. It was really cool to hear her break that strategy down.”
Kathryn Ballengee, senior English and secondary education major, said she looked forward to diving deeper into the list of summarization techniques Bell provided.
“I love that Dr. Bell brought hand-outs, so we could easily take away what we learned, and I am certain the access she gave us to that NCTE Google Drive will come in handy,” Ballengee said.
To conclude the meeting, Black held an officer election among the attendees. Mikaela McChristian was named president, Ella Olds was named vice president and Kathryn Ballenge was named treasurer.
The NCTE’s next meeting will be on Nov. 19, in Faculty Hall 105. Black said the meeting will focus on the use of pop culture in the classroom.
