The document discusses literacy sponsorship and the importance of teachers across disciplines working together to support student literacy. It announces the theme of the 2012 North Carolina English Teachers Annual Conference - "Co-sponsoring Literacy Across the Curriculum". The conference aims to showcase how literacy is sponsored in classrooms and schools through interdisciplinary partnerships and discussions on topics like digital citizenship, transfer of learning, and content area literacies. Presenters are invited to submit proposals by June 15th for interactive sessions addressing the conference theme.

1. The notion of literacy sponsorship (Brant, 1998) speaks to the power of individuals and institutions to support
literacy learning. Sponsors take responsibility for ushering outsiders into their communities and provide them
with tools for understanding the community’s norms, values, and beliefs—the ways of knowing and doing
that are coded in language practice.
For too long, many have mistakenly believed that school-based literacy instruction was the work of Language
Arts and English teachers. While we are powerful sponsors who help students learn how texts work, we do
our students and our profession justice when we reach out to others down the hall and across disciplinary
boundaries to co-sponsor student literacy in the arts and humanities, in the social sciences, in the natural
sciences and mathematics, and beyond.
North Carolina English Teachers
Annual Conference
North Carolina English Teachers
Annual Conference
September 28-29, 2012
UNC-Charlotte City Center Campus
Center City Building, UNC Charlotte, ©KieranTimberlake

2. Co-sponsoring Literacy Across the Curriculum
At last year’s conference, attendees said again and again, “less training, more inspiration, more
conversation,morenetworkingopportunities.”ThatdesireonthepartofNCEnglishteachersmatcheswellwithour
interest this year in literacy sponsorship. So in the spirit of inspiration, networking, and collaboration, NCETA is
pleased to announce the theme of the 2012 Annual Conference, Co-sponsoring Literacy Across the Curriculum.
While we will continue to focus on the success of students and teachers inside English studies curricula and
classrooms, we recognize the need to grow both vertically and horizontally, across contents areas, grade levels,
and institutions.
Thus, we invite proposals for sessions that will showcase, interrogate, and sketch new visions for the multiplicity
of ways that we are sponsoring and can continue to sponsor literacy in our classrooms, our schools, and beyond.
Though not limited to these ideas, we are particularly interested in proposals for 75-minute, interactive sessions
or roundtables that address the following:
Global and Digital Citizenship • Discourse Communities and Funds of Knowledge • Transfer of Learning
Transliteracies, Multimodalities, and Multimedia • Content Area Literacies • Common Core Literacy Strands
Reading and Writing in the Quantitative Disciplines • Visual and Performance Literacies
Interdisciplinary Literacy Partnerships • Community/ Family Literacy Partnerships • K-12 & Higher Education Partnerships
We will give preference to those sessions that address the conference theme, demonstrate the connections
between theory and practice (praxis), and engage participants in hands-on learning and dynamic interaction.
Proposal deadline is June 15, 2012. To be listed on the program, presenters must submit registration
and payment by August 30, 2012.
Submit electronic proposals
at our new website
www.ncenglishteachersassociation.org
Email Conference Director Stephanie West-Puckett at
westpucketts@ecu.edu
with questions, feedback, or conference ideas.