Teacher's Pet
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (DECEMBER 2003)
The
93rd annual convention of the National Council of Teachers
of English (NCTE) was held at the newly minted
Moscone Center West in San Francisco on November 20-25,
and despite initial jitters, all systems were go. “We’re
hoping to reach 6,000 attendees with 5,000 pre-registered,”
said Charleen Silva Delfino, Convention Co-chair.
“We were worried earlier in the year with the economy
being so bad, and budgets being cut, but it looks like
we’ve lucked out with the weather and attendance.”
Indeed, the blinding sun of San Francisco was a welcome
change from last year’s very dreary Atlanta, and the
new convention center’s bright halls were a relief for
exhibitors who had braved the basements of two hotels
last year. Booth traffic was phenomenal on Friday from
noon till six, but much lighter on Saturday, and virtually
nil on Sunday. The obvious suspects had the most traffic:
Scholastic, Penguin, Harper, Holt,
and Random House sported numerous author signings
with teachers lining up. The more plush booths hosted
by the big educational publishers were more sparsely
attended. The two most ubiquitous giveaways, however,
were a stunning red and black WGBH Masterpiece Theatre
tote bag, and the SparkNotes No Fear Shakespeare
t-shirt in black and orange. And, having given away
over a thousand of the aforementioned garments, PT’s
correspondent can attest to how much more grateful teachers
are about giveaways than booksellers: equally hungry,
but pleasantly shocked when faced with publishers’ largesse.
In addition to the trade show, the predominantly high-school
teachers (with some college and middle-school) shuttled
back and forth between zillions of panel discussions
and seminars. Sessions were varied, from the vanilla
“How Timed Writing Tests Shape Our Teaching of Writing”
to “Romeo & Juliet Through Drama-in-Education: A
Gay Straight Love Story” (it was essentially about how
intolerance can lead to star crossed deaths). Yes, there
was “Socratic Partnerships For Teaching and Learning
in College English Classrooms” (judging from the panels,
the Socratic method is alive and well), but our favorite
was “The Canterbury Toons? Adding a Little ‘Toon’ to
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.” Attendees and
exhibitors would do well to store up the sunshine and
good-will from San Francisco, as next year’s confab
is in Indianapolis, and is then followed in 2005 by
Pittsburgh.
We
thank Robert Riger, Associate Publisher of SparkNotes,
for contributing this report.
©2003
Publishing Trends
