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- Saturday, October 28th, 2023
- Conference schedule:
9:00 - 9:25 ISLA Welcome
9:25 - 10:10 Opening Keynote
10:30 - 11:15 Breakout Session A
11:30 - 12:15 Breakout Session B
12:15 - 1:25 Lunch & Dedicated Vendor Time
1:30 - 2:15 Breakout Session C
2:25 - 2:55 Closing Drawings/Collaboration
BREAKOUT SESSION A - 10:30AM-11:15AM
FEATURED SESSION: The Gift of Story - John Schu
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Target Audience: Prek-12 Educators, Librarians, Pre-Service Teachers
John Schu has made a career out of advocating for the people and things he cares about most: kids, books, and the people that connect them. He was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker for his dynamic interactions with students and his passionate adoption of new technologies as a means of connecting authors, illustrators, books, and readers. He is the children’s librarian for Bookelicious, a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University, and shares his love of reading with countless educators and students around the world. He is the author of Louder Than Hunger (Candlewick, 2024) This Is a School (Candlewick, 2022) illustrated by Veronica Miller Jamison, This Is a Story (Candlewick, 2023) illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Lauren Castillo, and The Gift of Story: Exploring the Affective Side of the Reading Life (Stenhouse, 2022). John Schu lives in Naperville, Illinois. |
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Literacy is NOT a Spectator Sport: Hands-On, Minds-On Reading! - Dr. Kathy Perez
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Target Audience: Prek-12 Educators, Librarians, Pre-Service Teachers
New brain-based discoveries reveal powerful mind-body states to optimize learning. This interactive workshop will help you see, hear and feel what brain-compatible learning is all about. Share powerful teaching tools for activating and engaging students in rigorous learning experiences will be shared. Energize your classrooms with powerful, practical tips and tools to engage all learners! Create a blast of positive energy by combining these techniques and propel learners quickly and easily toward achieving instructional objectives. Examine effective techniques for vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and critical thinking skills and see them modeled. Acquire instant ideas for your instructional tool kit! |
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The Power of Phonemic Awareness - Dr. Sharon Pratt
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Target Audience: PreK-2 Educators
Phonemic awareness, one of the greatest predictors of reading success, is supported by the Science of Reading. Come to this session to learn how you can use simple, formative assessments to align your instruction with the areas of phonemic awareness that your students need. Walk away with hands-on, engaging strategies that can accelerate your students' mastery of phonemic awareness. |
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Robust Independent Reading...Really? - Jennifer Sniadecki
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Target Audience: Grades 3-5 Educators, Middle School Educators, High School Educators, Pre-Service Teachers
How can I require my students to read 20 minutes per day? They don't have time to read on their own. What can I do to promote independent reading? Participants will learn WHY independent reading should be offered inside the classroom, HOW to host IR in class, and HOW to assess independent reading time. |
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BREAKOUT SESSION B - 11:30AM-12:15PM
FEATURED SESSION: Braiding the Threads of Teaching and Writing - Helen Frost (Indiana Author Awards honoree)
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Target Audience: PreK-2 Educators, Grades 3-5 Educators, Middle School Educators, High School Educators, PreK-12 Educators, Higher Education Professionals, Public Librarians, Book Sellers, Pre-Service Teachers, authors
Drawing on her experience as a teacher (Pre-school through University and Adult Education), and as an author of books for all ages, Helen Frost will talk about how she has woven teaching and writing into a satisfying career. She will discuss how her books are used in classrooms, and share some thoughtful responses she has received from readers. There will be ample time for conversation about both teaching and writing. |
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The Science of Reading: What Is It and How to Apply It? - DR. Ethan Lynn
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Target Audience: PreK-2 Educators, Grades 3-5 Educators
The purpose of this session is to provide educators with an overview of the science of reading from a practical perspective as recent research has demonstrated the impact of foundational reading skills (Ehri, 2022; Rastle et al, 2021). To that end, the content of this presentation is informed and motivated by best practices identified through research (Mesmer & Kamback, 2022; Taylor et al, 2017). To begin, we will define the science of reading and discuss the processes involved with learnin g to read. Next, we will demystify and unlock the English language by learning seven decoding patterns: five for single-syllable words and two for multi-syllable words. We will conclude with a focus on how to structure lessons by emphasizing multi-sensory dictation practice and the transfer of skills to connected texts. Throughout, participants will be given opportunities to collaborate, synthesize, and reflect. Furthermore, attendees will be provided a white board, marker, and eraser to allow for maximum participation. |
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Enriching Minds with a Tapestry of Stories - Shawnta S. Barnes
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Target Audience: PreK-12 Educators, Higher Education Professionals, Public Librarians, Book Sellers, Pre-Service Teachers
Enriching Minds with a Tapestry of Stories is a session that explores how embracing a wide range of narratives can shape young minds and cultivate a sense of unity in our educational spaces while learning academic standards. In this session, educators, librarians, and advocates of inclusive education will come together to discuss strategies for curating classroom libraries that reflect the richness of human experiences. Participants will delve into the myriad benefits of presenting students with stories that span cultures, languages, backgrounds, and perspectives, as well as the impact of incorporating underrepresented voices into the literary landscape on students' well-being as well as their academics. |
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Building Knowledge Communities: Revising the Infrastructure of Reading Lessons to Support Elementary Students’ Comprehension and Learning - DR. NICOLE MARTIN
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Target Audience: PreK-2 Educators, Grades 3-5 Educators, Pre-Service Teachers
This session seeks to support teachers’ efforts to address the comprehension strand of Scarborough’s reading rope and the Science of Reading movement (e.g., Scarborough, 2001). Prior research has linked children’s knowledge and comprehension of text to their reading, content area learning, and school achievement (e.g., Cervetti et al., 2016; Duke & Carlisle, 2011). In the elementary grades, a variety of instructional strategies have shown consistent promise for enabling children’s knowledge and comprehension, including teacher read-alouds, comprehension strategy instruction, text structure instruction, text discussion, pre-reading activities, visual aids, and wide reading (e.g., Duke & Martin, 2019; Stahl, 2004). Despite this, classroom reading instruction has continued to privilege assessment over teaching, and students continue to display difficulties (e.g., Jeong et al., 2010; National Center for Education Statistics, 2021). During the session, participants will be invited to (a) explore texts and instructional materials, engage in firsthand use of textual and instructional elements, examine other teachers’ adaptations, and practice making their own adaptations to commercial curricula (Objectives 1&2); and (b) consider and plan for their future support of students’ comprehension and knowledge development (Objective 3). The session activities will allow elementary teachers to increase their instructional repertoires and advocacy of children’s school-based reading experiences. |
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LUNCH PROVIDED BY PSG ENERGY
BREAKOUT SESSION C - 1:30PM-2:15PM
FEATURED SESSION: Science of Reading Implementation: Indiana’s Priorities for Early Literacy - Shaiya Badgley, Kathryn Holton, IDOE
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Target Audience: PreK-2 Educators, Grades 3-5 Educators, Higher Education Professionals, Pre-Service Teachers
In this presentation from the Literacy Center at the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) educators, school leaders, and literacy advocates will get an opportunity to learn more about Indiana’s Priorities for Early Literacy and recent legislation to better improve the implementation of the science of reading and evidence-based practices. 
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Navigating Trends in Literacy Education: What Does the Research REALLY Say? - Dr. Tracy Johnson
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Target Audience: PreK-2 Educators, Grades 3-5 Educators, Middle School Educators, High School Educators, PreK-12 Educators, Public Librarians, Book Sellers, Pre-Service Teachers
The education profession, and literacy education in particular, is prone to continual shifts in what is "trendy" or considered "evidence-based" or "best practice". How can you, as an educator, sift through the rhetoric and make the best decision possible about adopting the newest practices? Most would suggest going “directly to the source”, but what are reliable sources in educational research? How do you know if an article presents solid evidence or is based on sound research? How do you even find a good article or know how to read them once they’ve been found? This session will guide you through an examination of a current educational trend in literacy education. We will identify the trend, locate available research (evidence) about that trend and evaluate that research. You will leave the session with tips and tricks for finding and reading educational research, definitions for terms common in educational research, and ideas of what to look for when making decisions about current trends in education. |
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"This Don't Sound Like Me": A Discussion of Student Writing Standards and Learner Autonomy - Erin Brock
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Target Audience: Middle School Educators, High School Educators, PreK-12 Educators, Higher Education Professionals
The heart of communication lies not in one’s ability to follow strict rules or spell every word with precision, but to effectively convey a message. If we follow Lloyd Bitzer’s organization of the rhetorical situation (as education often does), then we know that communicating effectively involves careful consideration of a multitude of things, including author, audience, and purpose. The question we should then ask is why is literacy – specifically writing – taught with such emphasis on grammarian processes rather than a general approach to communicating? This session aims to engage in discussion about what it means to communicate effectively through classroom writing. How can teachers teach grammar and allow for linguistic freedom? Should students be allowed to use slang in writing? How can teaching writing in different genres help students better understand when/where to follow writing “rules”? |
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End-of-Kindergarten to End-of-Second Grade Reader in 43 Hours of Instruction: A Case Study - Dr. Deborah Corpus
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Target Audience: PreK-2 Educators
Using a case study approach, participants will note strategies used to help a child who finds it difficult to remember from one lesson to the next. Participants will examine a student’s reading and writing work samples from three half-hour sessions a week throughout third grade. Participants will focus on the tension between consistency in instruction and a need to accelerate progress. Through reading, writing, word-work, and specific sound/symbol work, this third-grade student who began the academic year reading and writing at a late kindergarten level ended third grade by passing I Read and by showing the ability to read and understand third grade materials with assistance. Participants will collaborate to highlight key components of Nell Duke’s “Active View of Reading” in the case study as we discuss the role of “Active Self Regulation” for a student who finds it difficult to remember. |
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