Reading in the Rockies 2011 - Schedule
Friday, October 14, 2011
Registration & Continental Breakfast - 7:00 a.m. – 8:15 a.m.
Opening Remarks - 8:15 – 8:30
Friday Morning Sessions - 8:30 – 11:45
8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Kevin Feldman
Learning is NOT a Spectator Sport: Practical Tools to Ensure Every Student is Engaged in Everything!
Improving academic literacy instruction is at the very heart of meaningful school reform. The foundation of such improvement involves increasing the quality and quantity of student responses to daily instruction (the I in RtI) that can be effectively incorporated across grades and content areas, K-12.
10:15 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
Suzanne Carreker
Comprehension and All That Jazz!
Comprehension is the reason for reading. A skilled reader "thinks about thinking" or uses metacognitive skills to make sense of the text that is being read. Robust vocabulary and world knowledge support the reader's comprehension. This workshop will present activities and strategies that develop oral language and improve reading comprehension. The handouts will include a lesson plan for classroom and therapy use.
Lunch – Noon – 1:00 p.m.
Speakers and Brief and Wonderful Presentations by Students
Friday Afternoon Sessions – 1:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Kevin Feldman
Narrowing the Literacy Gap: Strategies for Adolescent Readers
Many educators working in today's secondary schools are aware of the lack of literacy proficiency among far too many of their students. Middle and secondary school teachers strive to work effectively with students who often cannot comprehend grade-level textbooks, engage in little pleasure reading, and have difficulty writing summaries and participating in complex oral discourse. However, there is cause for cautious optimism for older students on the literacy front.
Although there are no shortcuts to accelerating the literacy of older struggling readers, it is possible to close the literacy gap by providing a coherent and coordinated school-wide literacy acceleration program that systematically increases the amount of time, teaching, and practice available to all struggling readers, based on assessed student needs rather than age, grade, ethnicity, or any other label or philosophical issues.
Suzanne Carreker
Reading Between and Beyond the Lines: Teaching Inference-Making
The ability to make inferences best differentiates students with good comprehension from students with poor comprehension. Difficulties in reading can stem from many sources, such as inadequate oral language and vocabulary, limited world knowledge or poor working memory. In this session, the causes of poor comprehension will be discussed. Instructional strategies for improving comprehension (especially how to teach inference-making) will be presented. Participants will create lessons targeted at specific comprehension deficits.
Maria Elena Argüelles
Vocabulary Instruction and Language Development to Build Academic Language
Vocabulary knowledge is strongly linked to comprehension and overall academic success. In this session we will discuss research-validated procedures for selecting, introducing and practicing vocabulary, including direct instruction, promoting word consciousness, and wide reading. Specific activities will be presented to develop "ELL and ALL" students' academic English and to create a language-rich environment. To this end, participants will learn and practice research-proven methods to directly teach important content vocabulary, to teach students to figure out unknown words using contextual and morphemic analysis skills, and will engage in fun and stimulating activities that foster "word consciousness." In addition, participants will receive more than 30 sample lesson models with easy application-to-classroom text in any academic content area.
Sally Grimes
The Nuts & Bolts of Current, Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction
Educational leaders are now faced with an overwhelming amount of new information about literacy instruction, and the learning curve can be daunting. Moreover, it is necessary to weave differentiated reading instruction for all into the RtI (Response to Intervention) model that links Title 1, General Education, Special Education and ELL instructional interventions.
This three-part workshop will provide a simplified "GPS "to navigate this difficult terrain by explaining in a clear manner, the "nuts and bolts" of the following:
Part 1 - This part of the workshop uses Dr. Hollis Scarborough's widely used "Rope Model" that depicts eight sub-skills of reading development. These critical strands become more and more tightly "wound" and reliably stronger as reading skill develops. In order to remedy reading problems, we have to find out which strands are weak or "broken" and then know how to go back to the point of breakdown to "fix" the reading problem. In this session we will understand how to identify the features of the primary areas of weakness in vocabulary, background knowledge, and phonemic awareness. "We can't fix something until we know what is broken.
(Although these three parts can stand alone, it is advised that attendees consider attending all of them in order to derive the most benefit.)
Open Annual Meeting, Silent Auction - 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Please join us for The International Dyslexia Association - Rocky Mtn Branch's Annual Meeting and Speaker Reception and Silent Auction. Everyone is welcome! Network, snack and join like minded folks who know what a great time we have!
Appetizers and 1 complimentary drink for members.
$20.00 for non-members. Join IDA at https://www.interdys.org/olssecure/JoinorRenew.aspx for reduced conference fee's, a complementary drink, appetizers and year round events free or at reduced cost. In addition you will receive Perspectives and Annals of Dyslexia.
Saturday October 15, 2011
Registration & Continental Breakfast - 7:15 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.
Saturday Morning Sessions - 8:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Kevin Feldman
"Moving the Dial" - Improving Adolescent Academic Vocabulary Across the Disciplines
One of the most glaring differences between successful and less successful students across the grade levels (and particularly in middle and high school), can be readily seen in their vocabulary knowledge and lexical skills. Reviewing the research literature on vocabulary instruction leads to the conclusion that there is no single best strategy to teach word meanings, but all effective strategies require the learner to go beyond the definitional and forge connections between the new and the known.
Now comes the hard part: doing it! This seminar will explore the specifics of moving this research to practice, including the role of coaches, teacher leaders, administrators, and, of course, classroom teachers in addressing this most urgent need of vocabulary development to improve the comprehension of older students.
Suzanne Carreker
Understanding Text for Academic Success
Expository text informs. Narrative text tells a story. This session will present the structure of expository and narrative text and activities that develop students' understanding of both forms of text. Additionally, summarization, which is highly correlated with comprehension and written composition, will be presented. Participants will leave with a lesson plan for developing understanding of both narrative and expository text.
Sally Grimes
The Nuts & Bolts of Current, Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction Part 2
This part of the workshop outlines and provides the tools towards building the components of a building-based Literacy Team that enables a school to pass "The ACID Test", by describing how the Team plans in the following areas: Assessment, Curriculum, Infrastructure, and the Development of Professionals. It stresses the need to have Title 1, General Education, Special Education, and ELL collaborate to link the resources when designing intervention plans in a model of tiered instruction.
Maria Elena Argüelles
Components of Effective Reading Instruction for English Language Learners
One in five students in the U.S. is the child of an immigrant and by the year 2040 one in three students will speak a language other than English. In this presentation, attendants will learn about the latest research regarding how to best provide reading instruction to young English Language Learners (ELLs) as well as activities to promote the development of phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension skills. Teacher behaviors that increase student learning will be described, and components of effective reading interventions for ELLs who are reading below grade level will be discussed.
Box Lunch: Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Saturday Afternoon Session – 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Suzanne Carreker
The Instruction and Assessment of Writing
Writing involves planning, translating, and reviewing. This session will present the principles and underlying foundations of writing and activities and strategies for struggling writers. The handouts will include a lesson plan for classroom and therapy use.
Sally Grimes
The Nuts & Bolts of Current, Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction
Part 3: This part of the workshop describes the continuum of the various types of learners and how their literacy needs range from being taught to read (with very explicit and systematic materials and approaches) to more implicit and incidental materials and approaches. This differentiated instruction stresses the need for assessment and adequate professional development to be able to discover the needs of a given student and then carefully make instructional decisions. Examples of these will be provided.
Maria Elena Argüelles
Comprehension Strategies and Text Structures Workshop for the ELL Learner
This workshop focuses on ways to help students access informational texts. Topics include understanding underlying text structures, text signal words, and organization patterns. Participants will also learn various techniques to synthesize information, comprehension techniques specific to expository text, and foolproof ways to summarize information.
IDA Youth Ambassador Team with Elenn Steinberg
Understanding Dyslexia from the Inside Out
Join our IDA Youth Ambassadors and understand the facts, the myths, and the implications of dyslexia. These articulate teens will explain the current research and facts about dyslexia while sharing their personal journeys, successes, and failures. This session was so successful last year that we are offering it again this year with new students and new stories, as well as the facts you will need to meet the needs of the students with dyslexia in your school or community.