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Pre-Conference Sessions |
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Thursday, February 25, 2010 |
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A. |
“Bring Words, Awe, and Inspiration into the Curriculum: Poetry Can Give Children the Real Foundations for Writing”
For K-6 Teachers  Georgia Heard is an internationally known writer, keynote speaker, and literacy consultant. Thousands of educators and writers have listened to Georgia speak of her passion for poetry and writing. She has keynoted hundreds of conferences and given workshops on writing throughout the United States as well as in Sweden, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and she has brought her love of writing to classrooms throughout the United States.
Georgia is the author of five books on teaching poetry and writing, including her most recent title (co-authored with Lester Laminack), Climb Inside a Poem: Reading and Writing Poetry Across the School Year (K-2); The Revision Toolbox: Teaching Techniques that Work; the popular Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School, an inspirational and practical book for educators on how to engender a love of poetry among students; Writing Towards Home: Tales and Lessons to Find Your Way; and For the Good of the Earth and Sun: Teaching Poetry. She is also the author of four children’s poetry books: Creatures of Earth, Sea, and Sky, a collection about animals; Songs of Myself: An Anthology of Poetry and Art; This Place I Know: Poems of Comfort; and Falling Down the Page: List Poems. Georgia’s work has appeared in numerous magazines and professional journals and she has been interviewed on National Public Radio’s “Perspectives.” For seven years, she worked with New York City teachers as part of the Teachers College Writing Project. She finished graduate work at Columbia University and while there was honored by the Academy of American Poets. In her pre-conference session, Georgia will share many practical and innovative ideas on how to help students improve their writing through writing poetry. She’ll give very specific exercises and interventions that are meant as invitations for children to be more playful, innovative, receptive, and courageous as writers. She will speak about poetry as a foundation from which other writing genres can be learned, and provide ready-to-use strategies that take the mystery out of revision. |
B. |
“Comprehension and Collaboration: Sociable Structures for Content-Area Thinking”
For Teachers of All Grade Levels  Harvey “Smokey” Daniels has been a city and suburban classroom teacher, and now serves as professor of reading, language, secondary education, and interdisciplinary studies at National-Louis University in Chicago. In language arts, Smokey is best known for his work on student book clubs, as recounted in Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading Groups, and his new title, Minilessons for Literature Circles.
Smokey is also the co-author of Subjects Matter: Every Teacher’s Guide to Content-Area Reading, which shows how students can better understand and remember what they read in science, math, and social studies, as well as in English classes. Bringing together recent comprehension research with practical classroom strategies, Subjects Matter shows how schools can grow lifelong readers across the curriculum. Smokey also co-wrote A Community of Writers, which describes a balanced writing program, blending strong teacher-directed lessons with genuinely student-driven workshops. Throughout the Center for City Schools, Smokey works with a network of fifteen improving elementary schools in Chicago. In 1996, he co-founded the city’s first new high school in thirty years, named for and designed on the principles outlined in his book, Best Practice: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America’s Schools. The growth of the school—along with an explicit template for any high school’s growth—is described in Rethinking High School: Best Practice in Teaching, Learning and Leadership. The book, along with its companion video, is used around the country by district and school teams working on major, long-term change strategies. Building upon Smokey’s just-released book with Stephanie Harvey, this session will be a full- day demonstration and exploration of inquiry learning as a powerful approach to student engagement and curricular learning. You will see how to form students into inquiry teams that investigate the subject matter of the curriculum—or their own questions—as disciplined, well-balanced groups. You will also carefully consider topic selection, materials requirements, mini-lessons, teachers’ roles, assessment, and more. Classroom video segments of kids doing Inquiry Circles in various public schools will illuminate the process. |
C.
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“The Reading Brain: What Science Can Teach Us About Effective Reading Instruction”
For Teachers of All Grade Levels  Willy Wood began his educational career as an English teacher, teaching high school and university level English classes in Missouri for 14 years. He then served as the Communication Arts Consultant for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) for five years. During his time at the department, Willy oversaw the development of Missouri’s Curriculum Frameworks for communication arts and the state’s communication arts assessment. He also started the state’s first K-3 reading initiative, the Missouri Reading Initiative. Willy left the Department of Ed. in 2001 to become a full-time educational consultant and presenter. He now serves as President of Open Mind Technologies, Inc., an educational consulting firm.
For the past eight years, Willy has been deeply involved in the brain-compatible teaching field. He has trained with respected leaders in the field and has presented numerous workshops in school districts and at national and international conferences on the brain and teaching. Willy covers the whole field of brain-compatible teaching in his in-depth summer institute entitled “Principle-Centered Teaching: The Eight (Plus One) Traits of the Brain-Compatible Classroom.” In addition, he presents on a variety of other brain topics, including teaching for long-term memory, meaning-making, managing students’ learning states, and using music in the classroom. Willy also still presents in school districts on numerous language arts teaching topics. No matter the topic, Willy “walks his talk,” using music, movement, and frequent processing activities to model brain-compatible teaching techniques. In addition to his full-time presenting career, Willy works with his wife, Debbie, to coordinate two annual teachers’ conferences in Missouri—the Write to Learn Conference and the Primary Conference. In this session, Willy will share insights from cognitive science, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology that can explain why certain literacy practices are more effective while others are less effective. You will walk away from this session with a deeper understanding of what elements must be included in good reading programs. Warning: this session will be highly interactive, so come prepared to move and share! |
D. |
“Tune Into Technology”
For 9th to 12th grade teachers  Tony Primeau, Candy Holloway, and Samantha Vogler are English teachers in the Fort Zumwalt School District. Together, they have a myriad of experiences that include working with the Missouri Reading Initiative and the Gateway Writing Project. This trio works with a wide range of students in grades 9-12 and has presented their classroom successes at Write To Learn and other regional workshops.
Be prepared to engage in a hands-on, technologically driven workshop that will leave you with several products to take back to your classroom. You will have the opportunity to interact with, use, and create a Blog, a WIKI, and a website, three tools that will promote collaboration, communication, and critical thinking skills among your students. In addition, you will walk away with mini-lessons that will help fine tune students’ methods of communication, such as Netiquette, responding to other’s comments, posting original thoughts and links, and embedding videos, PowerPoints, and MP3s. Using actual finished products as proof, they will show you how their students have thrived and how their writing has improved. While it isn’t necessary, having a laptop with wireless capability to work with during the session would be helpful, so bring yours along if you sign up for this session. |
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