Bind a Community of Writers with Story
Penny Kittle
Everyone loves a good story. We find them in books read independently and in book clubs. We find them in our lives. Teachers lead students to skillfully craft their stories by analyzing carefully-selected models of great writing. We can lead students to draft in scenes, compress and expand time, and use flashbacks, zooming in, and transitions to create writing that is dazzling. As we craft beside them, we join our community of writers. |
Building Thinking Classrooms in RLA: From Compliance to Curiosity
Sami Briceno
What happens when we shift from telling students what to think to creating spaces where they do the thinking? In this interactive session, explore how the principles of Building Thinking Classrooms can transform secondary RLA instruction. Using engaging, text-based tasks and collaborative structures, you'll learn how to get students talking, analyzing, and making meaning together—without relying on traditional, teacher-directed routines. Walk away with ready-to-use strategies that promote deeper thinking, stronger discussion, and authentic engagement with reading and writing. |
Building Words & Thinking: An Intro to EduProtocols
Marlena Hebern
Words come alive when students are challenged to think, connect, and apply them. In this session, participants will explore Fast and Curious, Frayer, and Repuzzler, three EduProtocols that turn vocabulary into active, meaningful learning experiences. Learn how to help students memorize word and concept meanings quickly and make connections across texts, all while keeping engagement high. Leave with ready-to-use strategies that make academic language dynamic, memorable, and purposeful. |
Crafting Comprehension through Studying the Author's Craft
JoLynn Meade
Participants will step into the role of students and experience powerful reading strategies first hand using an engaging text. Together, we'll explore how to build deep comprehension by studying the author's craft. You'll walk away with three, ready-to-use activities that can be implemented immediately in grades 3–12, using any text. These strategies integrate speaking, listening, reading, and writing while giving students meaningful opportunities to collaborate and uncover how authors create meaning through words and images. |
Foundational Word Reading and Spelling
Thea Woodruff
Stop with the spelling lists and copying words over and over! In this session, we'll learn effective instructional strategies, like sound and syllable blending, phoneme-grapheme mapping, word building, and word sorts, that can be used in whole group, small group, and workstations. These strategies will be examined both with single-syllable words and longer multi-syllabic words that older students often struggle with. |
How Writing Empowers Reading and Brings Joy to Classrooms
Penny Kittle
We must create conditions in classrooms to build trust in young writers, thus increasing their willingness to take risks. Daily reading and writing deepens an understanding of possibility. We read and write next to mentor authors, discovering tone, genre, and structure. We build our students' stamina, fluency and 'writerly' habits of mind in daily workshops. We position our students closer to reading and writing excellence with decisions we make before, during, and after each day's lesson. This session will explore those decisions, and how planning a volume of practice is the basis of artful teaching. |
Peeking Behind the Veil of the District-Level Literacy Leader: Does Research Match Reality?
Kristel Collins
In this session, participants will be able to explore the stories of district-level literacy leaders in Central Texas, examining how their practices align with the International Literacy Association's Standards (2017) and apply systems thinking to shape literacy outcomes. Through interviews, observations, and document analysis, the research highlights literacy leadership behaviors that influence classrooms, schools, and communities. Findings offer insights for literacy leader preparation, professional development, and sustaining systemic change. |
Read Like a Writer: The Mentor Text Makeover
Melanie Mayer
Everything we read is a mentor text! See how to seamlessly connect powerful reading instructional strategies with writing response, author's craft, and grammar lessons in ways that are engaging, meaningful, and productive. We'll model reading strategies (including one for pre-teaching vocabulary), imitate amazing texts, and practice inferencing, summarizing, and responding – using students' own writing! What does this mean? STAAR is a walk in the park. And reading and writing are fun again. Available for all grade levels. |
Redefining Revision
Nicole Callegos
Tired of grammar worksheets that leave students bored and unmotivated? In this session, we'll explore how to design a dynamic grammar cycle that puts student engagement at the center. You'll discover practical strategies for moving beyond fill-in-the-blank exercises and building meaningful learning experiences where students actively apply grammar concepts to their own writing. |
See It, Say It, Shift It: Building Story Thinking in Primary Classrooms
Marlena Hebern
Comprehension grows when students can see a story, tell a story, and rethink a story. In this session, participants will explore EduProtocols on paper with Sketch & Tell, Thin Slides, and 3x Genre—three EduProtocols that help young learners sequence, retell, and shift point of view. These fast, repeatable routines keep thinking visible, language flowing, and engagement high—all with simple materials. Leave with ready-to-use strategies that help primary students make meaning from text and share it with clarity. |
Sound Wall Success: From Wallpaper to Wall Power
Kristel Collins, Sarah Frierson, Mary Beth O'Connell
In this session, participants will be able to: see what a sound wall is and why they need to use one; see an example of how to execute spelling tree lessons; name how to set up a sound wall and introduce it to their students; practice analyzing student errors with the power of the sound wall to inform instructional decisions; explore how a district made curricular changes to support sound wall implementation throughout the year; rehearse a sound wall lesson and receive feedback. |
Syllable Types and Morphology
Vicki Reynolds |
Tackling the ECR and SCR using Conversations, Sentence Frames, Truisms, and Transitions with Emergent Bilinguals
Maureen Eucles
Come join me to craft reading responses such as the ECR and SCR using sentence frames, stickies, color coding, and lots of conversation in English and Spanish. We will have a blast! |
Words, Like, Really Matter
Dan Evans
All students can develop and deliver powerful, breathtaking stories and essays if we help them build their skills from the sentence outward. Power nouns and verbs are the keys to great writing and speaking. This high-impact session will pinpoint the key teacher moves needed to dramatically improve student writing and enhance student vocabulary. |
Writing for Impact
Dan Evans
Schools can design daily lessons and routines to build academic confidence and elevate student voice. Writing and speaking provides opportunities for capturing student thinking, fostering creativity and clarity, and promoting involved citizenry. Building top-notch student writers and orators comes from routine modeling and authentic feedback. |
