Revisions can be a useful tool for students to demonstrate understanding; however, time is the great barrier. How much time do the students need? When will I grade these? In this session, we will work to provide a narrower focus for students to revise small portions of their writing using specific wording from our rubric to practice the skills we want and to demonstrate their ability to meet expectations.
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Even with a lot of support, teachers often believe that they have tried everything and become discouraged. Expand your “everything.” Bring energy, passion, and a positive attitude back to students who are struggling while developing their literacy skills. Become more aware of over 120 practices that will ignite improved student achievement and bring struggling learners the joy of success in school. Learn how to use powerful scaffolds to build the confidence and skillfulness of struggling and disinterested learners. See how you can add to your strategies that motivate students to become engaged, empowered, and ready to achieve without watering down content material and lowering standards. Participants will be involved in fast-paced reflection activities to more closely examine issues and options related to low student literacy performance.
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In this energetic session, panelists with over 80 years of collective experience share how they design innovations to successfully tackle the puzzle of meeting the needs of a wide range of learners within a single classroom setting. Attendees will participate in interactive scenarios; learn to contribute to effective change; and receive procedures for developing discussion-centric, inquiry units to ignite student curiosity and honor their humanity.
As educators, we discuss “ethical and equitable pedagogy,” yet our grading often fails to truly meet students where they are. Labor contracts create a baseline, allowing all students to be held accountable while valuing growth. Writing isn’t about hitting a word count—it’s about revision. By emphasizing meaningful engagement in editing, we shift focus from grades to real-world writing. The goal isn’t perfection, but practice, pushing students to improve beyond the classroom.
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Explore media mindfulness as a way to help students connect to their communities and be aware of their wellbeing as media consumers. This session demonstrates an activity in which students reflect on what news is meaningful to them and how it makes them feel. This is a powerful tool to engage students with local and current issues, help them process rapidly-changing news events, and encourage a discourse culture that is inclusive and open-minded. Session attendees will receive free core materials of the Thinking Habitats curriculum.
Literature Circles, in my experience with teachers, have had hit-or-miss success. If you are committed to embracing the energy and power of student choice but not sure what’s getting in the way of these units fully clicking into place, this session is for you. In this session we will design Essential Question threads that unite book choices and give teachers the opportunity to focus on skill building and supplementary content. You’ll walk out of our session with at LEAST one fully planned unit! This session requires participants to bring a device to the session.
Come and learn about the new titles for the Rebecca Caudill and Lincoln Teen Readers’ Choice Awards!
Student-facing AI can support inquiry and learning, but also risks AI plagiarism in writing assignments. We must find a way to preserve authentic learning AND enable students to use AI responsibly. Come hear how you can do this with Scrible, the world’s first “show your work” writing process platform that’s been used by Illinois schools for years. It mitigates AI plagiarism by making the writing process visible to teachers and shifting assessment to writing as a process. Scrible now also offers Rese, a brand new genAI chatbot enabling students to use AI responsibly in the research and writing process.
Rather in-the-face of literary tradition, participants will explore how hip-hop/rap lyrics can be used to teach rhetorical moves and examine expert use of language in many situations. The session presenter will highlight a unit she’s taught in high school classrooms for almost 10 years, sharing ways to harness student engagement through the use of rap lyrics, examining context, appeals, reading like a writer, and a little literary analysis. Turn the love of a fascinating musical genre into a real-world way to teach rhetorical concepts.
Note from presenter on session materials: These slides are Google Slides, but feel free to email and I will send you access to view. Thanks for attending!
Students are overwhelmed and anxious. They are showing up to class and not engaging in well-intentioned activities. How do teachers reach these students and re-engage them without losing patience in frustration? This presentation explores the complex relationship between affective factors and reading comprehension, tapping into how students engage with text on an emotional, motivational, and attitudinal level. This session will also explore how teachers’ own attachment styles align with our students’ attachment styles and how teachers can build on this knowledge to further student engagement in analyzing texts. Participants will walk away with practical strategies they can use to help students self-regulate in order to better their overall literacy
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