45Th ANNUAL CONFERENCE

NEW YORK STATE READING ASSOCIATION

45th ANNUAL CONFERENCE

“LITERACY CONNECTIONS"

OCTOBER 23 - 25, 2011, RYE BROOK, NEW YORK

Program Schedule for Monday, 10/24/2011

Session presentedby the Rockland Literacy Extravaganza

in cooperation with the New York State Reading Association.

7:15 – 8:45

Author Breakfast (preregistration/additional fee required)
Gloria Whelan
Homeless Bird, The Listeners, Yuki and the One Thousand Carriers

7:30 – 8:30 (Early Bird Sessions)

Workshops (1-hour)

Inside the Differentiated Classroom: Engaging Must–Haves to Spark Reading Improvement ~ Sandra K. Athans

Grade Level Focus: 3-6

Transform your classroom into a highly engaging differentiated classroom with the easy-to-integrate tools, strategies and ideas presented in this energizing session. Sandra K. Athans is a National Board Certified Teacher and author of 3 books. The methods presented in the sessions are flexible and can be incorporated into any classroom.

Working with High Achievers in Critical Thinking ~ Scott Hobson

Grade Level Focus: K-6

This workshop will help participants assist their students in developing fluency in creative and critical thinking. They will develop options for problem solving through divergent and convergent thinking. Participants will gain time saving strategies and creative ideas for developing engaging activities that have been used with gifted children in urban, suburban and rural areas. All will be shared in this interactive workshop.

Fostering Vocabulary Development –Words that have Bite!~ Darlene Daley

Grade Level Focus: K-6
Infuse your vocabulary instruction with routines and activities that are targeted to enhance students’ vocabulary development. Learn about a school-wide vocabulary initiative that will increase your students’ active participation in word learning.

Using Multicultural Text Sets to Connect Diverse Literacies and Learners ~ Dr. Maria Perpetua U. Liwanag

Grade Level Focus: K-College
The presenter will discuss how to use multicultural text sets to deepen students’ understandings of global cultures. Materials, resources and strategy lessons for reading and critically responding to the multicultural text sets will be shared.

Improving Fluency in Struggling/Developing Readers in all Content Areas ~ Susan Orcutt

Grade Level Focus: K-12
Develop a fluency program, using research-based strategies and materials (including content area materials) already found in your classroom. What is fluency? Why is fluency important? What are the steps in a fluency program?

Using Self-Regulated Writing Strategies to Support Older Reluctant Writers ~ Erin Washburn, Caitlin Thompson

Grade Level Focus: 4-12
In this interactive presentation, evidence-based strategies, aimed specifically at helping other reluctant writers, will be presented and discussed. Examples will include the use of self-regulated strategies in writing a document based question.

Conference 101~ NYSRA Members

Grade Level Focus: All
Is this the first time you have attended a conference? How do I decide what sessions to attend? What is NYSRA and why is there an annual conference? What about professional in-service hours? How can I get involved? Come and meet other attendees. Bring your questions. Learn the answers to these and other questions. Get the most from your conference experience.

8:00 – 5:30

Exhibit Hall Open

8:45 – 10:00

Opening General Session
NellK.Duke, Ed.D.,Michigan State University

Engaging Strategies for Boosting Informational Reading and Writing Achievement

The need for increasing informational reading and writing skill has never been greater. In this presentation, Duke shares specific strategies for teaching informational reading and writing that are both effective and engaging for teachers and students alike.

10:15 – 11:15

Featured Speaker Session (1-hour)

Valerie Ellery

Reading Consultant, Author, Motivational Speaker

Equipping the Warrior Woman, Creating Strategic Readers

Featured Author/Illustrator Session (1-hour)

Alyssa Satin Capucilli

Biscuit and the Lost Teddy Bear, Starring Katy Duck, My Mom/Dad and Me

Paving the Beautiful Bridge to Emergent Reading and Writing: Creating Emotional Connections through Characters that Nurture, Sustain, and Empower Young Imaginations.
The author will present interactive and creative approaches to using literature and favorite characters to ignite early literacy across the curriculum, while supporting young imaginations.

Ann Burg

E is for Empire: A New York Alphabet, Rebekkah's Journey: A World War II Refugee Story, Pirate Pickle and the White Balloon

Workshops (1-hour)

Reading Comprehension and Math Problem Solving: Strategies for Success ~ Howard Berrent, Ph.D.

Grade Level Focus: K-8

This hands-on workshop will present strategies for students to improve reading comprehension through math problem solving. Learn how to implement these skills and fun activities in the classroom and help your students succeed.

Reading Intervention Strategies for Grades 5-8 and beyond: RTI, Tier II Tier III ~ Judy Wilson

Grade Level Focus: 4-8 and Adults

Trebax Learning: A Contract for Success is a foundational, reading skills intervention program for individual or small group instruction. Hallmarks of this innovative program are its flexibility and its immediate transfer of skill to application.

Toward a Model of Multi-Level Professional Learning Communities ~ Michelle McAnuff-Gumbs, Ph.D., Katherine Verbeck, Ed.D, Ph.D.

Grade Level Focus: K-12 Administrator, Graduate Level-College

Presenters scrutinize practices in a literacy leadership course to determine whether training inducts candidates into multi-level Professional Learning Communities (PLC) concepts, mentors candidates in implementing PLC processes, and fosters problem-solving interactions that guide action in K-12 schools.

Connecting to ELL’s in the General Classroom ~ Barbara Johnson

Grade Level Focus: K-6

Share techniques for connecting with ELL newcomers and integrating them more readily into the general classroom. In this session, using a hands-on activity and group discussion, we shall address ways to raise their levels of participation.

Releasing the Responsibility in Middle School Literacy Instruction ~ Doreen Saccomano

Grade Level Focus: 4-8

Using the Gradual Release of Responsibility model, teachers will learn how to teach “to” the student, work “with” them, and have students work ”by” themselves for shared and guided reading instruction.

Using Real-Time Data: Progress Monitoring and Differentiated Instruction ~ Margie Jorgensen, Ph.D.

Grade Level Focus: K-8

Reading Tracker Online is a web-based assessment program for reading comprehension and progress monitoring. It provides real-time data directly connected to state standards and the common core standards.

Test Preparation in a Reading Workshop Model-Using Authentic Literature to Prepare Students for Language Arts Testing ~ Robin Cohen

Grade Level Focus: K-6

Find out how using Testing Fundamentals Units of study can provide students with effective test preparation using authentic literature within a reading workshop model.

10:15 – 12:15

Featured Author/Teacher Session (2-hours)

Writing to Explore: Discovering Adventure in the Research Paper While Teaching to the Common Core

Peter Lourie

Writing to Explore: Discovering Adventure in the Research Paper, The Manatee Scientists: Saving Vulnerable Species, On the Texas Trail of Cabeza de Vaca

David Somoza
Fifth-Grade Teacher, Stevens Elementary School, Burnt Hills, NY.
Grade Level Focus: 3-College

Fifth-grade teacher David Somoza and award-winning adventure/travel writer Peter Lourie will demonstrate how to use adventure writing to build connections between nonfiction and fiction and motivate students to write and read with imagination, curiosity and passion.

Workshops (2-hours)

Beginning Reading Fluency Strategies ~ Enid Acosta-Tello

Grade Level Focus: Pre K-3

Fluency is usually a concern once children are proficient readers. This session will present methods of encouraging fluency, a skill crucial to comprehension, with beginning readers.

Moving and Talking Our Way to Understanding: Possibilities for Meaning Making ~ Don Halquist, Sue Novinger

Grade Level Focus: K-6

Together, we will make meaning through movement, talk, visual images, and text, and think together about the potential for engaging students in the process of transmediation, constructing and reconstructing meaning across multiple sign systems.

POW!! SCHAZAM!! Using Graphic Novels and Online Comic Generators ~ Kathleen A. Gormley, Peter McDermott, Jill Becker, Krista Knudsen, Colleen Van Cura

Grade Level Focus: K-8

The advantage of using graphic novels (comics) to teach literacy to struggling learners (K-4) will be presented. Suggestions for instruction with student examples, review of several online comic creators, and a research base will be addressed. Bring your laptops!

Meeting Common Core Standard Two—Using Nonfiction Read Alouds for Strategy Instruction ~ Marlyn Press, Ed.D.

Grade Level Focus: Pre K-6

This presentation describes how Common Core Standard 2 - Reading Informational Text - can be met through the use of nonfiction read alouds to develop various reading strategies.

Using Classroom Poetry Experiences to Build a More Literate Life ~ Janet S. Fagal

Grade Level Focus: K-8

Elementary through high school teachers will see how helping children learn poetry by heart can; teach content, improve reading fluency, generate stronger writing, build vocabulary, provide models of sophisticated language and give children performance opportunities.

11:30 – 12:30

Featured Speaker Sessions (1-hour)
Laura Robb; Author, Teacher, Coach, and Speaker

Teaching Reading in Middle School, Assessments for Differentiating Reading Instruction, Teaching Middle School Writers: What Every English Teacher Needs to Know
Teaching Adolescents to Comprehend Complex Tests: Applying Common Core State Standards

David Gonzalez, Storyteller, musician, poet, actor, writer and music therapist

Featured Author/Illustrator Session (1-hour)
Jan Cheripko

Sun moon stars rain, Imitate the Tiger, Rat, Caesar Rodney’s Ride
A Discussion About YA Writing and Teaching Teens

In this informal discussion, YA author and English teacher Jan Cheripko shares his experiences writing for the young adult audience and working with at-risk teens.

Workshops (1-hour)

Connecting Intermediate Readers to Coretta Scott King Book Award Winners ~ Aja Duke, Mary Linder, Elizabeth Yanoff

Grade Level Focus: 4-8

The Coretta Scott King Award books reflect the diverse experiences of today’s youth. Come make connections to recent CSK winners and learn about engaging literature response activities for the intermediate grades.

Writing “Where I’m From “Poems: Bringing the Power of the First-Person Narratives into a Model Poem ~ Mi-Hyun Chung

Grade Level Focus: 3-8 and College

The audience will be invited to write their own poems, imitating the style of a model poem, “Where I’m From,” in order to understand what students go through as they write. By sharing their poems, the audience will be engaged in deeper conversations about past, present, self, family or culture.

How Brain-Based Instruction Can Inform Early Literacy Instruction K-2 ~ Kathy Barclay

Grade Level Focus: K-3

Scientific evidence can help teachers provide effective instruction for beginning readers. This session provides an in-depth look at the importance of creating “neural pathways” in the brain, and how that translates into practical classroom application.

When a Children’s Author Becomes an American Idol ~ Maria A. Ceprano, Pamela Garabedian , Courtney Hammond, Stacey Blatt, Robyn Ruiz, Cheryl Mohabir

Grade Level Focus: K-6

Learning that a famed author/illustrator of children’s books (Bryan Collier) would visit their school, the children engaged in various projects modeled on his literary and artistic style. Event preparations and outcomes are described.

Assessing, Interpreting and Monitoring of Student Growth for Oral Reading Fluency ~ Mildred Papi

Grade Level Focus: K-8

Learn about the RTI package for the Academy of Reading. It has all the components that teachers can use to assess, interpret and monitor student growth.

College Reading Educators(New York State Reading Association)~ Dr. Sheila Cohen (SUNY Cortland), Facilitator

11:30 – 1:00

Author Luncheon (preregistration/additional fee required)
J. Patrick Lewis
First Dog, Gulls Hold Up the Sky, Tugg and Teeny

1:00 – 2:15

Special Session (1-hour, 15 minutes)
Unpacking the Common Core Standards

Richard M. Long, Ed.D., Director, Government Relations, International Reading Association
Dr. Brenda J. Overturf, Board of Directors, International Reading Association, Chair IRA Task Force on CCSS
What Issues in the CCSS Will Impact Literacy?
This session will explore what the critical professional issues in the Common Core State Standards that will be significant for the literacy community. In addition the session will explore how IRA is working with other organizations, sharing information and supporting the work of state councils to impact how the standards will be implemented. Teachers will be briefed on how the standards are structured, what will impact literacy instruction and how teachers could be empowered by this program.

Featured Author/Illustrator Session (1-hour, 15 minutes)

Jerry Pinkney

Three Little Kittens, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Aesop’s Fables

"Creating A Sense of Place, Real and Imagined"
The artist will – through a slide presentation – show his working process in creating illustrated and picture books. He will speak on how his interest and passion for his own roots, and those stories which have had a lasting impression on him, have helped shape the way he chooses his projects. Also the role in which text and language are used to tell the story, and help the artist to define his own interpretation. Adapting the classics, and it is imperative to do so, is the artist’s way to bridge the present with far away places and long ago times. The artist believes that children need to know these universal messages, and how they relate to their lives today. Lastly, the artist will explain the usage of models to develop characters and the making of finished art.

Featured Speaker Sessions (1-hour, 15 minutes)
Marvin Terban

In a Pickle: And Other Funny Idioms, Punctuation Power, The Scholastic Dictionary of Spelling
Who Says English Can’t Be Fun?
In a lively, fun PowerPoint presentation, Marvin Terban, teacher for 48 years, author of over 35 books on English, and Scholastic’s Professor Grammar, will reveal the two most important lessons he’s learned about teaching English.
Grade Level Focus: K-12

Bobbie Frederickson

Inspiring Student Voice Through a Love of Literature
Utilizing the power of teacher read-alouds to enrich literacy instruction will be explored through an interactive presentation of multicultural literature. Strategies which will inspire your students to actively seek to understand other perspectives and discover their voices, as well as practical ideas to enhance student self-esteem and confidence, deeper comprehension, vocabulary growth, and writing skills will be shared. As Maya Angelou says in, I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings, “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning.” So, come and let your voice be heard!

2:30 – 3:30

Special Session (1-hour)
Unpacking the Common Core Standards
Reconstructing NYS ELA lessons to align with the Common Core ~ Linda Carr
In this session, wewill briefly examineshifts from NYS ELA Standards to a Key Idea from the Common Core Learning Standardsfor elementary grades. We will discuss specificinstructional strategies, lessons, and assessments on a Key Ideafor use in grades 3-5.

Featured Authors/Illustrators Sessions (1-hour)
When Husband and Wife are Both Authors and/or Illustrators… A Panel Presentation

Wendell and Florence Minor

Christmas Tree!My Farm Friends, If You Were a Penguin, The Buffalo Are Back

James and Lesa Ransome

Satchel Paige, Quilt Alphabet, Before There Was Mozart, New Red Bike!

Peter Catalnotto

Ivan the Terrier, Matthew A. B. C., and Emily’s Art

Jason Edwards

Will Allen and the Great Monster Detective, Will Allen and the Ring of Terror
Destination: INSPIRATION
Author Jason Edwards’ Destination: INSPIRATION program cultivates the writer inside every child! Learn how to foster imagination and build creative writing skills with assembly programs and writing workshops that Entertain, Instruct and Inspire.
Grade Level Focus: K-6

Featured Speaker Session (1-hour)
Barbara Boroson

How to Reach and Teach Students on the Autism Spectrum
Forget about teaching; it’s tough enough just getting these students— and yourself—through the day. This interactive session describes the myriad of challenges students on the spectrum face and what you can do to break through.
Grade Level Focus: K-3

John Micklos, Jr.

Elvis Presley: “I Want to Entertain People”, Mommy Poems, No Boys Allowed: Poems About Brothers and Sisters
The Power of Poetry: Using It in the Classroom
Poetry whispers. Poetry shouts. Poets take words and make magic come out. This session focuses on specific ways to incorporate the reading and writing of poetry into the busy classroom schedule.
Grade Level Focus: K-8

Workshops (1-hour)

Presentation of the 2012 NYSRA Charlotte Award Ballot ~ Judy Ehrensbeck, Eileen LaSpaluto, Dawn Sweredoski, Eileen Wilcox, Liz Yanoff

Grade Level Focus: All

The NYSRA Charlotte Award Committee will present the ten books in each nominated category for the 2012 Charlotte Award. Presenters will share the primary, intermediate, middle school and high school ballots.

Best Practices in Literacy Achievement ~ Catalina Castillo, Alice Siegel, Cindy Lopez, Margaret O’Donnell, Emily Yedowitz

Grade Level Focus: K-6

Come hear about the Charter School of Educational Excellence and how they helped the students make dramatic gains in ELA scores. You’ll hear about exemplary Literacy Practices and action from a teacher’s perspective. The school won the NYSRA Exemplary Reading Award. Hear about the school today and plan to visit us on Tuesday as NYSRA goes on the road to the Charter School of Educational Excellence in Yonkers, NY.

Best Practices for Teaching Grammar aligned to the Common Core ~ Irene Rosenthal, Ph.D.

Grade Level Focus: K-8

What grammar lessons should you teach and should you not teach to meet the common core Language Standards. This session will present best practices for teaching grammar in the context of real reading and writing lessons.

Disciplinary Literacy Projects: Adolescent Literacy Connections within the Disciplines ~ J. David Gallagher, Ph.D. and Matt J. Hollibush, Ph.D.

Grade Level Focus: 7-12

The presenters will introduce and share examples of a framework for teaching literacy in the content areas that seeks to connect students’ funds of knowledge with the content in meaningful and authentic projects.

Do you See What They See?: Exploring Visual Literacy ~ Jennifer Dopp

Grade Level Focus: Pre K-12, College and Adult

Do you think seeing is believing? Not anymore! This presentation will discuss how to become and how to teach your students to become visually literate at a time when subliminal messages dominate information acquisition.

Supporting Young Children’s Future Learning by Teaching Concepts ~ Andrea M. Noel, Ph.D., Kathleen Lord, Ph.D.

Grade Level Focus: Pre K

This workshop will include an exploration of concepts in early education and future literacy achievement. Highlights include rationale for organizing ECE curriculum around concepts and exploration of Social Studies concepts imbedded in Common Core Pre K standards. Materials will be shared.

2:30 – 4:30