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Mary Lois Staton Reading/Language Arts Conference 2006
Friday, February 10, 2006, Greenville Hilton Inn
Opening General Session
8:45 – 10:00 A.M.
Hilton Ballrooms: Keynote Address:
“Teaching and Developing Vocabulary to Improve Reading and School Achievement”
Dr. Jack Pikulski
Concurrent Session I: 10:15 – 11:15 A.M.
Ballroom A:
“Making Comprehension Count”
Joyce Kohfeldt
Participants will explore strategies to help students read, understand, and remember. Ideas will include inflatable manipulatives, ERT, Trigger letters, and much more. Come and add to your bag of teaching tricks!
Ballroom B:
“Improving Language Skills of Children of Poverty”
Melissa Lara
Research from Ruby Payne, Fantini, Hart and Risley, Brode and Good, Kathie Nunley and other researchers will be used to support the connections between language development, expectations, poverty and student achievement. The session will also provide specific strategies which can be used in the classroom to increase language development which directly affects student achievement in all subject areas.
Ballroom C:
“Literacy Centers Children Love!”
Darlene Germano, Jamie Gray, Marcia Griffin
This presentation will focus on exciting, effective, child-centered centers. The presenters will discuss and share instructional activities related to the use of literacy centers including skills areas, differentiating instruction, and learning styles.
Ballroom D:
“Fluency: The Bridge Between Decoding and Reading Comprehension”
Dr. Jack Pikulski
Dr. Pikulski’s session will focus on the importance of fluency in reading proficiency and its association with decoding and comprehension. His presentation will provide the research base, rationale, and instructional strategies that promote effective reading and reading instruction.
Room E:
“Bringing Words to Life: Building Vocabulary in the Elementary Grades”
Mary Rose
Vocabulary knowledge is a key component of reading comprehension and content knowledge. Systematic vocabulary study can increase comprehension, develop background knowledge, and help students make connections. This session will present ways to make vocabulary fun and to bring words to life.
Greenville Room:
“Book Talking Styles to Use with Middle Through High School Students”
Ruth Cox Clark
Using recently published Young Adult titles appropriate for middle school through high school students, three different styles of booktalking (first person, narrative discussion, and excerpt) will be addressed and modeled in this session. An annotated handout of the booktalked books and other recommended titles will be available.
Concurrent Session II: 1:15 – 2:15 P.M.
Ballroom A:
“Storybook Theatre: From the Page to the Stage!”
Patch Clark
This hands-on workshop will feature various techniques to bring books alive in the classroom including participatory storybook theatre, integrated arts and books, “poetry in motion,” drama and books across the curriculum and multicultural folk and fairy takes. The workshop will also feature ECU’s Storybook Theatre Performers and a special tale!
Ballroom B:
“NC Learn: New and Improved!”
Terry Atkinson, Melissa Matusevich
Join us in this workshop and come away with “a truckload” of teaching resources, all in electronic format. Created by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Education, Learn NC provides K-12 teachers and students with innovative resources based on best practices in teaching. Newly reorganized and improved, the NC Learn site contains multiple search features for allowing teachers to access resources and to add their own content-area knowledge.
Ballroom C:
“BETCHA: Beginning Education Through Childhood Accessibility”
Lora Lee Smith Canter, Tara Jeffs, Kim Floyd
This session will focus on the utilization of technology in the early literacy program. The presenters will discuss the importance of universal design as it applies to creating literacy tools to use in the classroom. The presentation will also include tools that infuse assistive technology through a variety of activities which can be used by parents, early childhood educators, and special educators.
Ballroom D:
“Guided Reading in the 3-5 Classroom”
Stephanie Weeks, Stephanie Hall, Susan Wiedenman
The presenters will describe how guided reading and workstations can be incorporated into the literacy block in grades 3-5. They will explain how to find an instructional focus for guided reading groups along with how to integrate the focus into appropriate workstations, pertinent management techniques, and resources.
Room E:
“English/Language Arts Update”
Marilyn Palmer, Ileetha Groom, Marilyn McCarthy, Mary Rose, Michelle Weaver
Participants will receive the most recent information from the Department of Public Instruction regarding reading/language arts issues and concerns. Participants will also receive information on the Standard Course of Study clarifications. Various support documents will also be presented.
Greenville Room:
“Accelerating Reading and Writing Development: The Missing Piece”
Paula Costello
This session will provide an overview of why oral language is such a crucial instructional prerequisite for deep understandings for both reading and writing. Through demonstrations of a variety of instructional techniques, participants will experience how incorporating oral language as a strategic intervention can accelerate academic reading and writing.
Concurrent Session III: 2:30 – 3:30 P.M.
Ballroom A:
“Get Ready with the ‘Write’ Ideas”
Johnny Warrick
This session will focus on strategies that will provide powerful beginnings and great endings for your writing instruction. Participants will be engaged in activities that can be used in planning writing instruction. Activities will be modeled and a handout will be provided.
Ballroom B:
“Image Making: Storytelling with Watercolors”
Kristen Cuthrell
Image Making is an art and literature based approach to writing developed out of the University of New Hampshire. This approach to writing has been found to promote significant gains in writing achievement across grade levels. In this approach, students use art to participate in the writing process. The presenter will share her experiences using this technique, including successes and challenges.
Ballroom C:
“Teach the Reader, Not the Reading;”
Erika Swarts Gray
Are you looking for an explicit and understandable method to aid students in becoming aware readers? This session will offer an instructional framework for helping students “tune into their thinking voice” while reading. This has been effective with Title I students in an elementary school, but could benefit students of any age.
Ballroom D:
“Belvoir – A Reading First School”
Ruth Millar, Al Braxton, Kim Sutton, Nicole Tillery, Bobbi Fields
This session will describe a successful Reading First school. The presenters will discuss the components of a Reading First Classroom including scheduling, reading components, differentiation of instruction, assessment, and coaching. Teachers from several grade levels will share their experiences with regard to best practices of reading instruction in this school.
Room E:
“New Research-Based Strategies that Maximize Retention of Concepts and Achievement Among Secondary English Students”
Todd Finley, Jonathan Bartels
How do you teach English so that students don’t forget the information and skills by the next day? This session features research by Marzano and Sprenger regarding instructional strategies for enhancing students’ vocabulary, comprehension, and memory. Recommendations for effective instructional design and instructional techniques will be included.
Room F:
“Freedom on the Menu”
Carole Weatherford
Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins is a prize-winning book, offering a child’s eye-view of the civil rights movement. Author Carole Weatherford demonstrates activities that extend the literature and link with language arts and social studies curricula.
Greenville Room:
“Taking Action: Differentiating Instruction Using Classroom Action Research”
Marjorie Ringler
This session will provide participants with an overview of a classroom action research model that has shown positive results in improving student learning in reading. This model focuses on informing and selecting appropriate instructional approaches to meet individual student needs. Teachers and administrators will gain an understanding on using action research to address reading problems as the teacher becomes the researcher.