OPENING SESSION
A Joyous and Just Education for All
Juliana Urtubey
Auditorium
In order to be equitable, linguistically and racially inclusive, schools must present a Joyous and Just environment and education for students and families. The Joyous brings a sense of belonging. The Just ensures that we acknowledge and dismantle barriers. A Joyous and Just school is intentional, holistic and inclusive to build welcoming environments for all members of learning communities. Every student, family and community has the right to a Joyous and Just education. Explore examples of how schools can continue to transform educational spaces to ensure everyone can shine through community connection and growth. Learn and share examples of how to transform your classroom and school spaces to welcome everyone.
9:30 a.m. - 10:20 a.m.
Boosting the Big Five with a Focus on Language Support
Karen Sander, Columbia Public Schools
Upper Lobby
The 2000 National Reading Panel report was significant because it categorized reading skills into five main areas: phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The “science of reading" movement has placed additional emphasis on phonemic awareness and phonics. Explore the oral language needs of ELs with literacy instruction and concrete suggestions about boosting oral language and literacy.
No Child Left Monolingual: The Why and How of Dual Language
Kim Potowski, University of Illinois Chicago
Choir Room
Mainstream education in the U.S. generally suffers from two problems: We don’t help speakers of other languages maintain proficiency in them while they learn English, and we don’t teach non-English languages early enough nor very robustly. Dual immersion is an outstanding solution to both challenges. Through research-based findings, discover how these programs can consistently result in higher levels of English Learning, academic achievement and Spanish proficiency for both English Learners and English speaking children.
Pathways To Success Through Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs)
Jennifer Riesenmy and Diana Hsu, Ladue Schools
Band Room
Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs) provide a component of accountability for all members of an EL student’s education team. Goals are embedded within the plan to be used as a foundation for determining educational supports and guiding continuous learning. Learn how about Ladue School District’s journey with implementing ILP’s along with example templates. Review a case law that can be used as rationale to advocate for the implementation of ILP’s in your school/district.
Thinking and Language Connection
Jennifer Blaylock, Windsor C-1 School District
Orchestra Room
Learn 5 practical strategies for connecting language development to content and higher-order thinking skills. The strategies are simple ways to illicit thinking and language through the use of images. Each strategy can easily be adapted to fit a variety of content and topics.
TPRS: A Fun Strategy for Newcomer EL Students
Rob Greenhaw, EducationPlus
Art Gallery
Explore Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS), a strategy that provides ELs with tons of repetition of words/phrases in the target language while also being highly engaging and comprehensible. If you provide ELD instruction to newcomers, this is the perfect strategy to add to your toolkit. We will watch video clips of TPRS lessons, practice some of the techniques together and share resources to learn more.
10:30 a.m. - 11:20 a.m.
Joy and Justice: We are Linguistically Gifted
Juliana Urtubey
Upper Lobby
Delve deeper into the Joyous and Just Education framework that was inspired by Ms. Urtubey’s students and community through the eyes of your students, their families and communities. Explore what it means to be Linguistically Gifted and how we create a space for everyone’s strengths in our classrooms. Through the power of storytelling, we will ensure linguistic and cultural identities are centered, celebrated, nurtured and protected.
Anchoring Writing 2.0: Creating Writing Rubrics with PLDs
Daisy Skelly and Rachel Mizera, Wright City R-II School District
Band Room
Students need visual tools to help guide their growth as writers. Teachers need visual tools to help assess student writing effectively. This hands-on session will help educators create tools they can use to teach and assess writing based on WIDA's PLDs.
Better Together: How to Effectively Collaborate with Content Teachers
Laura Malik, Mehlville School District
Choir Room
In order to increase student success, all stakeholders must work together. Learn tips for collaborating with content teachers. Explore Ideas for planning, sharing data and general communications for effective co-teaching.
SOR and UDL: A Beautiful Partnership
Stephanie Tuck, EducationPlus
Art Gallery
Discover how the Science of Reading and best practices can support ALL learners in the general education classroom. Explore how decades old research can be a powerful entry point for learners to access literacy instruction. Spend some time reflecting on current practice and planning for the classroom.
12:30 p.m. - 1:20 p.m.
Joy and Justice: We are Linguistically Gifted
Juliana Urtubey
Upper Lobby
Delve deeper into the Joyous and Just Education framework that was inspired by Ms. Urtubey’s students and community through the eyes of your students, their families and communities. Explore what it means to be Linguistically Gifted and how we create a space for everyone’s strengths in our classrooms. Through the power of storytelling, we will ensure linguistic and cultural identities are centered, celebrated, nurtured and protected.
Cultivating Sound Awareness: The Color Vowel Way
Cynthia Chasteen, Heart of Missouri RPDC
Art Gallery
Pronunciation and phonemic awareness are often areas of challenge for ELs. The Color Vowel® method provides learners with simple yet powerful brain-based strategies that build phonemic awareness, improve oral communication and boost word learning. Explore the Color Vowel® Chart as well as gestures and images utilized during facilitation. Participate in Color Vowel® Yoga which incorporates physical movement as a tool to bolster phonemic awareness.
Launching an ESOL Books and Blankets Book Club
Cheryl Boesch, Elizabeth Trapp and Heather Tuckson, St. Louis Public Schools
Choir Room
Discover how to promote literacy by launching an ESOL Books and Blanket Book Club. Learn how the ESOL online book club at St. Louis Public Schools has helped ELs develop a love for reading. Review the logistics of providing multicultural books, book bins and blankets to ELs for each 9-week session. Peruse the engaging multi-cultural books, interactive lesson plans, reading strategies and hands-on review games that have been effective in the program.
Write a Grant Proposal to Grow Multiliteracy
Heather LeCureux and Bri Loughary, Missouri State University
Band Room
The Show Me Multiliteracy project is a National Professional Development grant that promotes the use of home languages for family literacy, supplemental instruction, enrichment activities and learning tasks in the classroom. The project staff collaborate with teachers to develop demonstration projects of exemplary practices with specific English Learner populations. This session will focus on helping attendees develop their ideas into a fundable grant proposal.
1:30 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.
Bilingualism is Our Superpower: Successful Bilingual Classroom Practices You Can Use
Geri Ross, Ritenour School District
Band Room
Discover the profound and positive impact of bilingual education on Marion Elementary School’s unique bilingual classroom. Explore the instructional activities and resources that made this program successful and can also be implemented into your classroom.
Portfolios in Action
Jess Marty, Hazelwood School District
Art Gallery
Learn about the portfolio process for exiting EL students in Hazelwood School District. Explore the HSD portfolio exit process, have time to ask questions, brainstorm and gain the necessary documents to try out in your district.
Problems of Practice
Mary Hendricks-Harris, EducationPlus and EducationPlus staff members
Choir Room
The Problems of Practice session is designed to provide a platform for participants to delve into real-world problems, dissect their intricacies and explore potential solutions. Bring a challenge to the session and through the power of the collective group, we’ll unravel the problem, inspire innovative thinking and provide solutions. Use the brain power of your colleagues to help work through a roadblock you’re facing in the classroom.
Scaffolding Strategies for the Mainstream Classroom
Diana Hsu and Lory Willhoft, Ladue Schools
Orchestra Room
Meeting the diverse academic needs of ELs in the classroom can be challenging. Explore a variety of Tier I strategies to support ELs in the classroom. Strategies that will be shared include wait time, interactive supports, comprehensive input and the use of graphic organizers.
Using Language to Make Sense of Math Problems
Julie Antill, Southeast RPDC
Upper Lobby
How can we develop strong number sense while we also develop language in the K-5 classroom? Using CGI (Cognitive Guided Instruction), participants will be actively engaged in identifying and sorting word problem types and structures, which are embedded in many migrant summer school programs. Experience evidence-based strategies to promote language acquisition and make sense of word problems. Engage in rich conversations about learning which models we hope to reproduce in math classrooms.
2:30 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.
Adapting Resources for the Sheltered Classroom
Lauren Dickerson, St. Louis Public Schools
Upper Lobby
Often resources available for content classrooms, even sheltered content classrooms, are unnecessarily complex and confusing for ELs. Gain strategies that will help provide comprehensible input and focus on objectives throughout lessons and assessments through use of modified or teacher-created materials. Learn from and share with your peers simple strategies for streamlining materials and creating a smoother path to mastery.
Co-teaching Conversations
Michele Lashly and Lauren Bax, Hazelwood School District
Art Gallery
This session will provide insight into the co-teaching experience from two co-teaching partners. The CoTEL6 will be discussed as participants view a lesson taught by these teachers. Tips for co-teaching will be shared to help others along their co-teaching journey.
Leading PD in Your Building: A Hands-On Workshop
Jillian Baldwin Kim, Parkway Schools and Christina Mendoza, Lindbergh Schools
Band Room
Experience a variety of techniques to implement and inform your own in-house PD sessions around laws, cultures, accommodations and “can-do” application. Additionally, participants will discuss, collaborate and create a framework for leading PD within their own K-12 contexts.
Supporting the Well-Being of Newcomers from Conflict-Affected Countries
Lindsay Stark, Washington University
Orchestra Room
Access to holistic, culturally responsive support is particularly important for newcomer students from conflict-affected countries. This session will share tangible opportunities for schools to minimize barriers to student wellbeing and help newcomers navigate stressors during an already critical developmental period. Explore best practices for ensuring that students are connected to relevant supports that boost resilience, address language needs and are responsive to challenges associated with displacement and acculturation.
SWIT Strategy for Selecting and Teaching Vocabulary
Michelle Sencibaugh, Valley Park School District
Choir Room
Explore how to differentiate between current approaches for selecting vocabulary for instruction and the different components of the SWIT strategy. Learn to describe and implement the SWIT strategy with narrative and informational texts.