
Two-day Summer Conference
Build a yearlong calendar of comprehension instruction
If you really want to accomplish something, you better put it on your calendar! This is true in life—and also in teaching. When educators start the year with a schedule for when and how they will roll out specific reading comprehension skills, whole-class instruction goes from good to great.
Led by Kristina Smekens, this two-day conference will help educators start the school year with a personalized calendar for delivering standards-driven comprehension mini-lessons all year long. This event includes the expert instruction you expect with the added support of afternoon work time when Kristina and her team will be available to help.
This BRAND NEW event is coming to three cities this summer and also offered as a virtual & interactive conference. Choose the date & format that works best for you and register today!
Dates & Locations
Space is limited at each location.

FRENCH LICK, IN
French Lick Springs Hotel
June 29-30, 2021
$489/person

SHIPSHEWANA, IN
July 13-14, 2021
$489/person

VIRTUAL EVENT
July 20-21, 2021
$245/person

CHICAGO, IL
Drury Lane Conference Center
July 27-28, 2021
$489/person
Early Bird rates listed above. After April 1, 2021, prices increase to $525/person.
Groups of 10 or more, contact us for special pricing and arrangements.

Your Safety is Our #1 Priority
Attendance will be limited in order to ensure social distancing of at least 6 ft.
All staff and attendees will be required to wear a mask while indoors unless eating or drinking.
Hand sanitizer will be provided for every CompCON attendee.
High-touch areas will be cleaned and disinfected regularly.
Prefer to attend virtually? Join us on July 20-21.

Conference Details
DAY 1 OVERVIEW
Map out a weekly comprehension target skill
Kristina will kick off the morning with a yearlong vision of whole-class comprehension instruction. Within that vision, Kristina will provide participants with a suggested scaffold of skills from retelling to synthesizing that honors grade-level standards and best-practice instruction.
Armed with this big-picture understanding, the primary focus of this first morning is to learn the process for planning and teaching a single comprehension skill across an entire week.
During the morning session, Kristina will:
- Provide attendees a list of instructional points per comprehension skill.
- Model how to layer instruction of those points day after day to build students’ knowledge and know-how for each week’s target skill.
- Reveal this explicit instruction across a week of mini-lessons that each include the gradual release of responsibility (i.e., I do, We do, You do).
The afternoon will transition into work time. Participants will finalize their own week-by-week map of comprehension target skills. Then they will drill down the order of instructional points to roll out each day of the mini-lesson series. While working independently, teachers will have access to Kristina and her team to ask questions, seek feedback, and troubleshoot concerns.
The day will conclude with a recap of the yearlong vision for delivering whole-class comprehension instruction. Kristina will highlight the facets addressed within Day 1 and prepare participants for what’s coming on Day 2.
DAY 2 OVERVIEW
Add instructional time for text variety and writing-about-reading
Creating a yearlong map of comprehension target skills and explicit instruction is powerful. However, this alone is not enough. Missing from the day-one calendar are two essential pieces that are required in the standards and tested on state assessments.
Teachers must:
1. Apply reading instruction to a wide range of text types.
2. Assess student comprehension through their writing.
With this new understanding, Kristina will model how to take a second pass over each week’s comprehension skill in order to add these missing ingredients.
During the morning session, learn how to:
- Evaluate when each skill is best suited for literature versus informational text, print versus visual texts, and single versus multiple texts. Plot those decisions within the calendar.
- Teach students how to articulate their reader thinking in brief constructed responses and longer extended responses. Account for that instruction within the calendar.
The afternoon will again transition into work time. Participants will update their individual calendars to incorporate experiences with various text types and writing-about-reading instruction. While working independently, Kristina and her team will again be available to answer questions, provide feedback, and troubleshoot concerns.
The day will conclude with the last piece of this planning puzzle—a process for choosing just the right text to support each day’s mini-lesson.
What Other Educators Say

Allison Gresham
Bixby Central Intermediate – Bixby, OK

“The time to work on what we did as well as conference with Kristina one on one. VERY valuable!”
Tony Venable
Pierre Moran Middle School – Elkhart, IN

“I feel more prepared to start/launch teaching on the 1st day of school this year—no matter how it will look.”
Anne Pacion
Holy Family Catholic Academy – Inverness, IL
LITERACY EXPERT
Meet Your Guide

Kristina Smekens
Who attends CompCON?
Literacy Coaches & Coordinators
High-Ability Teachers
MS & HS Content-Area Teachers
Principals & Assistant Principals
Ready to save your spot at CompCON?
Have a Question?
Complete the form below or call (888) 376-0448.