Recommended sessions for
GRADE 2
DAY ONE
9:00-10:30 a.m.
Keynote
Be the spark for every writer
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Rekindle your enthusiasm for teaching writing during this powerful keynote led by Kristina Smekens. With a focus on whole-class mini-lessons, Kristina will provide instructional techniques to teach essential writing skills explicitly and effectively at all levels.
Kristina will share practical strategies and writing practices that ignite your motivation to teach writing and fuel your students’ confidence in attempting it. Leave feeling equipped, energized, and excited to start a new school year, ready to implement effective writing instruction.
10:45-11:45 a.m.
Juggle language foundations & writing standards in PK-2
Grades PK-2, ML Levels 1-2
Learn how to effectively integrate writing standards into your literacy instruction alongside foundational skills. Discover a variety of curriculum resources and scheduling options to ensure both areas are covered daily.
Introduce the 6 Traits to students
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Discover engaging techniques to introduce the 6 Traits to your students using mentor texts, song lyrics, and visual icons. By establishing a shared understanding of these essential elements at the beginning of the year, you can create a strong foundation for writing instruction that will benefit students throughout the year.
Deepen math understanding through writing
Grades 2-12, ML Levels 3-5
Weave writing practices into math instruction to enhance critical thinking and analysis. Learn innovative mini-lessons that focus on articulating thought processes rather than merely solving problems, empowering students to strengthen their writing skills and deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts.
Improve thinking to impact written responses
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Boost students’ written responses through the power of inference. Follow a straightforward 5-step process to clarify this essential skill. Help your students answer text-dependent questions and support their ideas with strong evidence.
Utilize the perfect pair– Canva & Google
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Unlock the potential of Canva and Google in your classroom. Create dynamic, visually engaging materials in Canva and integrate them effortlessly into Google apps. Discover how this perfect pairing can support your teaching with free, easy-to-use templates and ready-to-implement resources.
12:00-1:00 p.m.
Kick-start your writing with 6 key lessons
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Learn the essential lessons to teach writers at the beginning of the year to launch a daily writing time that blends instruction, practice, and feedback. Discover how to boost student engagement, tackle obstacles, and nurture independent writers with routines that keep the momentum going.
Design PK-2 writing units that meet the standards
Grades PK-2, ML Levels 1-2
Learn how to transition young writers from drawing and labeling to writing complete sentences. After initially teaching sentence-level skills through whole-class writing, you must gradually guide students toward applying these writing skills when independently expressing their own ideas.
Implement AI in dyslexia interventions
Grades 2-12, ML 3-5
Discover how AI can empower both teachers and students in navigating the challenges of dyslexia. This essential session features a student’s candid story, highlighting the transformative role AI has played in her educational journey and offering actionable strategies for educators.
2:00-3:00 p.m.
Provide focused & efficient writer feedback
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Students grow as writers when they are given feedback that is prompt, purposeful, precise, and personal. Discover ways to improve the efficiency and efficacy of your writer conferences. Learn a 4-step process to offer targeted guidance, track progress, and foster meaningful teacher-student interactions.
Blend core knowledge with writing instruction
Grades K-6, ML Levels 1-5
Discover how to fit writing instruction into a robust elementary schedule. Learn how to develop both writing skills and content understanding, achieving better student outcomes.
Develop ideas for stronger writing
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Implement effective strategies that target the essential trait of ideas. Discover how to teach students to develop topics, add rich details, and incorporate compelling evidence. With a focus on ideas, increase not only the length of their writing but improve the overall quality, too.
3:15-4:15 p.m.
Build a PK-2 rubric that grows with your students
Grades PK-2, ML Levels 1-2
Create a simplistic rubric that meets the wide range of developing writers in your primary classroom. Discover ways to co-create the rubric with students and guide them in using it to self-assess and improve their writing skills.
Use AI to strengthen study skills
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Empower students to make the most of AI to enhance their study routines. Learn from students’ real-world experiences using ChatGPT, Magic School Student, and other AI tools. Explore classroom strategies to integrate AI, making learning more engaging, effective, and future-ready.
DAY TWO
9:00-10:00 a.m.
Write about & beyond texts read in PK-2
Grades PK-2, ML Levels 1-2
Equip young readers to express their opinions, retell stories, and relay information comprehended from texts. Learn how to implement writing instruction during the reading block to strengthen these practices.
Write with the WOW! factor
Grades 2-12, ML Levels 3-5
Discover proven writing strategies to elevate style and leave a lasting impression. Learn how to refine students’ selection of words, choice of voice, and mastery of sentence fluency through targeted mini-lesson instruction and engaging writing tasks.
10:15-11:15 a.m.
Foster perseverance & resilience with writing
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Foster resilience in young writers by providing mini-lessons that acknowledge the challenges of learning how to write. Encourage perseverance and independent decision-making through writing tasks that empower students to overcome obstacles and develop strong writer habits.
Make mini-lesson magic
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Experience the transformative impact of a 4-step mini-lesson that delivers focused, Tier 1 writing instruction in just 15 minutes. Build on ideas from the keynote and observe video lessons that maximize student engagement and kick-start the gradual release of responsibility.
Supercharge your Canva skills with simple hacks
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Boost your Canva skills with effective hacks. Learn to navigate Canva’s features, from easy animations to collaborative tools that streamline your workflow. This session is designed for those ready to enhance their design game, creating engaging materials that captivate students and enrich learning.
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Teach opinion, informative, & narrative writing skills in PK-2
Grades PK-2, ML Levels 1-2
Guide students through the stages of writing—drawing, labeling, listing, and sentence writing—while building skills in opinion, informative, and narrative writing. Learn how to teach these writing modes within the stages of developmental.
Demonstrate comprehension via succinct summary writing
Grades 2-12, ML Levels 3-5
Learn how to guide students through a scaffold of comprehensive summary writing strategies. This session will feature authentic student examples and interactive activities to demonstrate 10 different summary-writing products.
Craft engaging beginnings & powerful endings
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Discover strategies for writing captivating openings and strong conclusions at every level. Analyze student work to uncover successful examples and gain practical tools for writing beginnings and endings that complement a strong middle in all modes and genres.
Modernize classroom collaboration from Post-Its to Padlet
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Upgrade your classroom collaboration by swapping Post-Its for Padlet. Explore how this digital tool supports real-time idea sharing, AI audio features in 40+ languages, and media moderation. Learn to set it up and create engaging, interactive lessons that boost student participation.
1:30-2:30 p.m.
Revitalize the writing process
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Streamline the steps of the traditional writing process to accommodate one-sitting first drafts. Explore a fresh perspective on peer and self-revision techniques that better reflect today’s real-world writing situations.
Improve basic sentence conventions
Grades PK-2, ML Levels 1-2
Build solid sentence foundations using engaging, practical writing strategies. Teach students key conventions like word spacing, punctuation, and expanding fragments into sentences. Explore creative ways to guide them in self-editing, ensuring their writing practices become more clear, more coherent, and more impactful.
Enhance teaching & learning with AI tools
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Discover innovative strategies to harness AI technology in your classroom. Explore AI detectors, practical applications, and student-friendly chatbots. Leave with actionable insights and creative ideas to enhance teaching and learning in today’s AI-driven landscape.
2:45-3:15 p.m.
Closing keynote with Kristina
Grades K-12, ML All Levels
Get ready to head out with a new enthusiasm for teaching writing! Kristina will encourage and motivate during this closing keynote.
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