Students grow as writers when they are given feedback that is prompt, purposeful, precise, and personal. In this session, learn how to go beyond grading and correcting to providing feedback that grows writers whether you are meeting in person or remotely. AUDIENCE: K-12, ELL All Levels PRESENTER: Kristina Smekens 10:15 a.m. -11:00 a.m. EDT

Learn how to guide beginning writers through the four stages of development. This session will focus on cultivating skills in drawing, labeling, listing, and sentence writing. In addition, learn how persuasive, informative, and narrative writing are represented within each of these stages and fit within yearlong writing instruction—even in the primary grades.  AUDIENCE: K-2, ELL Levels 1-2 PRESENTER: Shona Lansdell 11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EDT

Whether working in person or remotely, productive conversations improve students’ thinking about new content and ultimately their writing. This session will provide strategies for peer collaboration about any concept that has been recently read, viewed, and/or learned. AUDIENCE: K-12, ELL All Levels PRESENTER: Bridget Longmeier 12:30 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. EDT

Teachers at every level are expected to provide writing experiences across the three major modes—argumentative, informative, and narrative. However, teachers need not be married to the mother-lode unit that spans weeks and ends with a single final draft. Participants in this session leave with a pandemic-proof calendar suggesting a progression of mini-units across the year.

AUDIENCE: 2-12, ELL Levels 3-5

PRESENTER: Courtney Gordon

1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. EDT

Every writer needs explicit instruction, in-class time to try the skill, and an opportunity to receive feedback. In this session, learn how to transfer the three core components of the writer’s workshop from a traditional, in-person setting to a virtual one without missing a day of progress. AUDIENCE: K-12, ELL All Levels PRESENTER: Rachel Remenschneider 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. EDT

This is a great first session. Knowing what the traits are and how they look and sound will help you make connections throughout the conference. Not only do participants learn about the traits in general but also the specific writing skills to target all year long in every grade level and any writing unit.

AUDIENCE: K-12, ELL All Levels

PRESENTER: Bridget Longmeier

10:15-11:00 a.m. EDT

During a year when instructional priorities are paramount, it’s important to focus on the most essential writing lessons to be taught during argumentative, informative, and narrative writing units. This session will help teachers identify the foundational skills to teach and how each skill is aligned with the traits of ideas, organization, and conventions. AUDIENCE: 3-12, ELL Levels 3-5 PRESENTER: Kristina Smekens 11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EDT

Whether teachers are delivering instruction in person, via a livestream, or with pre-recorded video, the pillars of best-practice teaching remain the same. In this session, learn how the four steps of an effective, whole-class mini-lesson can be used to grow writers. AUDIENCE: K-12, ELL All Levels PRESENTER: Courtney Gordon 12:30 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. EDT

When strong procedures are in place, students benefit from a writer’s workshop that is organized, focused, and effective—regardless of whether it occurs in person or virtually. In this session, troubleshoot three common struggle points that are key to fostering a growth mindset and building writer independence. AUDIENCE: K-12, ELL All Levels PRESENTER: Shona Lansdell 1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. EDT

The most effective writing mini-lessons follow a gradual release of responsibility and are rooted in oral Think Alouds and visual anchor charts. In this session, learn how to perfect the “I do” portion of every mini-lesson by moving beyond telling what to teaching how.

AUDIENCE: K-12, ELL All Levels

PRESENTER: Kristi McCullough

2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. EDT

Writing about literature may start with a simple retelling of the story, but students need the skills to go deeper. This session provides a scaffold of lesson concepts that guide students from listing story elements to writing simple retellings to generating organized summaries that ultimately reveal the central ideas and themes found in literature. AUDIENCE: K-12, ELL All Levels PRESENTER: Kristi McCullough 10:15-11:00 a.m. EDT

When students write about nonfiction, the challenge is rarely a lack of information. Instead, the real trick is teaching them how to organize the information in a way that is clear and logical. In this session, learn how to engage students in purposeful pre-writing that uses one of only three graphic organizers.

AUDIENCE: 2-12, ELL Levels 3-5

PRESENTER: Kristi McCullough

11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EDT

Teaching students to write strong, cohesive summaries is as important in the content areas as it is in English Language Arts. After all, scientists, historians, and mathematicians write. In this session, learn how to bolster content-area instruction by weaving together core vocabulary within accurate summaries.

AUDIENCE: 3-12, ELL Levels 3-5

PRESENTER: Kristi McCullough

12:30 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. EDT

When students intentionally code, mark, and highlight while reading, their after-reading writing responses inherently improve. In this session, participants will learn how to engage students in purposeful annotation when reading print and digital texts. AUDIENCE: 3-12, ELL Levels 3-5 PRESENTER: Bridget Longmeier 1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. EDT

Even the youngest writers are expected to write simple persuasive pieces in response to reading. In this session, learn how to teach the what-and-why structure and get students to support their opinions with textual evidence using popular picture books read in the primary grades. AUDIENCE: K-2, ELL Levels 1-2 PRESENTER: Shona Lansdell 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. EDT

Students can’t write beyond the text if they can’t comprehend what the text says. This session targets the inferential thinking that needs to occur before students begin writing about their reading. Learn the concrete, 5-step process that helps students to improve their thinking and ultimately their writing.

AUDIENCE: K-12, ELL All Levels

PRESENTER: Shona Lansdell

10:15-11:00 a.m. EDT

This session begins with a quick review of what a strong constructed response includes as defined by state rubrics and artificial-intelligence scoring. The rest of this session focuses on the essential ingredients to a well-written constructed response utilizing the RACE, CER, and Yes, MA’AM formulas. AUDIENCE: 2-12, ELL Levels 3-5 PRESENTER: Bridget Longmeier 11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EDT

Students need to know how to gather, organize, and present information learned from multiple sources. But during the COVID era, who has time for a huge research paper? This session will unveil strategies to help students synthesize author ideas within short research experiences that occur all year long. AUDIENCE: 3-12, ELL Levels 3-5 PRESENTER: Kristina Smekens 12:30 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. EDT

As students master short constructed responses, it’s important to heighten the expectations. Learn strategies to move students beyond the basic RACE, CER, or Yes, MA’AM formulas in order to produce extended-reading responses with well-developed syntheses expressed in multiple paragraphs. AUDIENCE: 3-12, ELL Levels 3-5 PRESENTER: Kristina Smekens 1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. EDT

Collecting information from two texts on the same topic or theme and then drawing conclusions about that information is a K-12 expectation. (However, for many students the written product includes a laundry list of similarities and differences.) This session will break down the process of comparative thinking so that students learn to independently generate compare-contrast pieces that are well-developed, logically organized, and standards-based. AUDIENCE: K-12, ELL All Levels PRESENTER: Courtney Gordon 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. EDT

The standards expect students to read multiple texts on a debatable topic and then write an argumentative response. This requires students to have a strong grasp of the difference between inferring reasons and finding evidence. Attend this session to learn strategies for teaching both.

AUDIENCE: 3-12, ELL Levels 3-5

PRESENTER: Courtney Gordon

10:15-11:00 a.m. EDT

Textual evidence comes from more than just traditional print text. This session provides actionable techniques to help writers be discerning readers in the digital era. Teach students how to extract meaning from illustrations, photos, infographics, audio, and videos in order to write evidence-rich content.

AUDIENCE: K-12, ELL All Levels

PRESENTER: Courtney Gordon

11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EDT

Although including textual evidence to support thinking is not a new concept, not all students are observing standards-based expectations. This session troubleshoots four common errors that plague students’ answers to text-dependent questions. Learn strategies to combat each of these weaknesses and fine-tune students’ understanding of textual evidence. AUDIENCE: 2-12, ELL Levels 3-5 PRESENTER: Shona Lansdell 12:30 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. EDT

In this session, learn what K-2 students can do (and should be expected to do) when writing about their reading during guided-reading groups. Learn how to capture the reciprocal benefits of combining reading and writing instruction to boost comprehension, build language structure, and solidify word-study concepts. AUDIENCE: K-2, ELL Levels 1-2 PRESENTER: Kristi McCullough 1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. EDT

Constructed response formulas like RACE, CER, and Yes, MA’AM are simply a starting point. Eventually, students need to learn how to elaborate on the textual evidence they cited. This session focuses on strategies to help students add more of their own inferential thinking into their written responses. AUDIENCE: 3-12, ELL Levels 3-5 PRESENTER: Kristina Smekens 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. EDT