Symposium Workshops
MORNING WORKSHOPS
1. How to Use Technology and Not be Used by it: Media Literacy Across the Curriculum
In our increasingly visually-stimulated and media-driven society, students are practically immersed in a digital world. This workshop will explore how teachers from all disciplines can incorporate media literacy in the classroom. Specific attention will be paid to the use of online newspapers, Blogger.com, YouTube.com, and Google.
Andrew Forrest and Sarah Van Ness
Red Bank Regional High School
2. Enhancing Literacy through Literature Circles
This workshop addresses how to use Literature Circles to engage students in developing reading skills and focuses on comprehension. Participants will learn how to organize and structure the Literature Circles, incorporating specific "roles" for each student at every meeting. There will be an emphasis on critical thinking, which fosters a better understanding of author's purpose, theme, literary elements, and the use of reading strategies for students in grades 2-8. Involving parents in the process will also be explored as well as how they can help students build schema, connections, and a love of literature.
Cathleen Brenner
Wall Township Public Schools
3. Hope Somewhere in America: Telling Stories about African-American History and Culture Using a Historical Fiction Picture Book as a Springboard
Author Sydelle Pearl will describe how her book, Hope Somewhere in America: the Story of a Child, a Painting, and a President can be used to tell stories about African-American history and culture for the elementary grades. She will discuss the inspiration for her book - the 1934 painting of a little African-American child entitled "Somewhere in America" by Robert Brackman and will then show other New Deal works of art that relate to the lives of famous African-Americans: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Marian Anderson, and Zora Neale Hurston. Sydelle will demonstrate her multidisciplinary storytelling approach that involves singing, moving, creative dramatics, reading, writing, and drawing.
Sydelle Pearl
Children's Book Author and Story Teller
4. The New Kindergarten Guidelines: Learning through Play!
Teachers from Red Bank Borough Public Schools will share their experience integrating the New Kindergarten Guidelines to establish a learning environment defined by a developmentally appropriate curriculum, collaborative learning, and diversified assessment focus on both self-regulation as well as academic skills.
Alyssa May, Jackie Rivera, and Michelle Leonardo
Red Bank Borough Public Schools
5. Talking toward Literacy
Looking for a solid place to start transitioning the rigor of your classroom up to the Common Core Standards? Looking to build better classroom discussions? Small group work falling flat? Teach your students to talk! Close reading, meta-cognition, classroom discussions, and student-centered learning all start with rich classroom discussions. Participants will learn why this structured approach to classroom discussion improves student performance; how to develop a classroom environment that supports this expectation; how to use classroom talk as an assessment and grading method; and how to transition talking into better reading and writing skills. Best of all, it works for every subject and is well aligned to the expectations of the Common Core State Standards.
Bruce Preston
Shore Regional High School District
6. Using Poetry Journals in the Classroom to Teach Grammar and Language Skills (K-3)
What can you teach from a poem? Lots! This workshop will demonstrate ways to teach grammar lessons directly through poems as well as contractions, prefixes,suffixes and even comprehension skills such as making inferences and drawing conclusions. Also, ways to implement a poetry station in the classroom and Smart Board activities will be discussed.
Kara Markiewicz
Middletown Township Public Schools
AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS
1. Utilizing IEP Modifications in the Inclusion Classroom
This workshop will provide participants with information and basic strategies on providing certain IEP modifications for special needs students. Emphasis will be placed on reading and writing in the middle/high school classroom and how technology can be used effectively.
Joe Vetrano
Neptune Township School District
2. The Magic of Rhyming Picture Books: Demonstrating the power of imagination and pointing out the way to a rich inner life.
Our ability to re-shape the world around us may have its limits. But with some discipline and imagination, we can each shape our own inner world to an extraordinary degree. Children who learn that lesson have access to a refuge of their own making - a place where they make the rules, judgments and decisions (and reap the rewards) - for the rest of their lives. Ed Shankman and Dave O'Neill will talk about the role that creativity has played in their own lives and the internal, personal rewards of leading a creative life. They will lead a discussion into strategies for inviting children to explore their own inner worlds, with an emphasis on rhyming books.
Ed Shankman and Dave O'Neill
Author and Illustrator
3. Comprehension Strategies for Students in Grades 3-5
This workshop will focus on specific strategies that students can employ to increase their retention and comprehension on all print material. The active reading strategies that will be reviewed at the workshop range from self-questioning techniques to vocabulary building strategies such as the L.I.N.C.S. model. Participants will leave this workshop with practical applications for immediate classroom use.
Bernard Bragen and Heather Schwarz
Hazlet Township Public Schools
4. Systematic Inquiry for Developing Literacy? How? With Action Research/Action Learning Processes - That's How!
A K, 1, and 2 teacher will provide their account of the transformation of their classrooms to cultures of inquirers and the impact on the literacy development of their diverse learners. Each teacher will share specific examples of student work to illustrate student literacy development.
PJ Gruben, Danielle Parella, Anna Washack and DaVisha Pratt
Asbury Park School District
Shelia Baldwin
Monmouth University
5. Using Mentor Texts to Teach Writing
Using children's literature to teach writing provides models for good writing and sparks enthusiasm in young writers. This workshop will address how to use mentor texts to teach writing in the elementary classroom. Specific mentor texts will be presented.
Christine Grabowski
Hazlet Township Public Schools
6. Sustain-a-Literacy: Developing Responsible Readers and Writers
Your students may be prepared to ace their standardized exams, but are they prepared to face their generation's greatest test of sustaining our nation's existence on this planet? This workshop will explore how literacy-based strategies can be linked to performance tasks that not only develop students into fluent readers and writers, but into responsible citizens of the United States and of the Earth. Sample lessons, classroom materials, and examples of students' work will be available, along with feedback that students shared with the teacher regarding each lesson. Additionally, ideas will be discussed as to how to link environmental sustainability and literacy to all academic content areas. Past, present, and future teachers of all grades and subject areas are welcome.
Justin Soderholm
The Green School, NYC
