Katherine A. Dougherty Stahl, EdD, is Clinical Professor of Reading at New York University, where she serves as Director of the NYU Literacy Program, Director of the NYU Literacy Clinic, and teaches graduate courses. In addition to teaching in public elementary school classrooms for more than 25 years, Dr. Stahl has extensive experience working with struggling readers in clinical settings. Her research focuses on reading acquisition, struggling readers, and comprehension.
Dr. Stahl’s books include Reading Assessment in an RTI Framework, Assessment for Reading Instruction (3rd Ed.), Developing Reading Comprehension: Effective Instruction for All Children in Prek-2, and Reading Research at Work: Foundations of Effective Practice. Her articles have appeared in Reading Research Quarterly, The Reading Teacher, Urban Education, and the Journal of Literacy Research. She has been the recipient of Harvard’s Jeanne Chall Visiting Researcher Award and the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development Teaching Excellence Award.
Keynote:
Helping Erica (and Other Young Children with Comprehension Difficulties)
Comprehension instruction must be the centerpiece of early reading instruction. Research provides evidence that young children engage in many of the same inference generation processes as sophisticated readers. Teacher read-alouds and shared reading of complex texts in today’s classrooms are providing welcome opportunities for children to build vocabulary, acquire world knowledge, and think deeply about compelling themes. Children are stretching their minds and engaged. However, teachers are also seeing many young children hit comprehension thresholds with complex text and informational text that were previously only visible among older readers. This keynote will provide practical suggestions for implementing research-based comprehension interventions in the primary grades.
Symposium Schedule
9:00 a.m. – Registration & Continental Breakfast
9:30 a.m. – Key Note Address: Dr. Katherine A. Stahl, Rebecca Stafford Student Center – Anacon Hall
10:30 a.m. – Session I Workshops, Rebecca Stafford Student Center
11:30 a.m. – Session II Workshops, Rebecca Stafford Student Center
12:30 p.m. – Networking Luncheon: Hot Buffet Lunch, Door Prizes &Slide Show, Rebecca Stafford Student Center – Anacon Hall
Workshop Sessions
Session A starts 10:30 a.m.
Session A1: Designing Comprehension Instruction for Students With Diverse Needs
Presenters: Rachel Fox and Marisa N. Scarpitta
Comprehension is the reason why we read, and the reason we teach others to read. If we are not reading for understanding, then we are not really reading at all. This workshop will focus on how to teach comprehension strategies and support the comprehension of students with diverse needs. Participants will examine ways in which they can provide hands-on, differentiated comprehension instruction to meet student needs.
Session A2: Using Digital Literacy to Enhance Reading and Writing Instruction for the 21st Century Learner, Grades 3-8
Presenters: Sheryl Konopack and Christine Frenville
Increase student engagement and easily enhance your literacy instruction through the use of short films, trailers, and video clips. Participants will broaden their understanding of how digital literacy can be applied to a variety of curricular philosophies and collaborate to identify opportunities for teaching reading comprehension strategies and writer’s craft. Resources will be provided that can be used in the classroom to apply different lenses of analysis for the development of critical thinking.
Session A3: Dyslexia: The Dirty Word
Presenter: Deirdre Gorman, M. S. Ed.
It’s estimated that one in five people have dyslexia. Despite this high frequency, dyslexia is a disability that in the past went unnamed. During this interactive session, not only will you use this “dirty word”, but you will understand it. This fast-paced, thought-provoking workshop will allow you to discover how a person with dyslexia experiences the world. In this presentation, we will separate fact from fiction concerning this misunderstood disability and explore the neurological differences behind dyslexia. Using a multisensory approach, participants will learn strategies to rewire the brain. Additionally, participants will discover how to capitalize on a child’s dyslexic strengths and support his or her weaknesses through assistive technology
Session A4: Literacy Integration into Early Childhood Science Instruction
Presenter: Katlyn Nielsen, Elementary Teacher (3rd Grade), Laura Donovan Elementary School
We will discuss the cross curriculum integration of literacy into science instruction in an early childhood setting. We will look at how the concepts taught in a literacy lesson can be translated into a science lesson and vice versa while looking at a curriculum built for an early childhood setting regarding bees and pollination. Teachers will walk away with ideas of how they can incorporate literacy instruction into their other content areas of teaching and ways to apply these ideas and concepts in their own teaching.
Session B starts 11:30 a.m.
Session B1: Falling in Love with Close Reading
Presenter: Adrienne Hansen, Monmouth University and Spotswood School District
In this close reading workshop, teachers will be provided with practical techniques for teaching middle school students how to powerfully unpack meaning from all formats and genres of texts. Teachers will understand what close reading is and is not and learn methods for close reading that transfer across a variety of genres. Further, teachers will evaluate how close reading fits into reading instruction and ways in which you can infuse close reading into your instruction (including all content areas)..
Session B2: Filling in the Blanks: Graphic Novels as Multimodal Artifacts
Presenter: Alex Romagnoli, Ph.D.
This presentation will focus on utilizing sections of a graphic novel to help students improve their creative writing skills. Attendees will be provided with classroom ready strategies that are applicable across multiple grade levels.
Session B3: Book Clubs: Tapping the Interests of Young Readers
Presenter: Stacy Frazee
You are invited to tap into the world of book clubs in the younger grades. The presenter, Stacy Frazee, a former literacy coach and current first grade teacher, will share her experience of the key components of an effective book club that helps foster a sense of community and accomplishments in early readers by highlighting essential methods, tools and principles to guide you into creating an effective book clubs in your classroom. During this workshop, you will see a sneak peak of the daily routine/functions of a book club in the classroom. Stacy, will also walk you through how to use mini lesson instruction to support readers and provide decreasing scaffolds across time to increase independence. You’ll learn how to guide students as they work on their reading process and think and talk about books with their peers. Strategies will be shared on how to promote and motivate readers to contribute to book discussions through accountable talk and written responses regardless of independent reading levels. Come join Stacy to learn the POWER book clubs can have on creating lifelong readers!
Session B4: Building Tier 2 Vocabulary
Presenter: Colleen Henkin
Colleen Henkin is a Reading Specialist at Millstone Township Elementary School. She has been teaching for 19 years and received her Master’s in Reading from Rutgers University. Colleen works with striving readers in grades 3-5 and is interested in the impact of engagement and vocabulary instruction to strengthen reading achievement. Building Tier 2 Vocabulary: Grow your students’ vocabularies with research-based practices. Learn to engage individual students in becoming word conscious readers, which will propel their comprehension!.