Sample Workshop Presentations

Content Literacy Strategies that Work
Audience:  content teachers in middle and high school, administrators
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Understand the use and advantages of content literacy strategies
• Describe a decision-making process for identifying and implementing a school-wide literacy approach
• Identify the components of a professional development plan to foster teacher proficiency and collegial coaching
• Link schoolwide approaches to a systematic accountability design
• Complete a planning tool for establishing and implementing a school-wide literacy program for their school site

Improving Thinking and Writing Through Instruction
Audience:  teachers across grade levels, administrators, parents
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe writing standards for elementary, middle and high school students
• Understand the gradual release of responsibility model of writing (Language Experience Approach, Interactive Writing, Writing Models, Generative Sentences, Power Writing, RAFT Writing, Independent Writing)
• Complete a planning tool for establishing and implementing a school-wide writing program for their school site

Developing Literate Behaviors
Audience:  Elementary and English teachers
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe a gradual release of responsibility model for developing literacy (focus lessons, guided instruction, collaborative learning, and independent work)
• Identify the ways in which content, process, and product must be differentiated to ensure that students are successful in developing literacy
• Design an integrated unit of study for students, based on content standards using a gradual release of responsibility model of instruction

Not Your Father’s Comic Books: Graphic Novels in the Secondary Classroom
Audience: Middle and high school English and content area teachers, librarians and media specialists
At the end of the session, participants will be able to:

• Compare and contrast graphic novels and other visual genres, including comic books, manga, anime, and e-zines, and fanzines
• Identify criteria for selecting graphic novels for classroom use, based on developmental levels, content objectives, and readability
• Design ways for graphic novels to be used in instruction
• Teach composition through student development of their own graphic novels and link these practices to traditional academic writing