March Liberating Voices

• 2:45 pm CST March 10 Digital Media Literacies in the ELA Classroom: Empowering Student Voices through Production and Critique

  How do we help our students to become more critical consumers and producers of digital media? How do we help them to develop essential 21st century literacies without sacrificing our commitments to teaching literature and writing? This virtual session will frame media literacy education in the context of student engagement, academic development, and student voice. We will discuss how teachers can help students to ask hard questions of the media they consume and how students can experience greater joy and connection to their everyday literacies. We will conclude by exploring exciting ways that teachers can integrate digital media into their traditional children’s and YA literature-based units. 

• 2:45 pm CST March 24 SEL, Cultural Responsiveness, and Literacy in PK-6 Classrooms - The Seven Strengths This session draws upon a culturally-responsive instruction and social-emotional literacy framework that honors children's languages, cultures, communities, and stories, builds a safe and loving environment in which to cultivate super readers who believe in themselves and are ready for academic achievement, civic engagement, and true joy in their reader and writer lives. In this session participants will learn the research behind each of the strengths (Belonging, Curiosity, Friendship, Kindness, Courage, and Hope), they will hear examples of each strength in practice and they will have an opportunity to consider how they might develop strengths-based practices in their classrooms and schools.

Sonja Cherry-Paul

• 4:15 pm CST March 10 and repeated on March 24  Reimagining Book Clubs as Liberating, Identity-Inspiring Reading Praxis Audience 3-5, 6-8, English Language Learners In classrooms where book clubs are foundational, the experience for students can be identity inspiring. When students have access to books and the freedom of choice, they are able to see themselves in the texts they read, examine their own lives, and explore their identities. "In book clubs, students construct and reconstruct their reading identities" (Cherry-Paul & Johansen, 2018). It is this iterative process that cultivates lifelong readers. During this presentation, we'll examine the conditions and work of educators that make this possible. These conditions include disrupting identity-silencing practices, and instead, inviting students to bring their full selves to classroom spaces. It requires educators to truly know our students and understand their various, complex, and intersecting identities. And it requires us to see this work as not only essential for promoting student engagement and achievement, but as paramount for bringing about equitable and liberatory outcomes for all students.

Pam Allyn 

• 7:00 pm CST March 10 Every Child a Super Reader: 10 Steps to Make it Happen
• 7:00 pm CST March 24 Literacy 365 at Home and at School: How to Ensure Children Have Access to Powerful Reading and Writing Experiences All Year Long

Peg Grafwallner pre-recorded session Not Yet: Supporting Achievement in the Secondary Classroom  Audience 6-8, 9-12, Literacy Coach, Special Education, Principal/Administrator, Reading Teacher/Reading Specialist, Interventionist, Curriculum Director 
We must create opportunities of "not yet," where educational setbacks are allowed, even encouraged in the classroom. We must design classrooms that normalize those experiences so they become part of the process and not the product for student learning; that use setbacks as trial-and-error opportunities that assist students in process learning; that highlight the positive aspects of "not yet" as it offers opportunities to learn, and finally, empower students to realize that setbacks are often a beginning point to learning and seldom the end. Attend this session to learn how to create a classroom of "not yet" utilizing pedagogy, resources, strategies and reflections meant to highlight the challenges and successes in middle and secondary classrooms. 

Lauren Zepp and Radeen Yang  pre-recorded session Confronting Ableism Through Children’s and Young Adult Literature Audience K-2, 3-5, 6-8, Literacy Coach, Special Education, Library Media, Reading Teacher/Reading Specialist, Title I, Teacher Educator, Preservice 
This practical session for K-12 educators and librarians will provide a brief overview of ableism within children’s literature and its lingering impact on the educational expectations and outcomes for students with disabilities. Participants will learn how to incorporate disability culture into the content area curriculum, review a selection of titles in four developmental areas (board books, picture books, middle grade readers, and young adult literature), and receive a list of recommended titles. Educators will learn how to use literature as an advocacy tool to combat harmful ableist perspectives and encourage students with disabilities to embrace who they are.

Sandra Taylor-Marshall and Jen Breezee pre-recorded session Talking, Drawing, Writing: Strategies for Every Writer Audience K-2, 3-5, 6-8, Literacy Coach, Special Education, Title I, Teacher Educator, Preservice
How do we engage emergent and/or striving writers in the writing process? How can we build writers’ identities and confidence while emphasizing the joy of writing? Join us as we step into our writers’ shoes and engage in talking, drawing, and writing to plan, draft, and share our own stories. This session will mirror writing strategies we can use in our own classrooms to scaffold the writing process with every writer.