Reading Recovery Trainer and Comprehensive Literacy Center Director,  St. Mary's College of California

Adria Klein, Ph.D., is the Trainer and Director of the Comprehensive Literacy Center at Saint Mary’s College of California. Dr. Klein is the co-author of many professional books and articles as well as children's books. Her latest books are Meaningful Reading Assessment, and Small-Group Reading Instruction, co-authored with Peter Afflerbach.  

SESSION DESCRIPTIONS:

Considering Syntax and Structure When Selecting Books at the Earliest Levels 

The focus will be on understanding the nature of text complexity, and how to analyze texts; we must balance the text with the task so the students are always working at the edge of their competencies. 

Planning Small Groups with Intentionality 

How can teachers scaffold striving readers to understand and build knowledge with grade-level texts?  We will look at the range of practices in small group reading and will consider ways to plan with intentionality to provide focused and differentiated instruction to support all students including Multilingual Learners. 

Reading Recovery Trainer and Executive Director, Paths to Literacy Initiatives, Georgia State University

K. Journey Swafford is a Reading Recovery Trainer and the Executive Director of the Paths to Literacy Initiatives at Georgia State University.  Journey's professional interests include teacher professional development, improving student literacy achievement, and writing.  When not working she can be found attending to her pups (Dharma, Dolly, and Nutmeg), hiking, and hearing live music. 

SESSION DESCRIPTIONS:

The Cut-up Story: Not an Optional Extra 

In this session, participants will engage in a deep dive into the theory and practice around the cut-up story portion of the Reading Recovery lesson framework. Lesson artifacts (including lesson plans, student writing, and videos) will be shared and examined. 

Predictions of Progress: What? Why? and How? 

Are you baffled by Predictions of Progress? Are you unsure how to use them to best support your teaching? Do you write them just after the OBS and then tuck them away in your binder never to be revisited? If so, this work-study session might just be the session for you! Please bring your ideas, thoughts, and questions along with a recent set of predictions for one of your students to this session. 

Reading Recovery Trainer, 

Professor Emeritus, Texas Woman's University

Connie Briggs is a retired professor in the Department of Literacy and Learning. With a career of 45 years in education and 25 years in Reading Recovery, Briggs has taught elementary school through doctoral classes, as well as served in leadership positions at state, university, national, and international levels. Currently, Dr. Briggs works as a consultant to the Reading Recovery Council of North America and with several organizations that promote a comprehensive, research-based approach to literacy learning.

SESSION DESCRIPTIONS:

Yes, We Teach Phonics...and So Much More 

The goal of this presentation is to look at phonemic awareness and phonics instruction within a larger framework of research and best practices and to look for, more specifically how teaching these concepts contributes to a successful literacy processing system in the Reading Recovery Intervention.