To deeply comprehend and interpret texts is a critical thinking process powered by students’ identities, funds of knowledge, backgrounds, and experiences. Conversations about the science of reading can focus primarily on technical skills of reading such as phonic, decoding fluency, vocabulary. Within this landscape, the work of comprehension, interpretation, and antiracism can be lost along with the goal of cultivating lifelong readers who read for a variety of purposes, including joy. During our time together we’ll explore the critical lenses of an antiracist reading framework that guides instruction and supports meaning-making throughout the iterative process of interpretation.

What can teachers do when students balk at doing the reading? Why do so many students have difficulty staying with a book for more than a few minutes? In this workshop Carol Jago will demonstrate instructional moves that can help students increase their stamina and develop greater confidence in themselves as readers. Based upon current research in literacy, the session offers texts and tasks designed to engage today’s young readers and improve their comprehension. She will demonstrate methods for increasing reading skill while stimulating students' desire to read. A rigorous curriculum can be a joyful one.

In the field of literacy teaching and learning, we find ourselves (once again) in tense political times. Rather than fanning the flames of conflict, let’s accept the challenge and engage in dialogue about how research informs our work in classrooms as we create local literacy programs that are culturally responsive and joyful for students and teachers! In this session, we will explore how we can think and act more inclusively to draw on scientific evidence, learner assets, and community resources to support literacy learning and use.

Today’s students work diligently on developing and maintaining two identities: their biological and their digital identity. In this workshop, we will focus on the cultivation of their digital voice as an expansion of the work that is normally done in the LA classroom: the cultivation of voice. But we’ll take this a step further: the cultivation of a socially responsible, digital voice. The medium demands this. Using digital storytelling as our foundational literacy for this workshop – text, music, sound, and imagery – we will traverse the cross-section of social responsibility and digital storytelling, landing in rich, generally uncharted narrative territory. Specific activities to take away will abound.

Join best-selling Wisconsin author, Stef Wade as she shares her process of turning ideas into stories by inserting fun facts and social emotional lessons, twisted up with puns and fun. In this interactive session, Stef will provide creative fuel for your classroom and leave you with inspirations to create stories of your own!

This interactive workshop explores how to motivate and assist students to expertly read fictional texts in a wide array of genres. Using Rabinowitz’s notion of "readers rules of notice", students learn how to notice the topics of conversation taken up by fictional texts, and discern key details and text structures used to communicate meaning about these topics. We will model a variety of teaching techniques including visualization, think alouds, and questioning strategies, and will provide special attention to understanding how new notions of genre (as plot) can guide the reading of fictional texts, and will focus as well on how to help students expertly understand character, the meaning making power of perspective, and of symbolism.

There truly is a silver bullet to ensure student success in literacy. While we might assume this is decoding work, or reading comprehension instruction, it isn’t. The silver bullet is oral language development. By ensuring students have a strong oral language base, we are building the foundation for literacy success at multiple levels in multiple ways. This interactive session will show how to build students’ oral language through engaging reading and writing instruction that also promotes student thinking and student voice. The presenter will show how to teach elaborated language learning moments that increase students’ receptive language as well as build students’ vocabularies. Participants will receive practical, doable lesson ideas!

Step into the world of interactive literacy with this engaging session focused on using storybook conversations, props, and adaptations to bring picture books to life for young children. Participants will explore how to spark rich language, comprehension, and engagement by pairing books with thoughtfully prepared story boxes—filled with tactile props, visuals, and accessible materials that support diverse learners. Learn classroom based strategies to encourage meaningful back-and-forth dialogue, scaffold vocabulary, and adapt stories to meet the needs of all children, with an emphasis on those with disabilities or language delays. Leave with creative ideas and tools to transform storytime into a multisensory, language-rich experience.

Literacy is the foundation for voice, access, and agency. In this session, we’ll explore how early literacy practices can serve as powerful tools for advancing equity and justice. Together, we’ll examine how: stories shape identity, language empowers children to express their truths, and inclusive literacy environments challenge bias and build belonging. We will explore free, bilingual resources from The Reading Universe Taxonomy and PBS KIDS that empower children to ask meaningful questions and consider diverse perspectives. Reimagining the structured literacy approach as a pathway to inclusion, empathy, and social change will help children in becoming more confident, connected, and justice-minded communicators.

Instead of just talking about kids not reading in the summer, we did something about it. We took our small town with no public library and changed the way our community looks at summer reading. The best part is that we were able to do this with little, to no school funds. We had two groups of students to target, students with reading difficulties and students who didn’t struggle in reading, but didn’t prioritize reading over the summer. Attend our session to find out how we motivated children in our community to read over the summer and learn how you can do it too. 

For many students, writing is an almost “mysterious” task where it seems, some students are just naturally gifted writers. My presentation will take the “mystery” out of the writing process to empower all students of all abilities toward writing success. I will define rigor and explain why all teachers want to employ writing VIGOR instead of rigor. I will explain authentic writing and how to write for an authentic audience. In addition, I will demonstrate how to utilize the writing process giving students the opportunity to use their voice, and finally, I will demonstrate writing scaffolding tools meant to engage all writers in a culturally responsive and respectful way.

Science-based early reading instruction encompasses key areas, including phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phonics, background knowledge, oral language, vocabulary, writing, comprehension, and reading fluency. In this session, presenters will introduce an innovative Tier 2 intervention framework, Assisted Reading, specifically designed to address these essential areas of literacy. Participants can expect to gain engaging insights, as preliminary data from a large school district implementing this intervention will be shared. Additionally, the session will feature captivating videos showcasing the effective teaching methods used within this framework, providing a vivid illustration of the impact on student learning.

Strategically STEAM your read aloud list with engaging fiction and nonfiction picture books before a lesson to unearth prior knowledge, during to discover more background knowledge, and after your elementary science lessons to build upon, spark new, and inspire students’ futures. Resources include: curated book lists of recently published picture books and notice and wonder lessons.

To deeply comprehend and interpret texts is a critical thinking process powered by students’ identities, funds of knowledge, backgrounds, and experiences. Conversations about the science of reading can focus primarily on technical skills of reading such as phonics, decoding fluency, vocabulary. Within this landscape, the work of comprehension, interpretation, and antiracism can be lost along with the goal of cultivating lifelong readers who read for a variety of purposes, including joy. During our time together we’ll explore the critical lenses of an antiracist reading framework that guides instruction and supports meaning-making throughout the iterative process of interpretation.

Dr. Compton-Lilly will explore historical confluences between current discussions related to the Science of Reading and historical moments that are strikingly similar. This presentation will complicate historical conversations and consider the cumulation of research that challenges narrow interpretations of reading. Finally, Compton-Lilly will discuss long-term responses and instructional changes that followed these attacks, re-focused educators on children, and moved reading scholarship forward.

This session demonstrates a tool and process for evaluating the contents and supports offered by curricular materials and assessments. As states and districts increasingly rely on pre-approved lists, educators need more powerful tools to evaluate options for their particular setting. We will examine how different products with state approvals vary and how to estimate the opportunities for literacy development they include, or could be refined to allow.

Dr. Marcelle Haddix will narrate stories from her experiences as a literacy scholar, a teacher educator, and a leader in higher education to offer a framework for visioning possible futures in the fields of literacy, teacher education, and leadership. Her presentation will provide historical contexts, address current issues, and answer the questions: What leadership is needed to address pressing issues in literacy education today? What leadership will insure and sustain equitable and transformative outcomes in literacy education in the future?

What can teachers do when students balk at doing the reading? Why do so many students have difficulty staying with a book for more than a few minutes? In this workshop Carol Jago will demonstrate instructional moves that can help students increase their stamina and develop greater confidence in themselves as readers. Based upon current research in literacy, the session offers texts and tasks designed to engage today’s young readers and improve their comprehension. She will demonstrate methods for increasing reading skill while stimulating students' desire to read. A rigorous curriculum can be a joyful one.

Looking for literature ideas for your classroom? Books that engage and entertain, delight and inspire, affirm and inform are the focus of this session will highlight selected books for K-5 from "CCBC Choices 2026," the most recent best-of-the-year list from the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC). The CCBC is a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and serves as statewide children’s and young adult literature book examination and resource center.

Join best-selling Wisconsin author, Stef Wade as she shares her process of turning ideas into stories by inserting fun facts and social emotional lessons, twisted up with puns and fun. In this interactive session, Stef will provide creative fuel for your classroom and leave you with inspirations to create stories of your own!

This interactive session will explore how to use an inquiry approach to help students understand their own minds, including the ways in which they (like all human beings) are susceptible to information pollution. We will look at powerful cognitive biases and how to recognize and control for them. We will explore how to help teachers and students consider the uses and misuses of AI in the teaching/learning process, particularly as applied to reading and composing. Strategies for evaluating sources and evidence (e.g. evidence ranking and semantic scales), lateral reading (putting texts into conversation, document based inquiry) and critical reading (e.g. Civic Online Reading Questions) and more included!

Though originally intended for upper elementary students, this session shows how the work of Beers and Probst’s Notice and Note lessons also benefits young children greatly.

As the teaching exodus continues to grow, this session examines the polic(y)ing of teaching practice as a contributor to the exodus. Contextualized by top-down federal, state, and local school reforms, including implementation of policies that seemingly limit teacher practice in the name of science, the session invites teachers to recast the science in ways that cultivate the humanity of reading and readers in trust and in joy.

Looking to bring more joy, equity, and intention to your read-alouds? Inclusive read-alouds are essential for nurturing early literacy skills while affirming students' diverse identities and experiences (Ladson-Billings, 2021; Nash et al., 2025). Join a team of Wisconsin educators who collaborated to advance rightful presence and create a practical tool for analyzing and planning inclusive read-alouds using diverse picture books. Grounded in the framework of rightful presence, this session offers hands-on experience with the tool and examples of how to center students within shared reading. You will leave equipped with strategies and resources to design developmentally appropriate, inclusive, and identity-affirming early literacy experiences.

In response to Wisconsin Act 20, this session explores how educators can implement explicit, evidence-based phonics instruction while honoring the diverse cultural identities of students. Grounded in research and classroom practice, participants will learn how to integrate culturally relevant pedagogy with structured literacy to boost reading outcomes for underserved learners. Attendees will gain tools, lesson strategies, and insights to meet state mandates while creating inclusive, identity-affirming reading environments that help all children thrive as confident, capable readers.

Just because it says it’s ‘research-based’ or ‘scientifically based’ doesn’t mean that it is. Dr. Louisa Moats’ website states that, “Moats developed the landmark professional development program LETRS for teachers and reading specialists and the scientifically based LANGUAGE!” This presentation will demonstrate (a) how Moats misrepresents the results of her own research, (b) how she falsifies and distorts the research of others in her 2021 paper, and (c) how the publishers of LETRS (Lexia Learning) misrepresent the 18 research studies described in their LETRS Efficacy Research paper.

Wisconsin’s Act 20 was signed into law nearly three years ago. By now we’re familiar with its science-based reading mandates, engaged in its implementation, and fulfilling its requirements. But what about all the successful, yet unmandated, research-based practices? On one hand we have direct, explicit, and systematic phonics. On the other hand we have self-chosen independent reading, high-quality read-alouds, access to books, and authentic responses to literature. Can we balance both within the mandates of Act 20? Yes, we can -- and we should! In this presentation Brian will discuss what we’ve learned from Act 20, what students are learning from our instruction, and all the ways we can continue to bring out the best in our students.

Often, by the time students reach middle and high school, the essay is the only writing genre assigned. Yes, students should analyze text, peel back the layers, develop a thesis, marshal evidence, persuade us of their ideas. The problem is that much essay teaching lays waste to student imagination and voice. The tight reliance on a format silences students’ real ideas. There is no singing, no laughing, no poetry. No one wants to write them,no one wants to read them. In this workshop, participants will explore how to teach powerful essays.

Dr. Compton-Lilly will take participants on a virtual journey to visit two very different schools within the same school district. The focus will be on literacy practices, knowledge, and insights that children bring to classrooms. Specifically, she will explore the cultural, linguistic, and experiential differences that were observed and the degree to which educators recognized and drew upon these differences. The session ends with advice on how to learn about your school community and build upon the literacy practices that your students bring.

This session shares results from an international comparison of reading policies in seven countries that provide initial instruction in English. We begin by outlining the significant similarities in the structure, focus and function of reading policy across countries and examine features of each setting that may explain the differences in pace and timing. We also examine settings that seem to be exceptions to the sweeping pattern that characterizes U.S. policies across states. Then we examine trends in the outcomes and directions of policies in countries that are farther along in implementation to illustrate the likely patterning of future policy aimed at increasing reading achievement in public schools.

According to the National Reading Panel (2000), the five pillars of reading include phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency; these pillars are instrumental to ensuring literacy success and development in our students.  In terms of early and emergent readers, we need to provide a solid foundation of early literacy skills which include print rich environments, phonemic awareness, phonics, high frequency words, spelling, writing, and access and exposure to variety of texts (predictable, decodable, high interest, etc).  As educators of our early and emerging readers, we can foster a love and joy of reading by providing meaningful literacy experiences and using data to inform our classroom instruction.  In this presentation, evidence-based literacy strategies will be shared to support our early and emergent learners as well as multilingual learners.

We often hear ourselves suggesting to young writers, "add some details". That suggestion may lead to a loss of focus or confusion. We will reflect on our practices and explore suggestions for leading student writers toward a deeper understanding of the power of specificity in all writing.

Looking for literature ideas for your classroom? Books that engage and entertain, delight and inspire, affirm and inform are the focus of this session will highlight selected books for grades 6-12 from "CCBC Choices 2026," the most recent best-of-the-year list from the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC). The CCBC is a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and serves as statewide children’s and young adult literature book examination and resource center.

We know that the most important factor in children learning to be literate is a knowledgeable and skilled teacher. From the perspective of literacy as a social practice and children as fully human users of literacy, an author of Learning to Be Literate: More than a Single Story will share a framework that addresses four research-based dimensions of knowledge relevant to literacy learning and teaching: Learning the Codes, Reading/Writing with Purpose, Building Confidence and Competence, and Engaging Critically with Texts. The presenter will then facilitate conversations about how we can use knowledge from within and across dimensions to advocate for children and the teaching profession.

Teaching students to communicate meaningfully inside of the digital ecosystem is paramount. In this session, we will briefly explore the essence of the digital storytelling form and then focus on narrative structure. There is well over seventy years of television and the Internet that has yielded myriad narrative forms that can be applied in the classroom. We are talking game shows, reality competitions, sitcoms, DIY and Unboxing Videos. Digital Storytelling in the classroom is an invitation to students to utilize their intimate knowledge of television, podcasting, and social media formats to explore curricular content. Specifically, we will focus on four formats: the PSA/commercial, the vlog, the podcast, and the radio drama.

In the world of AI, information pollution and anxiety, we can create classroom spaces of hope and agency for ourselves and students. This session will explore a national project to promote Democracy Building Instruction (including a site at UW-Madison). Participants will learn about the dispositions of democracy, and how to teach these dispositions in the context of what we already do. News literacy and critical reading strategies as well as Document Based Inquiries (DBIs), a strategy for engaging students with short text sets on any topic will be shared. Teachers will learn the principles and practices for developing dispositions of democracy at any phase of instruction including deep listening, civil dialogue, and social imagination.

Building on a discussion of the types of erasure taken up in varying state policies around literacy teaching and learning, this session invites participants to engage in freedom dreaming to realize the literacies and literacy teaching necessary for building a world of care, belonging, and justice.

Literacy advancement cannot happen in isolation. Now more than ever, we must unite to ensure every learner has access to high-quality, standards-aligned, research-based literacy instruction. This session, facilitated by the WI DPI Office of Literacy with partners in the field, highlights how we intentionally co-create spaces that support equitable literacy systems. Participants will hear from educators and leaders actively engaged in this work, followed by time to reflect, exchange ideas, and generate opportunities for collaboration in their own schools and communities. Together, we will explore the guiding question: How do we create authentic opportunities to engage, support, and collaborate as agents of change for literacy and liberation?

Strawman arguments, buzzwords, and ill-defined terms have long been used by Science of Reading advocates to make the case for a limited range of strategies and scripted reading products. But what’s behind the pretty words? This presentation will define science, research, and the Science of Reading. It will also use the context of Orton-Gillingham and the International Dyslexia Association to (a) unpack commonly used buzzwords, terms, and jargon; (b) demonstrate how these words are used to create strawman arguments, and (c) clarify what is meant by research-based practice and evidence-based instruction. This presentation will enable participants to be more responsible consumers of educational research and research-based claims.

School leaders face tough decisions navigating literacy mandates. Should they implement state-approved programs with problematic content? What if "science-based" approaches prove less effective than promised? Former principal Matt Renwick shares five practical principles for leading literacy within Act 20 and Science of Reading requirements. Participants will understand the motivation behind Wisconsin's Reading Law, learn about key research excluded from legislation, and receive a leadership toolkit for implementing effective, equitable literacy instruction schoolwide.