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Laurie Wangerin

WT1A Spring Conference 2015

April 9-10 2015

Thursday, April 9, 2015


9:00 12:00 Keynote: Jennifer Serravallo
Deep Comprehension of Complex Texts
My reflections, questions and application ideas include:
Jennifer had a lot of good information to attack the deeper comprehension of the
text at different levels. She shared that we should be spending at least a month
if not more at the same level for reading to get into the deeper comprehension.
Something that I appreciated that Jennifer said in regards to text expectations
was a change in level means a change in expectations. So many times we still
expect the student to be able to handle the expectations at grade level. Yet a
second grade book isnt going to be covering fourth grade expectations. This is
something that I will be sharing with the teachers. We need to focus on the
reading level expectations to assist the student in order to move forward.
She also talked about how the strategy needs to match the goal and reading
level/text demands. The strategy is a way to get to the goal. This will be useful in
my small groups as well as something to share with the classroom teacher.
1:00 2:15 Jennifer Sarravallo
Part 1 Conferring with Individuals and Small Groups
My reflections, questions and application ideas include:
I had originally planned on attending Creating Readers: Not just an Intervention
but when I went to it, Kim Stieber-White stated that it was for High School. I am
at an Elementary School so I moved to Jennifer Saravallos session.
Jennifer started by talking about the Gradual Release of Responsibility and how
important it is to model. During Guided Instruction there were five lenses to focus
on that she shared with us Engagement, Print Work, Fluency, Comprehension and
Conversation. In teaching this a Compliment or Coaching Conference was shared.
Researching the students needs will help decide what type of conference to teach.
So often, the student hears what they have done wrong and what they need to
work on. I like the Compliment Conference in that you EXPLICITLY identify what
the students strength is and what they have done. Naming the
strategy/effort/process (rather than the product) that the student is successful

Laurie Wangerin

WT1A Spring Conference 2015

April 9-10 2015

in and sharing why it is important, can boost the confidence of the student. I do
this, but I do not think that I do it enough. This is something that I am going to
work on because of this conference.
With the Coaching Conference, I liked that the goal and strategy to help achieve
the goal is shared with the student. So often, the student just learns the strategy
and does not know that it helps with the goal in mind. This is also something that I
will be working on implementing with my small groups.

2:30 3:45 Barb Novak


Building Academic Vocabulary
My reflections, questions and application ideas include:
What amazed me in this session is that students learn about 8-10 words per week
TOTAL!. The student needs at least 4 exposures, no more than 2 days apart and
special needs students may need 8-16 exposures. This includes all subject areas,
which is hard to comprehend and think that you need to share with Music, Physical
Education, Art, etc.
Barb talked about creating 4 Tiers within the 3 Tiers of Words.
The 3 Tiers of Words:
1. Common speech words, general conversational words done through listening.
2. General words in written academic text rather than speech.
3. Specific words in a field of study in informational texts.
The 4 Tiers:
1. Identify Words within 3 Tiers of Words
2. Select Words for Instruction
3. Identify to What Extent the Students Need to Know the Words
4. Decide What Instructional Practices/Strategies/Assessments will be used
to Teach and Measure the Progress
There just wasnt enough time to go over everything. It was kind of frustrating
that we were told to focus on the Tier 2 words to help the student succeed in an
academic setting but there is no set of words. We as teachers need to establish

Laurie Wangerin

WT1A Spring Conference 2015

April 9-10 2015

the list. I understand to a point, but how much more can be put on our plates
before it starts to overflow and collapse.
This session wasnt as useful as the other sessions for me.
EXHIBITORS
Teaching resources and materials from the Exhibitor tables that would be
beneficial to have in my teaching situation and how I might use them:
There didnt seem to be as many Exhibitors as last year, or it just wasnt as
overwhelming as last year because I knew what I was interested in. Our district is
in the process of reviewing our assessments and our reading program. We were
able to learn more about STARS and how it would work with progress monitoring.
Currently, we have AIMSWeb and are not completely satisfied with it. The
biggest challenge we have is the weekly progress monitoring that we need to have
on grade level. STARS says they have the progress monitoring but I question that
it is at grade level because it works with where the student is at. This is
something that we are going to have to investigate further. I was also able to
explore the Benchmark and Journeys reading program for the classroom and bring
back information for our Literacy Group to review.
Friday, April 10, 2015
9:00 12:00 Keynote: Shane Templeton
Effective and Engaging Word Phonics, Spelling and Vocabulary Instruction:
Integrating Word Study into the Context of Common Core Expectations
My reflections, questions and application ideas include:
I got the most information from Shane Templetons sessions. I have worked with
Words Their Way at a different school. Last year, I used it as my intervention for
Kindergarten and First grade because it was something I knew and I had the
materials. This year, we implemented LLI (Leveled Literacy Intervention) and I
set it aside. My district is not familiar with it so it was encouraging to see that
the teachers we brought and our new Title Director want to know more.
Words Their Way really does align with the CCSS (Common Core State Standards)
and how it ties in at each grade level. Shane tied it together nicely. I really liked
how Shane talked about how sounds are spelled: by where they occur within words
and other sounds they are close to. He also shared that decoding (reading words)

Laurie Wangerin

WT1A Spring Conference 2015

April 9-10 2015

comes before encoding (writing words). That was an a-ha moment for me. So many
times we give the students words to memorize, not in text, no wonder they have
difficulties spelling them.
1:00 2:30 Shane Templeton
Revolutionizing Vocabulary Instruction K-12
My reflections, questions and application ideas include:
Shanes Tower of Talk with Unifix cube stacking was a great idea. I liked that it
could be utilized in so many ways to get the students participating. It could also
work with the student that dominates the conversation and allows the other
students to be able to contribute.
I appreciated how Shane talked about Effective Questioning in guiding the
students to discover patterns, comparing and contrasting. With the
Kindergarteners it is so interesting to see how the break apart pictures and the
combinations that the students create to help them learn.
Even though I do not work with the middle/high school students, I really
appreciated Shane getting into the Greek and Latin morphology. This would work
well for the advanced elementary students in diving into where the words
originated and how they have changed over time.
OVERVIEW
My overall impressions of the conference and application ideas are:
This was my second Title 1 Conference. We brought three of our teachers to the
conference this year to gain a better understanding of what Title is. I am so glad
that we did because they have better understanding of our role as Title teachers
and how they can utilize our services in the classroom. It was a good conference,
but the opportunities were limited and I did not gain as much knowledge to bring
back to share.
Last years conference was fabulous and I learned a lot of strategies and saw more
collaboration and sharing with everyone. This year, I did not see as much
collaboration and sharing. Maybe having an evening social to further collaborate
outside of the sessions may help with this.

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