All of the sessions below will be held on Thursday, March 16, 2023, at the 2023 MDE Diversity in Literature Symposium: The How and Why of Reading.
9:00 –10:30 a.m. General Session
Keynote Address – Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally & Historically Responsive Education
Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, Associate Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture, University of Ilinois at Chicago
The keynote session included in this description will provide interactive and foundational experiences of culturally and historically responsive education to teachers and leaders. The session will blend history, theory, and practical/engaging approaches for understanding and implementing CHRE instructional practices. Dr. Gholdy Muhammad (lead facilitator) will demonstrate researched-based equity practices and offer pedagogical examples of lesson and unit plans.
10:45 a.m. – Noon Concurrent Learning Sessions
How to Bridge the Early Literacy Research into Kindergarten through Second Grade Classroom Instruction
Deborah Boersma and Kristen Rizzuto-Hellebuyck, Kalamazoo RESA
Early Elementary (Skills, Intellect, Joy)
High-quality instructional delivery is dependent upon a teachers’ ability to identify components within curricular resources that will foster opportunities for skill acquisition and mastery, while honoring students’ identities. With so many options accessible to teachers, developing a coherent instructional schedule can be challenging. This interactive session will allow participants to engage in a process that utilizes their district curriculum to determine engaging instructional routines for the Word Recognition strands of Scarborough’s Reading Rope that can be leveraged within literacy instruction, why it should be considered, and how it can enhance the delivery of tier 1 instruction. The foundation of this session builds upon the WHY behind foundational reading instructional routines, based upon research. Deepening knowledge of research along with guided application of the research will enable participants to successfully bridge reading science into practice to support all students.
Increasing Teacher Knowledge through High-Quality Professional Development: One District’s Story
Jennifer Ferlito, MiMTSS Technical Assistance Center, and Taylor White, Detroit Public Schools
Elementary (Skills)
Low literacy levels are preventable and Detroit Public School Community District is doing just that! DPSCD is working to build a strong foundation of reading science knowledge among its educators that will lead to joyful and critical reading. Presenters will share how DPSCD is providing high-quality professional development along with implementation support to build teacher knowledge and improve student outcomes.
Syntax: Its Integral Role in Text Comprehension
Nancy Chapel Eberhardt, Educational Consultant
Elementary (Skills) Children are not literate if they cannot understand text. Beyond mastering code-breaking skills, beginning readers must learn to process text meaning which can contribute to finding joy while reading. Syntactic knowledge including learning the eight grammatical elements, understanding text cohesive devices, and the role of phrases to develop prosody all contribute to comprehending text. This session focuses on the function-based roles of the grammatical elements and how their syntactical arrangement create meaning. The presenter demonstrates instructional activities and engage participants in practicing different methods of instruction that support students grammatical and syntactic skills. The activities use diverse narrative and informational text to acknowledge the role that structure plays in comprehension as well as the types of sentences that students encounter in each type of text.
Culturally Responsive Sentence Writing Instruction Through Sentence Combining
Dr. Michael Hebert, University of Lincoln-Nebraska
Upper EL/Adolescent (Identity, Skills, Intellect, Criticality)
Sentence combining has been shown to have powerful effects on improving students’ writing and reading skills (e.g., Graham & Hebert, 2011). Writing and reading both rely on common processes and knowledge and shared component skills (Fitzgerald and Shanahan, 2000; Hebert et al., 2022), and sentence-combining instruction can take advantage of these common processes to improve sentence reading fluency and sentence variety in students’ writing. A less discussed benefit of sentence-combining instruction is its utility in a culturally responsive curriculum. Sentence-combining content and exercises are easily adapted to represent a variety of literature, language, and cultural backgrounds, and students’ individual lives and interests. The goal of this module is to help teachers understand how sentence combining can be leveraged to improve reading and writing skills in culturally responsive ways.
Providing Reading Intervention for Students in Grades 4-9: Overview of the IES Practice Guide
Dr. Kimberly St. Martin, Director, MiMTSS Technical Assistance Center
Upper Elementary/Secondary (Identity, Intellect, Skills, Joy)
The What Works Clearinghouse™ (WWC) released a new practice guide in partnership with a panel of experts on reading interventions. The panel distilled recent reading intervention research into four easily comprehensible and practical recommendations that educators can use to deliver reading intervention to meet the needs of students in grades 4–9. These recommendations will be useful for special educators, general education teachers, reading specialists/coaches, administrators, and parents. Each recommendation includes research-based strategies and examples for implementing these recommendations using diverse texts. Download the guide for free from the What Works Clearinghouse website (https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide/29).
Secondary MTSS Implementation: Literacy Across the Core Subject Areas
Kate Smith, John Vail, and Nicole Coleman, MiMTSS Technical Assistance Center
Middle and High School (Skills, Identity, Intellect)
Inequities abound in access to and understanding of written text that is meant to enhance students’ sense of identity and knowledge base of their core subjects. Inadequate word recognition skills, emerging background knowledge, lack of access to texts that reflect mirrors and windows, and a limited vocabulary can make reading and comprehending challenging text out of reach for many students. Our goal is to create an environment where students feel included, supported, and equipped to engage in content area reading. This session will focus on evidence-based before, during, and after-reading strategies and techniques that give all students increased access and understanding of content-area text in a safe learning environment.
Revealing the Reading Brain
Michelle Elia, Ohio Literacy Lead
All (Skills and Joy)
There is a key factor in teaching all children to read, and that is knowledgeable educators. Informed practitioners can implement reading instruction and assessment that promotes the level of automatic word recognition that is necessary for deep processing of the meaning of all texts. This session will provide an overview of the reading process in the brain with connections to classroom practices to build strong neural networks that promote reading acquisition for all students. Participants will examine the reading process within the brain; debunk reading myths using neuroscience and apply the Science of Reading, specifically neuroscience to classroom practices.
Unpacking the Science of Reading
Dr. Emily Solari, University of Virginia, School of Education and Human Development
All
Multiple disciplines have contributed to our current knowledge of reading science. The evolution or reading science will be presented and empirically validated models of reading development will be explored. Implications for the translation of reading science to effective classroom practices for diverse learners will be discussed.
Diverse Library Resources
Dr. Amy Colton, Executive Director, Learning Forward Michigan, and Dr. Rose Buckley, Technical Assistance Specialist, Comprehensive Center Network, Region 8
All (Identity, Intellect, Criticality, Joy)
Each and every student in Michigan deserves to experience equitable learning opportunities that promote literacy learning and achievement. This is particularly important for historically marginalized students. Besides experiencing academic success, learners need to achieve competencies that promote lifelong literacy learning, which includes Identity Development; Intellectualism; Criticality; and Joy. Diverse reading materials in the classroom library have the potential to nurture these competencies. Research is clear that classroom reading materials often lack diversity in identity representation, authentic experiences, and various perspectives. In this session, participants will engage in dialogue and collaborative activities to increase their understanding of the benefits of diverse classroom libraries, ways to create an equitable learning environment complete with diverse literature, and equitable practices to motivate and engage students, especially those who have been historically marginalized, in literacy learning.
Bringing Mirrors and Windows to Life through Interactive Read Alouds and Lesson Plan Ideas with Acclaimed Author Angela Joy: “Black is a Rainbow Color”
Angela Joy, Author
Upper Grades
Join us as Angela Joy shares her generous spirit, writing talent, and poignantly illustrated book, “Black is a Rainbow Color.” Providing interactive read aloud and lesson plan ideas for grades 6-12, with connections to history, art, and music, Angela Joy will share specific ways to build vocabulary and historical knowledge with an emphasis on narrative and informational writing and illustrations.
1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. Concurrent Learning Sessions
Scaffolding Complex Texts, Instructional Strategies for Equitable Access to Rigorous Content
Michelle Elia, Ohio Literacy Lead
Elementary (Skills, Identity, Intellect, Criticality, Joy)
Struggling readers, specifically those that have not mastered the code, often lack access to the very resources that they need to build vocabulary and background knowledge using diverse, complex, grade level texts. Instead, they are given less rigorous (leveled) texts in core instruction, reducing instruction in grade level standards. The instructional conundrum for educators is this – How can students comprehend complex texts that are challenging for them to read? The answer lies in instructional scaffolds using texts that promote motivation and engagement through intellectual and identity development, criticality and joy. This session will model teacher practices that can be immediately implemented to assist struggling readers in reading and learning from rigorous texts. It’s time to stop differentiating the text and instead differentiate the instructional scaffolds to ensure equitable access to challenging content.
Purposeful Practice – A Key to Differentiating Instruction in an MTSS Framework
Sheryl Ferlito, Special Education Teacher and Intervention Consultant, and Nancy Chapel Eberhardt, Consultant
Elementary (Skills)
Practice is a variable that is often key to the differentiation of instruction in an MTSS framework. The Word Knowledge Network provides a way to think about what needs to be practiced to be a fluent reader. The Word Knowledge Network is based on the idea that the more a reader learns about a word — the phonological, orthographic, semantic, morphological, and syntactic — the better the readers’ fluency and comprehension will be. Evidence supports this kind of multi-component process for learning words through systematic and explicit instruction and practice. The presenters will demonstrate ways teachers can use the Word Knowledge Network to incorporate purposeful practice into their Tier 1, class-wide reading instruction that appropriately differentiates reading instruction for diverse learners.
Windows, Mirrors and Sliding Glass Doors: Diversifying P-5 Classroom Libraries
Klaudia Burton, Director of Equity & Social Justice, ELPS
Elementary (Identity, Intellect, Criticality, Joy)
Every student who enters their classroom should feel as though they are reflected in literature they read and that they have the opportunity to learn about others who may differ from them. In this session, you will explore a district wide approach to diversifying Pk-5 classrooms libraries. Flowing from conversation to practice, this districts’ approach to this initiative covers funding, auditing of current practices, researched and vetting of appropriate titles, and more. In this session you can expect to obtain resources and tangible next steps to hopefully create a similar initiative within your own district.
How to Bridge the Literacy Research into Third through Fifth Grade Classroom Instruction
Deborah Boersma and Kristen Rizzuto-Hellebuyck, Kalamazoo RESA
Upper Elementary (Skills, Intellect, Joy)
High-quality instructional delivery is dependent upon a teachers’ ability to identify components within curricular resources that will foster opportunities for skill acquisition and mastery. With so many options accessible to teachers, developing a coherent instructional schedule can be challenging. This interactive session will allow participants to engage in a process that utilizes their district curriculum to determine instructional routines that can be leveraged within literacy instruction, why it should be considered, and how it can enhance the delivery of Tier 1 instruction. The foundation of this session builds upon the WHY behind instructional routines, based upon research. Deepening knowledge of research along with guided application of the research will enable participants to successfully bridge reading science into practice to support all students.
Writing as a Tool for Improving Reading Comprehension
Dr. Michael Hebert, University of Lincoln-Nebraska
Upper EL/Adolescent (Skills, Identity, Intellect, Criticality, Joy)
The goal of this module is to highlight how teachers can intentionally incorporate writing into their classrooms to improve reading using text. In a meta-analysis of 93 studies, Graham, and Hebert (2011) identified effective writing activities that facilitate student learning. Some important considerations of this instruction are the types of texts we use and the ideas that we prioritize in the writing activities. In addition to highlighting effective writing strategies, this talk is designed to explore how these effective approaches to improving reading and writing can support all students, including those not typically represented in curriculum.
Intensifying Literacy Instruction at the Elementary & Secondary Level
Dr. Kimberly St. Martin, Director, MiMTSS Technical Assistance Center
All (Skills, Identity, Intellect)
Intensifying intervention instruction is best supported by a Multidisciplinary team that is overseeing the access and effectiveness of Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions. This session will focus on Tier 3, the most intensive level of intervention support. A process to evaluate student response to intervention instruction to design either group or individualized intensive intervention plans will be shared with participants.
Explaining the Simple View of Reading
Dr. Emily Solari, University of Virginia, School of Education and Human Development
All (Skills, Intellect, Criticality, Joy)
This presentation will present the Simple View of Reading in the context of classroom instruction, translating what we know about reading science to real word classroom settings. The Simple View will be disentangled so that participants understand its subcomponent skills and teaching targets to develop both word reading and language comprehension. Instructional resources and professional learning modules will be shared that are free and publicly available to be used in school and district level professional learning communities.
Partnering with ALL Families
Dr. Noel Kelty, Assistant Professor, Saginaw Valley State University
All (Skills, Identity, Intellect, Criticality)
This interactive, foundational training in building and sustaining strong partnerships with families includes an overview of the research supporting family engagement, articulates Michigan’s definition of family engagement and supportive principles, and identifies evidence-based strategies for improving family partnerships and learning outcomes. Participants will be equipped with strategies to effectively integrate equitable family engagement from the individual family to the school community, enabling participants to build and/or strengthen family partnerships, leading to accelerated reading and learning outcomes. Attention will be paid to how to engage families in supporting their children to be successful readers within the context of family and community culture and structures.
Library of Michigan – Selection Process for Diverse Books
Kendel Darragh and Melinda Barbarskis, Library of Michigan
All (Identity, Intellect, Criticality, Joy)
This breakout session will focus on how to locate and select high-quality diverse literature to use in your classroom. We will discuss our process for finding and evaluating titles for Michigan Department of Education and Library of Michigan projects, such as the Multicultural Reading List for Children and Award/Recommendation Lists for Diverse Children’s Books, Authors of Color List, and Celebrating Black History Month with Literature Calendar. Practical tools and tips will be discussed culminating with a Q&A.
Bringing Mirrors and Windows to Life through Picture Book Text and Backmatter with Acclaimed Author Angela Joy: CHOOSING BRAVE: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmit Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement
Angela Joy, Author
Upper Grades
Join us as Angela Joy shares her generous spirit, writing talent, and poignantly illustrated book: Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmit Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement, a Caldecott Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award Book, and Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor Book. Providing ways to incorporate the use of picture books in an upper grade (6-12) classroom to extend conversations and to utilize resources found in the extensive backmatter. Angela Joy will share specific ways to build historical knowledge while making connections to history, literature, poetry, and music.
2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Endnote
Tying it All Together