BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Sunday March 30
Session I
Venue: Classroom A/B (Museum)
Title: Closing the Opportunity Gap with Real Business Ownership
Presenter: Scott Reznick
Audience: Grades 9 - 12
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Learning Needs of Boys
Owning and running a retail kiosk improved attendance and performance of four hundred at-risk urban students (two-thirds male); none dropped out. Real opportunity with ownership responsibility makes learning relevant, engaging adolescents cognitively and emotionally: they make bottom-line decisions, solve consequential problems, and develop confidence, discipline, and positive relationships. Horizons broaden. Examine a proven model that creates a community of entrepreneurial practice in schools, integrating inquiry, cooperation, literacy, and authentic assessment into daily learning and earning.
Scott Reznick designed a practical curriculum using real business ownership to promote academic achievement, enterprising careers, and inclusive entrepreneurship. He has created business development programs, taught law and finance at Rutgers and social studies in the inner city. Scott received a BA from Brandeis and JD from the University of Chicago.
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Huxley Theater (Museum)
Title: Discussing the Undiscussable: Racism and Leadership
Presenters: Phil Hunsberger and Billie Mayo
Audience: All
Racism and Leadership is an intensive professional development program that examines the intricate balance of personal stance and professional practice regarding race and racism. The program examines attitudes and dispositions about race held by district teachers and administrators that may unconsciously limit students' ability to achieve. This presentation will examine this model of reform adopted by numerous districts to address the achievement gap.
Dr. Billie Mayo and Dr. Phil Hunsberger are senior consultants with Education Equity Consultants of St. Louis, Missouri. Their work over the past eight years have been with school districts of St. Louis, MO, Long Beach and Santa Barbara California, and Chicago, Illinois all adopting district reform initiatives to address issues of race and racism. Both Dr. Mayo and Dr. Hunsberger have served as lead faculty for the National Conference of Community and Justice program entitled Dismantling Racism for Educators' Institute. Together they offer over seventy years of public education experience in the classroom, as administrators, and state level school reformers.
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Room 1
Title: Planning Strategic Phonics Intervention for Struggling Readers K-5
Presenter: Kimberli Kern
Audience: PreK- Grade 8
Conference Theme:Assessment, Language Development and Literacy
How effective are your intervention lessons for your Tier II and Tier III students? Are they making adequate progress? This session will explore ways to design effective thirty-minute phonics intervention lessons that use assessment to inform grouping and targeted skills instruction for struggling readers. Participants will examine the strategies and explicit instruction required for developing phonetic knowledge from letter/sound correspondence to multisyllabic words.
Kimberli Kern holds a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education, and has been an educator for fifteen years. She has served as a classroom teacher, administrator, and master literacy coach. She has a passion for helping teachers and students, and enjoys sharing “best practices” with educators through professional development and modeling.
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Room 2
Title: Differentiating Instruction for Cultural and Educational Responsiveness
Presenter: Susan Ruckdeschel
Audience: All
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms; Educator Preparation
Successful, culturally responsive classrooms are those that individualize and group instruction specific to the needs of all students; this is the essence of intervention. Strategies gleaned from Eric Jensen, Dr. Mel Levine, Patricia Wolf and others will work to inform participants through practical, formative assessment practices that allow for instructional planning using differentiated practices proven to maximize cognition. Participants will practice, apply, and then brainstorm methods to integrate strategies into regular instruction, drawing on existing resources.
Susan Ruckdeschel, MS. Ed. has been a reading specialist and program director in public schools for sixteen years. She is currently a national consultant, training teachers in current research and pedagogy as it applies to effective classroom instruction, utilizing new resources, and formative assessment practices.
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Room 3
Title: Math Matters
Presenter: Mary Kay Bacallao (NUA Mentor)
Audience: Grades 4-8
Conference Theme: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment
Let's play! Learn about math games and strategies that challenge the mind and engage the spirit. Dr. Mary Kay Bacallao will present her mystery numbers game that utilizes math vocabulary and logical reasoning. She will also bring models of her interactive Equals thinking strategy game of basic facts. Participants will have an opportunity to play the games.
Dr. Mary Kay Bacallao is a National Urban Alliance mentor. Dr. Bacallao is an associate professor of education at Mercer University.
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Room 4
Presenter: Martha Wood
Audience: All
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Educator Preparation
Readiness, as applied to "Reading Readiness" or more informally being "ready" for an activity, refers to the recognition of certain constructs that need to be in place before an activity can be accomplished with maximum success. If we consider Readiness for Learning, there are at least four such constructs that must be in place before an individual can learn efficiently, regardless of the quality of instruction or the effort put forth by the learner. These constructs will be discussed in this presentation.
Dr. Martha M. Wood is the Founder and Director of the Southeastern Center for the Enhancement of Learning; Professor Emeritus of Mathematics from Clayton State University, University System of Georgia; co-author of eight mathematics textbooks for underachieving college freshmen; and a certified trainer for Professor Reuven Feuerstein's Cognitive Enrichment Programs.
8:30 - 9:40 AM
Venue: Room 5
Title: Priming, Processing, Retaining for Mastery. Strategies to Improve Student Achievement in ELA
Presenters: Dawn Castle, Mary Rose Bates and Anne Miller
City School District of Albany
Audience: PreK- Grade 3
Conference Themes: Assessment, Language Development and Literacy; Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment
This workshop will focus on how to use the NUA Strategies and Thinking Maps in a primary ELA lesson. After going over the flow map and participating in a community builder, participants will complete a bubble map to gather background knowledge. In addition, participants will complete an anticipation guide to set the stage for reading. During the lesson, the presenters will model fluent reading, and questioning methods that are supported by Bloom's Taxonomy. After reading the text, the students will be asked to compare and contrast the main characters. Information on the characters will be gathered on a double bubble map. Students will summarize and generalize their findings. As a retaining for mastery strategy, participants will construct a "Draw, Talk, Write" of the plot of the story. A template will be supplied to help organize the beginning, middle, and end of the story. The presenters will supply the teachers with a list of stories that could incorporate the aforementioned strategies and Thinking Maps.
Dawn Castle, Mary Rose Bates, and Anne Miller are all Literacy Coaches for the Albany City School District. Each teacher has over twenty years of experience in Elementary Education. All three teachers are NUA coaches for the district.
Session III
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Classroom A/B (Museum)
Title: How Culture Impacts the Learning Environment of Students
Presenter: Shirley Graham (NUA Partner School)
Audience: Grades 9 -12
Conference Theme: Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms
This presentation will summarize how culture impacts the learning environment of urban students. Focus will highlight cultural differences in the classroom as well as cultural sensitivity. Lastly, this presentation will impart effective methods and strategies that work with all students.
Shirley Graham the principal of Woodlawn Magnet High School, located in Birmingham, Alabama. She is two time presenter at NUA conferences. Her school,Woodlawn Magnet High School, will participate with the National Urban Alliance Trust initiative for a third year.
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Room 1
Title: Differentiating Content Literacy Instruction for All Learners
Presenter: Annyce Kuykendall
Audience: PreK-8
Conference Theme: Assessment, Language Development and Literacy
How do you meet grade level content expectations and the diverse needs of all of your students? This session will focus on ways to develop academic content vocabulary, increase comprehension, and differentiate instruction while addressing a variety of reading levels for students reading on, above, or below grade level. Particular emphasis will include supporting the needs of English Language Learners in the regular literacy or content area classroom.
Annyce Kuykendall is a former classroom teacher, literacy coach, and experienced trainer. She has assisted districts in implementing systemic change in comprehensive literacy practices for grades K-6.
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Room 2
Title: Priming, Processing and Mastery
Presenter: Eleanor Renee Rodriquez NUA Mentor
Audience: 9-12
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance
Choreography is a key instructional component of lesson plan designing. Using a painting analogy, Dr. Rodriquez will model and the participants will reflect and practice the use of the instructional flow map, as well as other teacher proven and student appreciated practices to increase student motivation, learning and improve academic and social achievement. Participants will leave with an action plan for change.
Dr. Rodriguez, co-author of the thought-provoking book, What is it About Me You Can't Teach? is internationally recognized for her strategies for improving the performance of diverse learners. She has public school experience from substitute teacher to superintendent’s office, including Assistant to the Superintendent, Elementary Principal, and most importantly, teacher.
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Room 3
Title: Those Darn Open-Ended Math Problems
Presenter: Donna Poljanec (NUA Mentor)
Audience: Grades 4 - 8
Conference Theme: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment
Do your students have trouble with math word problems? Do they struggle with open-ended math questions? Do you have trouble telling where your students go astray in their thinking about math? If you answered, “yes” to any of these questions then this is the session for you! In this session Dr. Poljanec will show how Four Square can help students to show their thinking about math and increase their scores on high-stakes state mathematics exams.
Dr. Donna Poljanec is a National Urban Alliance mentors. Dr. Poljanec is also a professor in the education department at Clarion University.
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Room 4
Title: Thinking Deeply About Mathematics
Presenter: Bill Tobin
Audience: Grades 4- 12
Conference Themes: Promoting High Intellectual Performance and Enrichment; Learning Needs of Boys; Educator Preparation
This session will provide teachers with the tools they need to create a classroom environment where students routinely engage in mathematical thinking and meaning making. The NCTM process standards will serve as the framework for a lively hands-on workshop. Participants will take away a host of strategies designed to help students improve their current understanding and develop new understandings of specific mathematical concepts.
Bill Tobin is a Math Literacy Coach at Reading High School, Reading, PA. He was a consultant for the NUA for many years. Bill lives in Douglassville, PA with his wife Lisa. They are both trainers for Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment.
12:45 - 1:55 PM
Venue: Room 5
Title: Help! I’ve Falling Between the Cracks and I Can’t Learn. Teaching boys and the teachers who teach them.
Presenters: Kimberly Smerkers and James Studer
Audience: All
Conference Themes: Learning Needs of Boys; Educator Preparation
The session provides an overview on current brain research, the physical and learning needs of boys, and classroom strategies that enhance the learning of boys in all grades. The presenters co-facilitate and maximize the participants learning by creating an active and engaging environment.
Ms. Kimberly Smerkers is Educational Support Professionals Training Coordinator. She has been an elementary principal and is completing her dissertation in Organizational Leadership.
Dr. James Studer recently completed his doctorate in Organizational Leadership from University of La Verne and is currently a vice principal.
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