DAY 1 - KEYNOTE - MATT GLOVER:
Universal Learning Principles and Beliefs Through a Lens of Writing While there are certainly differences between writers at various ages, there are fundamental beliefs about teaching writing that influence writers of all ages. The question then is, “How do teachers ensure that their actions align with their beliefs?” We will examine several of these key beliefs, including nudging development, choice, and nurturing composition development.
 
DAY 2 - KEYNOTE - KATHY COLLINS:
“Read the Child to Teach the Child” When we sit beside children in conferences and small group instruction, our primary purpose is to provide precise and intimate instruction, directly connected to the needs, strengths, and quirks of the learners. Even so, there are many things that can interfere with the teacher-student connection, from curricular demands to performance expectations, from time constraints to classroom management issues. These factors often create a disconnection between teachers and learners, and, as a consequence, our teaching is less likely to make a long-term impact. In this talk, Kathy will share practical ideas that can help teachers keep our focus on children so that our teaching is connected, warm, and ultimately, more effective.
 
MATT GLOVER - SESSION 1: Mentor Texts
Children are better able to compose powerful writing when they have a clear vision for what they are making and are immersed in a stack of real world texts. Using authentic published pieces of writing and authentic student writing samples we will consider strategies for using mentor texts at four specific time in writing workshop including:
  • Using a stack of texts to project units of study
  • Immersing students in a stack at the beginning of a unit
  • As the starting point for mini lessons
  • As a tool for teaching during writing conferences

In addition, we will examine the important role of reading like a writer to support students in noticing techniques authors use in their own writing.
 
MATT GLOVER - SESSION 2: Conferring with Writers
Writing conferences are your most powerful moments of the teaching day because they are focused on the skills and strategies that a particular child needs. This session will support participants in examining and refining their skills as conferrers. We examine dimensions of composition growth and development as well as strategies for nudging writers forward. We will then practice conferring using authentic video clips and writing samples.
 
MATT GLOVER - SESSION 3: Making Responsive Decisions in Units of Study
One of the challenges teachers face is determining what to teach each day during a unit of study in writing workshop. Even when teachers have curricular plans and resources that give teaching possibilities, only teachers can determine what their students need each day since even the most carefully created unit will change and evolve as the unit unfolds. In this session teachers will learn and use a process for projecting units of study that meet curricular goals and respond to the individual needs of their students.
 
KATHY COLLINS - SESSION 1:
Inquiry-Infused Workshop Teaching: Give Children More Agency As Readers, Thinkers, and Learners This session is designed for teachers who have (or who are developing) reading workshops in their classrooms yet also want to make sure to infuse children’s experiences with the spirit of inquiry, with opportunities to exert agency, and with the promise of unexpected and joyful possibilities. Kathy and the participants will look at a couple of units of study and typical reading workshop structures to make space for inquiry-based learning. Teachers are invited to bring along their own units of study in order to rethink and revise them with an inquiry mindset. Through activities, demonstrations, and video, participants will consider and develop some answers to these questions:
  1. How do we implement reading workshops characterized by equal parts intention and joy? How do we avoid teaching that feels like we are simply ‘going through the motions’?
  2. How can we fit an inquiry mindset into our reading units and balanced literacy components? What are some possibilities for reading inquiries?
 
KATHY COLLINS - SESSION 2:
Looking Into the Black Box: Demystifying Reading Conferences Conferring with readers is challenging in so many ways, no matter if you’re brand new or very experienced at it. After all, when we confer with readers, there’s usually no product or piece of work to consider together, so reading conferences often require us to get in children’s heads so we can figure what to teach that will make a difference. In this session, Kathy will share some new thinking about structures and methods in reading conferences, as well as a variety of immediately helpful conferring hacks. She’ll also offer practical solutions for some of the most intractable and common conferring struggles, from time management to conferring with our strongest readers and several topics in between.
 
KATHY COLLINS - SESSION 3:
“I Have an Idea!” Support Children’s Reading Comprehension Through Stronger Conversations and Varied Response Opportunities When we consider all of the ways to help children understand texts more deeply, Richard Allington cites the importance of providing children time to have conversations about books, based on large body of research on the connection between talk and meaning-making. In contrast, children often view reading as a time to get through texts quickly rather than a time to savor and think about what they’re reading. Additionally, some readers might view books simply as steps that enable them to climb reading levels, and they don’t take time to think about and share how the book may have affected their lives.

In this workshop, Kathy will suggest a variety of ways we can encourage children to respond to their reading through conversation so that they can find at least a little bit of significance in anything they read. Teachers will also learn strategies to confer into children’s conversations in reading partnerships and book clubs, as well as strategies for facilitating illuminating and engaging whole class conversations about books.
 
POTENTIAL AUDIENCE:
All Educators Teaching Grades K-6
 
MATT GLOVER
Matt Glover has been an educator for over 30 years, as a teacher, a principal, author and consultant. He is the author and co-author of several books on teaching writing and reading including Projecting Possibilities for Writers: The How, What, and Why of Designing Units of Study, K-5, Engaging Young Writers, Already Ready, Sit Down and Teach Up, and I Am Reading: Nurturing Young Children’s Meaning Making and Joyful Engagement With Any Book. Along with Ellin Keene, Matt is the editor of a collection of essays titled The Teacher You Want to Be: Essays on Children, Learning and Teaching.
 
KATHY COLLINS
Kathy Collins works in schools and presents in conferences all over the world to support teachers in developing high-quality, effective literacy instruction in the early childhood settings through middle school. She is the co-author, along with Janine Bempechat of Not This But That: No More Mindless Homework (Heinemann, 2017). She co-authored, with Matt Glover, I Am Reading: Nurture Meaning - Making and Joyful Engagement with Texts (Heinemann, 2015). Kathy's other books include Reading for Real: Teach Children to Read With Power, Intention, and Joy in K-3 Classrooms (Stenhouse, 2008) and Growing Readers: Units of Study in Primary Classrooms (Stenhouse, 2004). Kathy has worked closely with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University, and she taught in Brooklyn, New York. Kathy and her family live in Durham, New Hampshire.
 
Venue:
Shanghai United International School, Wanyuan campus
No.509 Pingji Road
平集路509号万源校区

9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Registration at 8.30 am
on the 28th March 2020.
INVESTMENT
 
USD 790 Closing Date 15th March 2020
INCLUDES: Certificate of Participation for 16 Professional Development hours, Lunch and 2 coffee breaks.
THE GROUP WILL ATTEND BOTH THE KEYNOTES AND THEN CHOOSE TO SPEND TWO DAYS WITH EITHER MATT GLOVER OR KATHY COLLINS.
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Emails:
www.chaptersinternational.com
+91-9818362535