Sectionals

•  The Three Best Friends: Art, Literature and the Little One

Darlene Guillaume Asmus, Waterloo Schools, Art Teacher

How can you possibly explore children's literature without also exploring children's art? You can't!  In this session we will examine credible approaches pairing viable art experiences with children's literature. Specific books with specific lesson plans will be shared, as will other art techniques including quilt making, origami and clay manipulation.
Iowa Standards Met: Standard 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

•  Defining, Developing and Delivering Differentiation 

Amy Lockhart, Kim Miller, Price Laboratory School

What does differentiation look like in a literature-based classroom?

Intentional planning, common standards, flexible grouping, co-teaching, independent choices, plus rigor and relevance create maximum growth of each learner. See how it is put into action through different genres of literature.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met: 4

•  One Potatoe, Two Potatoe: Exploring Folklore Genres in the Classroom .

Dr. Yolanda Hood, Youth Collection Librarian

Folklore encompasses far more than folktales, legends and fairytales. This presentation will explore other genres of folklore: food, children’s games/songs, dance, and material culture. Along with discussing the genres, the presenter will share books and activities that will help you to enrich the cultural environment of the classroom.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 2, 3 and 4

•  Family Involvement + Literacy = Higher Achievement

Allison Barnes, Price Laboratory School and Maria Johnson

Are the parents in your classroom involved in your students’ literacy

development? No – well then come to learn about how to provide your parents with effective strategies and tools to involve them in their child’s literacy development. At the end, there will be time for a discussion to share your own thoughts and ideas with the group.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met - 5

•  Powerful Strategies to Enhance Reading Comprehension

Lois Berger, Karen Papesh, Minooka Community School District

Empower your primary students with decoding and comprehension strategies that enhance their reading ability. Teachers will share how they implement six decoding strategies and six comprehension strategies that proficient readers use to construct meaning. The comprehension strategies include connecting, asking questions, visualizing, determining importance, inferring, and synthesizing.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met - 4

•  Healthy Today, Smarter Tomorrow

Blythe Polito, Mandi Cooley, Wartburg College Student and Kim Weigle, Sacred Heart School

Get the wiggles out! Build the desire in your students to be healthy and fit through good nutrition and movement. Today, take home lots of ideas to make this happen in your classroom so tomorrow your students reach their potential.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 1 and 4

•  Movin’ & Shakin: Musical Activities for Your Classroom

Michelle Swanson, Price Laboratory School

Have you ever had days when your students NEVER leave your classroom? Indoor recess?!? The activities will be immediately usable in your classroom to get your students up and moving. Come to learn new ideas for kinesthetic learning!

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 1, 4, 5 and 7

•  Kindergarteners have the W.R.I.T.E. = Writing & Reading Instruction in the early grades

Janelle Kimpston, Becky Runyan, McKinstry Elementary.

Come explore the world of reading and writing specifically designed for early childhood programs. This session will show you the techniques used to integrate small group reading and writing instruction easily and pain free. We will also demonstrate how to get community members involved in helping your early learners become awesome writers too!

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 3 and 4

•  Teaching Reading and Writing through the Arts

Denise Tallakson, Price Laboratory School and Kim Engels, Hudson Community Schools

Come and learn easy, practical ways to improve your students’ reading and writing while integrating the arts of drama, visual arts, music, dance and movement.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8

•  Creative Involvement: Hosting a Family Literacy Night

Diane McCarthy, Karleen Damlo, Chellie Orluck, Wartburg College

Looking for a fun way to make home-school connections? Are you interested in building stronger relationships with your students’ families? Why not try a family literacy night? Come to this session and receive information to host your own event. We’ll even include ideas to implement Rosemary Wells’ literature!

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 1 and 8

•  Building a Democratic Learning Community in Your Inquiry Based Science Classroom

Mary Stichter, Price Laboratory School

In this session-examples of classroom science instruction, which promote classroom democratic core values will be shared. Focus will be on integrated curriculum, inquiry based projects and scientific literacy development.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 1, 2 and 3

•  Why Did they Say/Read/Write THAT? Recognizing and Building on What Students Do in the Assessment of Beginning Reading and Spelling

Rick Traw, University of Northern Iowa

This session will focus on some of the m ore easily misunderstood aspects of early developmental literacy learning, especially children’s use of language structure in learning to read and their use of oral language in learning to spell. Particpants will learn to recognize children’s use of these elements and to include them in their instructional planning.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 2, 3, 5 and 7.

•  Creating Class Books

Lynne Ensworth, University of Northern Iowa

Differentiate your seatwork and motivate students by creating classbooks. These books are based on well known trade books and are helpful in reinforcing basic concepts. Take back many new ideas to use in your classroom tomorrow!

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7and 8

•  Strengthening Language Skills and Reading Fluency Through Reader’s Theater

Jennifer Garrett, University of Northern Iowa

Come learn about research and resources for using Reader’s Theater with your students. In this hands-on session, particpants will learn how to incorporate vocabulary instruction and strengthen reading fluency using Reader’s Theater in the classroom or in small groups across various grade levels and reading abilities.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 2

•  Black, White and Loved by All

Joshalyn Hickey, BaHar Publishing Company

Author Joshalyn Hickey and Illustrator Chaveevah Banks Ferrguson will talk about their book series. This series is designed to address issues of identity and self-esteem for biracial children, and create dialog for parents to express their views on inter-racial relationships to their children. The stories are stories that all children can relate to, and based on true events in the life of the author and her children.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 1 & 6

•  Motivating Students to Become Lifelong Readers

Nicole Geopfert, Price Laboratory School

The role of all teachers is to help their students become independent learners so students can become citizens that will be productive, resourceful, and well educated. Learning happens through reading. This presentation focuses on the lifelong reader. To produce a lifelong reader, teachers need to help their students achieve choice, motivation, and engagement. Choice, motivation, and engagement will be connected to research and practice in this hands-on presentation.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met-2,3 & 4

•  Read Naturally: Remediate Fluency and Improve Comprehension

Carol Ann Kane, Reading Specialist

Learn how to combine the research-proven strategies of teacher modeling, repeated reading, and progress monitoring into a powerful strategy to motivate readers and accelerate the reading achievement of Title I, ELL, special education, and regular classroom students needing fluency. Materials will be given that explain implementation and assessments.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 3, 4 and 5

•  Read Naturally’s GATE: Direct Instruction and Fluency for Early Readers

Carol Ann Kane, Reading Specialist

Read Naturally’s GATE combines fluency development and phonics instruction for small groups. The content of the presentation explains the part fluency plays in the reading process and the research on strategies to develop fluency, phonemic awareness and phonics in beginning and struggling readers. Materials will be given describing the steps for implementation.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 3, 4 & 5

•  Rocket Science Reading : The Link Between Scientific Thinking and Reading

Beth Dykstra Van Meeteren, Shelly Bromwich and Katheryn Thompson, Price Laboratory School

Reading is much more than the “Big Five.” This session introduces the idea of integrating physical science activities in the classroom to facilitate reading development. The session will refer to research which points to a symbiotic relationship between reasoning in the sciences and in reading development in young children.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 2, 3 & 4

•  The Music of Language   

Beth Dykstra Van Meeteren, Price Laboratory School

Learn how song lyrics capture beginning readers’ interest in print, build on prior knowledge, provide strong rhythmic elements, word segmentation, and opportunities to experience and play with rhymes.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 2, 3 & 4

•  Using Braille to Enhance the Learning of Emerging Print Readers

Candice York, Price Laboratory School and Stephen Orsborn, Teacher of Visually Impaired, Vinton, IA

This session describes the innovative methods of using Braille and print simultaneously to enhance the learning of emerging print readers. The research basis for this developing system as well as the procedures for implementing it into an early childhood program will be discussed .

Iowa Teaching Standard Met - 4

•  Iowa Early Learning Standard Infant-Toddler/Preschool Literacy

LuAnn Gates, Child Development Specialist and Chelssi Parrott, Price Laboratory School

This presentation includes how we incorporate the IELS as related to communication, language, and literacy in our early learning program at UNI’s Child Development Center , serving children from six weeks – age five. These standards and benchmarks are interwoven throughout our constructivist curriculum. Focus will highlight facilitating learning embedded in realistic, relevant contxts and reinforcing the importance of play as the child’s work.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8

•  Phonological Awareness Skills Are Alive and Well in the Classroom

Diane Highnam, Speech/Language Clinician at Price Lab School

Phonological awareness skills are the building blocks for early reading development. This presentation will give you fun and exciting ways to incorporate phonological awareness skills into your classroom activities throughout the day.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 2, 4

•  Livin’ La Vida Language

Donna Uhlenberg, Early Childhood Specialist. Price Laboratory School

Children are amazed and delighted with the smallest musical gesture. Find out ways to incorporate the use of language and music in your classroom. Watch a video, sing some songs, be silly, and laugh at some amateur singers describing their journey into music and lanuage!

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7

•  A Basket Full of Learning Experiences

Gloria Kirkland Holmes, University of Northern Iowa

Put lots of activities into a “Basket full” of innovative ideas to help young children learn, develop and grow in literacy! Come find out about literacy centers, folder and card games that you can make!!!!

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8

•  More Than Just a Bulletin Board: Documenting Literature Experiences

Gwen Dayton, Infant Child Development Specialist, University of Northern Iowa

Incorporating Iowa Teaching Standards in a multifaceted approach to documenting literature experiences for sharing with parents, families and colleagues.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met – 1 and 2

•  Meeting Iowa Early Learning Standards in an Active Play-Based Preschool Curriculum

Rosemary Geiken, Kathy Thompson, University of Northern Iowa
This session will demonstrate how the Iowa Early Learning Standards can be addressed in a preK(3-5 year olds) classroom using a play-based curriculum. Video clips will illustrate the standards in action.
Iowa Standard Met - 1

•  Providing Comprehensible Instruction to English Language Learners

Deborah Tidwell, University of Northern Iowa
Providing Comprehensible Instruction to English Language Learners
This session will provide classroom teachers and administrators key information about the connection of literacy development with learning English while learning content in the elementary classroom.

•  Books too Good to Miss!

Patty AcheyCutts, University Book & Supply

This is a fun session highlighting new books that are great to use with young children. Enjoy my recommendations and add your suggestions.

•  Reading Comprehension:  Much More than Skills

Dr. Stephen Fortgang, University of Northern Iowa

Reading comprehension is often thought of as a result of having command of various skills. While skills are involved, they really serve best to help readers guess well at meaning. It is really the kind and amount of background knowledge a reader brings to reading that primarily determines his/her level of comprehension and that is what the solid, specific, sequenced, and shared Core Knowledge Curriculum is disgined to increase. In this presentation, this idea about comprehension is explained, the Core Knowledge Curriculum is displayed, and a handout is provided to supply further information.

Iowa Teaching Standard Met: Standard 2, 3, and 7