Conference Sessions Archives - (TEST) McREL International

Las Vegas, Nevada, December 7–8, 2015

Join McREL’s Kathleen Dempsey, Kent Davis, and Terri Bissonette for these three workshop sessions at the 32nd annual NIISA conference:

School Leadership Teams | What happens when school leadership teams use data, embrace school challenges, and build collective efficacy? Students benefit, staff are empowered, and schools reach improvement goals. Join this session to learn how schools across South Dakota are using tools and processes in South Dakota’s school improvement process, SD LEAP – Leading Effectively Achieving Progress, to reach improvement goals.

Why Didn’t This Work? | The school invested in an intervention that was backed by research and provided the needed professional development for staff. So why didn’t the intervention yield the positive student outcomes that were envisioned? Join this session to learn keys to monitoring and supporting implementation that can help teachers improve their practice and students achieve at higher levels. 

The Secret Sauce – Collective Efficacy | Once a school identifies an improvement goal, how can leaders rally stakeholders and maintain momentum for school improvement efforts—build a purposeful community. Join this session to learn how purposeful communities differ from other professional learning communities and how the “secret sauce” of collective efficacy can be developed to maximize outcomes.

For more information about this conference, please visit the NIISA website.

Blacksburg, Virginia, January 20–21, 2016

Jane Hill, a language acquisition expert at McREL and lead author of the first and second editions of Classroom Instruction that Works with English Language Learners, will present the following conference sessions:

Plenary Session | Low Numbers—Highly Useful Strategies | Thursday, January 21, 8:00–9:15 a.m.

This keynote will reflect on the conference theme of “Reaching and Teaching EVERY English Language Learner” and present information on how teachers of English language learners can improve communication with regular education teachers using a tool called the Academic Language Framework which helps classroom teachers identify academic language that aligns with content.

Concurrent Session | Kids Say the Darndest Things…If We Let Them | 9:25–10:40 a.m. and repeated at 11:10 a.m.–12:25 p.m.

In the urgency to encourage students to read and write proficiently, the importance of discourse has often been overlooked. Realizing that rich oral language is the precursor to improved reading and writing for English language learners, Jane will introduce strategies for obtaining productive, accountable talk in classrooms. She will also talk about the importance of treating all students, ELL students and native English speakers alike, as academic language learners (ALL™) who should be taught to talk and write like authors, mathematicians, scientists, and historians.

For more information about the Virginia Title III Statewide Consortium, please visit the Virginia Department of Education’s website.