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Session Descriptions

All 2011 Fall Conference on Teaching and Learning—Enhancing Teacher Effectiveness = Improving Student Learning sessions are non-ticketed. No advance tickets are required for any sessions. We've opened up the conference, so you don't have to reserve your sessions in advance.

• Friday, October 28, 2011 Sessions
• Saturday, October 29, 2011 Sessions
• Sunday, October 30, 2011 Sessions

Conference Sessions for Friday, October 28

Friday Morning Networking Breakfast and Discussion, 7:30–8:15 a.m.

Social Networking: Why You Should Use It and How to Make It Work for You

Tim Ito and Simon Cable, ASCD, Alexandria, Va..

From a distance, social networking sites can seem like idle distractions to many educators, but in reality, many serve a real purpose to help connect people and spread information widely and effectively. This session will cover the reasons to use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, ASCD EDge®, and YouTube, and provide tips to help you get the most out of them as an educator.

Opening General Session, 8:15–9:30 a.m.

Teaching 2030: What We Must Do for Our Students and Our Public Schools—Now and in the Future

Barnett Berry, President, Center for Teaching Quality, Carrboro, N.C. 

In a provocative book about the future of teaching and learning, Barnett Berry and 12 of America's most accomplished teachers bring expert pedagogical know-how and fresh and provocative policy ideas to the national debate on school reform. Together, they identify four emergent realities that will shape the learning experience of children born in the new millennium—and propose six levers of change that can ignite a bright future for our nation's students by ensuring they all have access to excellent teaching. Their hopeful vision includes establishing a new leadership force of 600,000 "teacherpreneurs"—classroom experts who continue to teach students regularly while also serving as teacher educators, policy researchers, community organizers, and trustees of their profession. In his presentation, Dr. Berry will highlight the bold ideas in Teaching 2030 and engage ASCD members on steps they can take to create the teaching profession that students deserve.

Participants will learn

• How teachers are creating dynamic and flexible learning environments for students and teachers.
• How digital technologies are transforming public education while reinventing brick-and-mortar school buildings into 24/7 hubs of community support.
• How teaching must be developed to attract a new leadership force of 600,000 "teacherpreneurs" who are well-compensated with many career pathways so that they can continue to teach while also serving as leaders in their field.

Morning Sessions, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 noon

1101 Formative Assessment: The Linchpin for Standards-Based Grading

Mary McDonough, Education Consultant, Centerville, Mass.

Many schools implement standards-based grading to change the way teachers grade students. But the real work begins with formative assessment. In this session, participants will enhance their understanding of formative assessment as a tool for providing feedback on student learning; for grading skill and knowledge; and for using formative assessment to align curriculum, instruction, assessment, and grading.

Repeated Session: 1201
Audience Level: Elementary/Secondary
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1102 The Learning Leader: Leading Across Differences, Insisting Upon Excellence

Karen Dyer, Educational Consultant, Centerville, Mass.

Leading across differences, inclusion, tolerance, and inclusive leadership are key components that all leaders need to understand and embrace as they work to ensure excellence in their schools and districts. This session uses research on social identity as a tool for understanding differences in perspectives and behaviors. Participants will explore leadership responses that contribute to enhanced effectiveness in promoting environments where both students and staff can excel.

Repeated Session: 1202
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All


1103 Evaluation that's Effective and Efficient

Mary Weck, Education Consultant, Galena, Ill. and Peggy Schooling, York, Pa.

This session will explore an effective and efficient approach to teacher evaluation as a means to strengthen the individual and collective practices of teachers and schools to improve student learning. An effective evaluation process needs a comprehensive and coherent plan that explicitly identifies the purpose and outcomes of the evaluation process. Therefore, an evaluation process will only be as good as the quality of the work the evaluators bring to the process and their ability to maintain fidelity to the process. The participants will learn about developing an evaluation plan based on Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching. During this session, the importance of evaluator training and ongoing supervision and development will be discussed. Evaluation done well is a time-consuming process that can be made more efficient with the use of software designed to help in gathering and reporting data. The iObservation Framework tool and its usefulness for teachers and administrators will be explored in the session.

Repeated Session: 1203
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1104 Less Teaching + More Feedback = Better Learning

Grant Wiggins, ASCD Author and Education Consultant, Hopewell, N.J.

We teach too much; we assess and give feedback too infrequently. Yet the best achievement—in all fields—derives from far more feedback and opportunities to use it. In this session, we will explore how to plan and instruct to ensure optimal achievement via the use of feedback.

Repeated Session: 1204
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1105 Practical Ways to Use the Habits of Mind Within Your Classroom

Karen Boyes, Education Consultant, Wellington, New Zealand

The Habits of Mind are intelligent behaviors identified from successful people. They are as important today as ever. In this workshop, you will examine a wide range of practical, ready-to-use ideas for the classroom that activate in students Art Costa's 16 Habits of Mind.

• Activate the language of the Habits of Mind.
• Empower students to use the Habits of Mind when self-assessing.
• Learn to co-construct criteria for assessment with Success-o-meters.
• Experience activities that engage and teach.
• Create a class theme to engage learners.
• Learn many practical ways to use the Habits of Mind within your classroom.

Repeated Session: 1205
Audience Level: Elementary/Secondary
Audience: Teachers
Session Level: All

1106 What Every School Leader Needs to Know About Response to Intervention

Margaret Searle, Education Consultant, Perrysburg, Ohio

RTI is a commonsense approach to systemic change and improvement.
Where should you start? What does it look like when it is done well? How do you get parents and teachers to get involved without them kicking and screaming all the way? This session will provide practical strategies for successfully implementing a comprehensive RTI system at the elementary, middle, and secondary levels.

• Look at some quick strategies for measuring the effectiveness of programs and interventions.
• Learn techniques for helping teachers design a database of specific research-based interventions.
• Discover a way to have a 20-minute problem-solving meeting that always results in a specific action plan to help parents, staff, and students address key problems.

Repeated Session: 1206
Audience Level: Elementary/Middle/Secondary
Audience: Teachers
Session Level: All

1107 Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life

Baruti Kafele, Education Consultant, Jersey City, N.J.

 The plight of Black males continues to pose a major challenge for educators at all levels—particularly under the demands of No Child Left Behind. This high-energy, interactive session will provide educators with an analysis as well as specific strategies that can be implemented immediately toward effectively motivating their Black male students to strive for academic excellence. This session places a particular emphasis on the students' self-identity and its effect on learning and achievement. Strategies for developing a "Young Men's Empowerment Program" in your school or district will also be discussed. By the conclusion of this session, participants will have learned the following:

• Strategies toward eliminating the "self crisis" in the Black male learner.
• Strategies toward motivating and inspiring the Black male learner.
• Strategies toward raising the achievement levels of the Black male learner.

Repeated Session: 1207
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1108 A Collaborative Approach to Using Teacher Observations for Improved Instruction

Aviva Ebner, Education Consultant, Granada Hills, Calif.

Do those school or district evaluation forms leave everyone feeling a little uncomfortable? Does a snapshot of a teacher's instruction really reflect his or her overall work with the students? In this session, you will learn how teachers and administrators can work together as a team to develop meaningful observation checklists and feedback forms that target differentiated instruction, informal assessments as tools for using data to drive instruction, and best practices that support the growth and development of teacher leaders as invaluable resources.

• You will create a sample checklist and observation form for your school that provides detailed, specific feedback for teachers.
• You will learn how to turn warm-up exercises into assessments that can help drive instruction on a daily basis.
• You will identify teacher leaders at your school and create a plan to support their professional growth in their areas of expertise; as a result, you will be developing resources to support your teachers who need additional help or growth in these areas.

Repeated Session: 1208
Audience Level: Secondary
Audience: School-Based Administrators/Teacher Leaders/Teachers
Session Level: All

1109 The Curriculum Mapping Planner: Templates, Tools, and Strategies for Implementing Curriculum Mapping

Ann Johnson, Education Consultant, Ames, Iowa

What are the four phases of mapping? How can they provide the foundational structure to help you craft a plan and training design that can ensure the successful implementation of curriculum mapping and Curriculum 21?
According to Ann Johnson, curriculum mapping is a commonsense approach to addressing the systemic issue—improving student achievement. When it is implemented in a thoughtful manner, paying attention to everything we know about sustaining lasting change, it can have a dramatic effect on the culture of a school and serve as a vehicle to implement mapping and Curriculum 21. Participants will

• Learn about the four phases of curriculum mapping outlined in the new book by Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Dr. Ann Johnson, The Curriculum Mapping Planner: Templates, Tools, and Resources for Effective Professional Development.
• Have an opportunity to use the templates, tools, and strategies in the book to deepen their understanding of mapping and the connections with Curriculum 21.

Repeated Session: 1209
Audience Level: All
Audience: Superintendents/Central Office Staff/School-Based Administrators/Teacher Leaders
Session Level: All

1110 Improved Outcomes for Underachieving Students Living in Poverty: Leadership Lessons

William Parrett and Kathleen Budge, Boise State University, Idaho

This session focuses on actions taken by leaders in high-performing/high-poverty schools to increase teacher effectiveness and improve outcomes for students living in poverty. These leaders understand that the learning needs of teachers and the learning needs of students represent two sides of the same coin. In order for teachers to be successful with underachieving students who live in poverty, they must:

• Be able to draw from a rich repertoire of instructional approaches,
• Possess the skills necessary to make instructional decisions based on data and sound assessment practices,
• Be confident in their own efficacy and the efficacy of their colleagues to successfully teach all students, and
• Believe in low-income students' ability and willingness to learn.

Participants will learn how leaders create conditions that foster the development of these attributes, by building caring relationships, holding high expectations for all, engendering a spirit of reciprocal accountability for learning among all stakeholders, and courageously committing to equity. The session will include specific approaches used within this broader framework for targeting the unique learning needs of underachieving students who live in poverty, including finding the time to help them catch up and ensuring they have the "gateway" skill of reading proficiently. Participants will

• Understand how to strategically increase instructional capacity to rapidly accelerate student achievement.
• Enhance the collaborative leadership necessary to develop effective action plans to meet diverse needs of all learners.

Repeated Session: 1210
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1111 Unpacking Common Core State Standards

Janie Ray Smith, Education Consultant, Alexandria, Va. and Carolyn Gwinn, Anoka-Hennepin Independent School District No. 11, Coon Rapids, Minn.

As the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies and Science are being examined across the country by educational stakeholders and beyond, we are called to consider how to unpack them at the district and school levels, design corresponding curriculum, and determine what the curriculum looks like in action in K–12 settings. As part of the process, it is critical to consider not only what is to be taught and how it is organized, but also how it is best taught. In this institute, explore how to unpack the standards and design and implement a meaningful curriculum aligned to the standards. Use case studies to analyze effective standards-based curriculum implementation at the elementary and secondary levels. Insights gained across the institute will be used to create an action plan for unpacking standards and designing and implementing corresponding curriculum tailored to meet the needs of K–12 learners. Participants will

• Increase familiarity with the Common Core Standards,
• Enhance understanding of how to unpack standards and develop corresponding curriculum, and
• Demonstrate an ability to apply understanding to the development of an action plan, possibly including a tailored plan for unpacking standards, designing corresponding curriculum, and implementing curriculum in K–12 classrooms, intended to meet the needs of the audience served.

Repeated Session: 1211
Audience Level: All
Audience: Superintendents/Central Office Staff/School-Based Administrators/Teacher Leaders
Session Level: All

1112 Schoolwide Differentiation and its Powerful Influence on Teacher and Student Success

Lane Narvaez and Carolyn Parham, Conway Elementary, St. Louis, Mo.

Discover how second-order change at one elementary school transformed its approach to teaching and learning. Schoolwide differentiation redefined student success in the minds of teachers, students, and parents through coaching and reflection. This session will also explore the importance of KUDs, pre-assessment, rigor, classroom management, student feedback, and the power of teaming. Lessons containing strategies such as RAFTS, tiered lessons, and ThinkDOTS will be analyzed throughout each stage of development. Teacher reflections about refining their lessons will be shared.

Repeated Session: 1212
Audience Level: Elementary
Audience: School-Based Administrators/Teacher Leaders/Teachers
Session Level: Experienced/Advanced

1113 Guiding the 21st Century Learner Down the Digital Path

Carol O'Connor, Education Consultant, Palm Coast, Fla. and Kristi Thaemlitz, Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District, Houston, Tex.

This captivating workshop will guide teachers through the process of selecting digital media for classroom instruction that enhances and supports curricular objectives in their content areas. Focusing on the need for transnavigation in the 21st century and various technology applications and their possible uses in the classroom, this workshop will provide digital methods of differentiation for all learners, especially at-risk learners. Using digital media to introduce, enhance, or conclude a lesson, the applications will also illustrate the value of appropriate use of social networking in the classroom and the power of podcasting. Teachers will also convert a lesson to one that utilizes technology after analyzing exemplar lessons designed using Wikispaces, Glogster, Movie Maker, Animoto, and Xtranormal. These technology applications can also be used to design products that support learning objectives while also ensuring that students are given the opportunity to think both creatively and critically. Insight and suggestions for check points, grading, and allowing for student choice will also be discussed.

Outcomes for the workshop include the following:

• To utilize technology applications in the classroom to enhance learning for all students, especially at-risk learners, through digital media that directly supports curricular standards and lesson objectives.
• To know when to apply technology in the classroom to support and enhance student learning.
• To better understand the urgency of leading the at-risk learner in the 21st century down the digital pathway and to integrate differentiation so that the individual learning styles and needs of the students are addressed.

Repeated Session: 1213
Audience Level: Secondary
Audience: Teacher Leaders/Teachers
Session Level: Introductory

1114 A Comprehensive Model for Teacher Reflective Practice

Robert J. Marzano, ASCD Author and Education Consultant, Centennial, Colo.

This session will present a comprehensive model schools and districts can use to engage teachers in reflective practice that pertains to four research-based domains of teacher effectiveness:

• Classroom strategies and behaviors,
• Planning and preparing,
• Reflecting on teaching, and
• Collegiality and professionalism.

Specific techniques will be presented that allow schools and districts to facilitate teacher growth and development.

Repeated Session: 1214
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1115 Engagement and Motivation Strategies for Teachers

Jim Winter, Education Consultant, Chicago, Ill.

Humor, laughter, and improvisation engage the brain and body; reduce stress, anger, and depression; and improve collaboration, productivity, and achievement. Based on brain and education research, this session offers the experience of using humor, laughter, and improvisation to create a positive and engaging climate for all members of the school community. Activities include interactive laughter and improvisational exercises designed to enhance participants' spontaneity and ability to use humor to create a climate for professional learning and healthy living.

Repeated Session: 1215
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1116 Effective Teachers Result in Increased Student Achievement

James H. Stronge, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va.

There is no more powerful school-related influence on student achievement than the teacher. Consider the following:

• Teacher effectiveness is the dominant factor influencing student academic growth.
• Which teacher a student happens to get within a school matters more than which school the student happens to attend.
• A teacher who is in the top 10 percent of effectiveness can achieve with his or her students in half a year what a teacher in the bottom 10 percent can achieve in a full year.
• Two years of effective teachers cannot remediate the achievement loss caused by one year with a poor teacher.

As noted in How the World's Best-Performing School Systems Come Out on Top, an international study comparing data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), "The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers" (Barber & Mourshed, 2007, p. iii). If we want to improve the quality of our schools and positively affect the lives of our students, then we must change the quality of our teaching. We can reform the curriculum but, ultimately, it is teachers who implement it; we can provide professional development on new instructional strategies but, ultimately, it is teachers who deploy them; we can focus on data analysis of student performance but, ultimately, it is teachers who produce the results we are analyzing.

This interactive presentation/workshop will be designed to link research to best practice in terms of how teachers directly affect student achievement. We will explain the value-added effect of teachers and then consider and apply those findings to school improvement and student learning. Simulations and situational in-basket activities will be included in the presentation.

Repeated Session: 1216
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1117 Adolescent Learning That Takes Place Anywhere and Anytime

Joe DiMartino, Education Consultant, West Warwick, R.I.

Active involvement in the community helps to clarify a student's purpose and defines the steps necessary to achieve successful adult roles. For many students, the community in which they live is the ideal location for earning credits needed for graduation in both core and elective courses. This session will provide an overview of how middle and high schools can provide community- connected learning experiences for adolescents, including methods to develop internships, service learning projects, and other vehicles to activate the community as a classroom. Additionally, this session will demonstrate how personalization strategies are essential to the successful and sustainable use of the community as the classroom and will suggest strategies that teachers can use to activate the community in teaching and learning.

The session will be 80 percent interactive and will employ ASCD products that include input from Mr. DiMartino: High Schools at Work video and facilitator's guide, and the ASCD online professional development tool PD In Focus™. The session will also employ Personalizing the High School Experience for Each Student, an ASCD publication by Joe DiMartino and John Clarke. Participants will leave the session with

• Methods to assist students in crafting projects for each student's interest that align with course competencies and that include valid and reliable methods for demonstrating mastery.
• Ways to connect the community to school-based structures that provide the personalized, student-centered supports necessary to successfully implement community-connected learning.

Repeated Session: Audience Level: Secondary
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1118 The Power of Productive Group Work

Nancy Frey, San Diego State University, Calif.

The benefits of group work are well documented, but any teacher (or student) can tell you about group work gone wrong—lack of accountability, restless students, unequal workloads, and too little learning for the effort involved. This session will examine how to make group work productive by differentiating tasks, ensuring individual and group accountability, and strategically grouping students. In addition, qualities of meaningful and productive group work will be discussed. Whether supporting teachers or designing group work in your own classroom, these quality indicators are useful for raising learning through collaborative experiences. In this session, participants will

• Gain knowledge about productive group work.
• Apply research-based strategies for organizing, grouping, and assessing group work.
• Use a rubric of quality indicators to examine videos of productive group work.
  
  

Repeated Session: 1218
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: Experienced

1119 Breaking Free from Myths About Teaching and Learning

Allison Zmuda, Education Consultant, Virginia Beach, Va.

The teaching and learning myths that hamper student achievement, engagement, creativity, and ingenuity are both a perception problem in the minds of the learners and a design problem in the systems of schools. The premise of this presentation is that school is not working—not for students, who are bored and disengaged; not for teachers or administrators, who are worn down from serving more purposes; not for college professors, who need to do more remediation with incoming students; and not for employers, who are more deeply concerned about the quality of prospective applicants than ever before.

This presentation focuses on each of the nine myths and how we can break free of them at the classroom, team, school, and district levels. If we treat it as a design problem and a policy concern, then we can make substantive gains in the engagement, joy, challenge, and authenticity of the work for everyone.

Repeated Session: 1219
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

Afternoon Sessions, 1:30–3:30 p.m.

1201 Formative Assessment: The Linchpin for Standards-Based Grading

Mary McDonough, Education Consultant, Centerville, Mass.

Many schools implement standards-based grading to change the way teachers grade students. But the real work begins with formative assessment. In this session, participants will enhance their understanding of formative assessment as a tool for providing feedback on student learning; for grading skill and knowledge; and for using formative assessment to align curriculum, instruction, assessment, and grading.

Repeated Session: 1101
Audience Level: Elementary/Secondary
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1202 The Learning Leader: Leading Across Differences, Insisting Upon Excellence

Karen Dyer, Educational Consultant, Centerville, Mass.

Leading across differences, inclusion, tolerance, and inclusive leadership are key components that all leaders need to understand and embrace as they work to ensure excellence in their schools and districts. This session uses research on social identity as a tool for understanding differences in perspectives and behaviors. Participants will explore leadership responses that contribute to enhanced effectiveness in promoting environments where both students and staff can excel.

Repeated Session: 1102
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1203 Evaluation that's Effective and Efficient

Mary Weck, Education Consultant, Galena, Ill. and Peggy Schooling, York, Pa.

This session will explore an effective and efficient approach to teacher evaluation as a means to strengthen the individual and collective practices of teachers and schools to improve student learning. An effective evaluation process needs a comprehensive and coherent plan that explicitly identifies the purpose and outcomes of the evaluation process. Therefore, an evaluation process will only be as good as the quality of the work the evaluators bring to the process and their ability to maintain fidelity to the process. The participants will learn about developing an evaluation plan based on Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching. During this session, the importance of evaluator training and ongoing supervision and development will be discussed. Evaluation done well is a time-consuming process that can be made more efficient with the use of software designed to help in gathering and reporting data. The iObservation Framework tool and its usefulness for teachers and administrators will be explored in the session.

Repeated Session: 1103
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1204 Less Teaching + More Feedback = Better Learning

Grant Wiggins, ASCD Author and Education Consultant, Hopewell, N.J.

We teach too much; we assess and give feedback too infrequently. Yet the best achievement—in all fields—derives from far more feedback and opportunities to use it. In this session, we will explore how to plan and instruct to ensure optimal achievement via the use of feedback.

Repeated Session: 1104
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1205 Practical Ways to Use the Habits of Mind Within Your Classroom

Karen Boyes, Education Consultant, Wellington, New Zealand

The Habits of Mind are intelligent behaviors identified from successful people. They are as important today as ever before. In this workshop you will examine a wide range of practical, ready-to-use ideas for the classroom that activate in students Art Costa's 16 Habits of Mind.

• Activate the language of the Habits of Mind.
• Empower students to use the Habits of Mind when self-assessing.
• Learn to co-construct criteria for assessment with Success-o-meters.
• Experience activities that engage and teach.
• Create a class theme to engage learners.
• Learn many practical ways to use the Habits of Mind within your classroom.

Repeated Session: 1105
Audience Level: Elementary/Secondary
Audience: Teachers
Session Level: All

1206 What Every School Leader Needs to Know About Response to Intervention

Margaret Searle, Education Consultant, Perrysburg, Ohio

RTI is a commonsense approach to systemic change and improvement.
Where should you start? What does it look like when it is done well? How do you get parents and teachers to get involved without them kicking and screaming all the way? This session will provide practical strategies for successfully implementing a comprehensive RTI system at the elementary, middle, and secondary levels.

• Look at some quick strategies for measuring the effectiveness of programs and interventions.
• Learn techniques for helping teachers design a database of specific research-based interventions.
• Discover a way to have a 20-minute problem-solving meeting that always results in a specific action plan to help parents, staff, and students address key problems.

Repeated Session: 1106
Audience Level: Elementary/Middle/Secondary
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1207 Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life

Baruti Kafele, Education Consultant, Jersey City, N.J.

 The plight of Black males continues to pose a major challenge for educators at all levels—particularly under the demands of No Child Left Behind. This high-energy, interactive session will provide educators with an analysis as well as specific strategies that can be implemented immediately toward effectively motivating their Black male students to strive for academic excellence. This session places a particular emphasis on the students' self-identity and its effect on learning and achievement. Strategies for developing a "Young Men's Empowerment Program" in your school or district will also be discussed. By the conclusion of this session, participants will have learned the following:

• Strategies toward eliminating the "self crisis" in the Black male learner.
• Strategies toward motivating and inspiring the Black male learner.
• Strategies toward raising the achievement levels of the Black male learner.

Repeated Session: 1107
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1208 A Collaborative Approach to Using Teacher Observations for Improved Instruction

Aviva Ebner, Education Consultant, Granada Hills, Calif.

Do those school or district evaluation forms leave everyone feeling a little uncomfortable? Does a snapshot of a teacher's instruction really reflect his or her overall work with the students? In this session, you will learn how teachers and administrators can work together as a team to develop meaningful observation checklists and feedback forms that target differentiated instruction, informal assessments as tools for using data to drive instruction, and best practices that support the growth and development of teacher leaders as invaluable resources.

• You will create a sample checklist and observation form for your school that provides detailed, specific feedback for teachers.
• You will learn how to turn warm-up exercises into assessments that can help drive instruction on a daily basis.
• You will identify teacher leaders at your school and create a plan to support their professional growth in their areas of expertise; as a result, you will be developing resources to support your teachers who need additional help or growth in these areas.

Repeated Session: 1108
Audience Level: Secondary
Audience: School-Based Administrators/Teacher Leaders/Teachers
Session Level: All

1209 The Curriculum Mapping Planner: Templates, Tools, and Strategies for Implementing Curriculum Mapping

Ann Johnson, Education Consultant, Ames, Iowa

What are the four phases of mapping? How can they provide the foundational structure to help you craft a plan and training design that can ensure the successful implementation of curriculum mapping and Curriculum 21?
According to Ann Johnson, curriculum mapping is a commonsense approach to addressing the systemic issue—improving student achievement. When it is implemented in a thoughtful manner, paying attention to everything we know about sustaining lasting change, it can have a dramatic effect on the culture of a school and serve as a vehicle to implement mapping and Curriculum 21. Participants will

• Learn about the four phases of curriculum mapping outlined in the new book by Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Dr. Ann Johnson, The Curriculum Mapping Planner: Templates, Tools, and Resources for Effective Professional Development.
• Have an opportunity to use the templates, tools, and strategies in the book to deepen their understanding of mapping and the connections with Curriculum 21.

Repeated Session: 1109
Audience Level: All
Audience: Superintendents/Central Office Staff/School-Based Administrators/Teacher Leaders
Session Level: All

1210 Improved Outcomes for Underachieving Students Living in Poverty: Leadership Lessons

William Parrett and Kathleen Budge, Boise State University, Idaho

This session focuses on actions taken by leaders in high-performing/high-poverty schools to increase teacher effectiveness and improve outcomes for students living in poverty. These leaders understand that the learning needs of teachers and the learning needs of students represent two sides of the same coin. In order for teachers to be successful with underachieving students who live in poverty, they must:

• Be able to draw from a rich repertoire of instructional approaches,
• Possess the skills necessary to make instructional decisions based on data and sound assessment practices,
• Be confident in their own efficacy and the efficacy of their colleagues to successfully teach all students, and
• Believe in low-income students' ability and willingness to learn.

Participants will learn how leaders create conditions that foster the development of these attributes, by building caring relationships, holding high expectations for all, engendering a spirit of reciprocal accountability for learning among all stakeholders, and courageously committing to equity. The session will include specific approaches used within this broader framework for targeting the unique learning needs of underachieving students who live in poverty, including finding the time to help them catch up and ensuring they have the "gateway" skill of reading proficiently.

Participants will

• Understand how to strategically increase instructional capacity to rapidly accelerate student achievement.
• Enhance the collaborative leadership necessary to develop effective action plans to meet diverse needs of all learners.

Repeated Session: 1110
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1211 Unpacking Common Core State Standards

Janie Ray Smith, Education Consultant, Alexandria, Va. and Carolyn Gwinn, Anoka-Hennepin Independent School District No. 11, Coon Rapids, Minn.

As the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies and Science are being examined across the country by educational stakeholders and beyond, we are called to consider how to unpack them at the district and school levels, design corresponding curriculum, and determine what the curriculum looks like in action in K–12 settings. As part of the process, it is critical to consider not only what is to be taught and how it is organized, but also how it is best taught. In this institute, explore how to unpack the standards and design and implement a meaningful curriculum aligned to the standards. Use case studies to analyze effective standards-based curriculum implementation at the elementary and secondary levels. Insights gained across the institute will be used to create an action plan for unpacking standards and designing and implementing corresponding curriculum tailored to meet the needs of K–12 learners. Participants will

• Increase familiarity with the Common Core Standards,
• Enhance understanding of how to unpack standards and develop corresponding curriculum, and
• Demonstrate an ability to apply understanding to the development of an action plan, possibly including a tailored plan for unpacking standards, designing corresponding curriculum, and implementing curriculum in K–12 classrooms, intended to meet the needs of the audience served.

Repeated Session: 1111
Audience Level: All
Audience: Superintendents/Central Office Staff/School-Based Administrators/Teacher Leaders
Session Level: All

1212 Schoolwide Differentiation and its Powerful Influence on Teacher and Student Success

Lane Narvaez and Carolyn Parham, Conway Elementary, St. Louis, Mo.

Discover how second-order change at one elementary school transformed its approach to teaching and learning. Schoolwide differentiation redefined student success in the minds of teachers, students, and parents through coaching and reflection. This session will also explore the importance of KUDs, pre-assessment, rigor, classroom management, student feedback, and the power of teaming. Lessons containing strategies such as RAFTS, tiered lessons, and ThinkDOTS will be analyzed throughout each stage of development. Teacher reflections about refining their lessons will be shared.

Repeated Session: 1112
Audience Level: Elementary
Audience: School-Based Administrators/Teacher Leaders/Teachers
Session Level: Experienced/Advanced

1213 Guiding the 21st Century Learner Down the Digital Path

Carol O'Connor, Education Consultant, Palm Coast, Fla. and Kristi Thaemlitz, Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District, Houston, Tex.

This captivating workshop will guide teachers through the process of selecting digital media for classroom instruction that enhances and supports curricular objectives in their content areas. Focusing on the need for transnavigation in the 21st century and various technology applications and their possible uses in the classroom, this workshop will provide digital methods of differentiation for all learners, especially at-risk learners. Using digital media to introduce, enhance, or conclude a lesson, the applications will also illustrate the value of appropriate use of social networking in the classroom and the power of podcasting. Teachers will also convert a lesson to one that utilizes technology after analyzing exemplar lessons designed using Wikispaces, Glogster, Movie Maker, Animoto, and Xtranormal. These technology applications can also be used to design products that support learning objectives while also ensuring that students are given the opportunity to think both creatively and critically. Insight and suggestions for check points, grading, and allowing for student choice will also be discussed.

Outcomes for the workshop include the following:

• To utilize technology applications in the classroom to enhance learning for all students, especially at-risk learners, through digital media that directly supports curricular standards and lesson objectives.
  
• To know when to apply technology in the classroom to support and enhance student learning.
  
• To better understand the urgency of leading the at-risk learner in the 21st century down the digital pathway and to integrate differentiation so that the individual learning styles and needs of the students are addressed.

Repeated Session: 1113
Audience Level: Secondary
Audience: Teacher Leaders/Teachers
Session Level: Introductory

1214 A Comprehensive Model for Teacher Reflective Practice

Robert J. Marzano, ASCD Author and Education Consultant, Centennial, Colo.

This session will present a comprehensive model schools and districts can use to engage teachers in reflective practice that pertains to four research-based domains of teacher effectiveness:

• Classroom strategies and behaviors,
• Planning and preparing,
• Reflecting on teaching, and
• Collegiality and professionalism.

Specific techniques will be presented that allow schools and districts to facilitate teacher growth and development.

Repeated Session: 1114
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1215 Engagement and Motivation Strategies for Teachers

Jim Winter, Education Consultant, Chicago, Ill.

Humor, laughter, and improvisation engage the brain and body; reduce stress, anger, and depression; and improve collaboration, productivity, and achievement. Based on brain and education research, this session offers the experience of using humor, laughter, and improvisation to create a positive and engaging climate for all members of the school community. Activities include interactive laughter and improvisational exercises designed to enhance participants' spontaneity and ability to use humor to create a climate for professional learning and healthy living.

Repeated Session: 1115
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1216 Effective Teachers Result in Increased Student Achievement

James H. Stronge, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va.

There is no more powerful school-related influence on student achievement than the teacher. Consider the following:

• Teacher effectiveness is the dominant factor influencing student academic growth.
• Which teacher a student happens to get within a school matters more than which school the student happens to attend.
• A teacher who is in the top 10 percent of effectiveness can achieve with his or her students in half a year what a teacher in the bottom 10 percent can achieve in a full year.
• Two years of effective teachers cannot remediate the achievement loss caused by one year with a poor teacher.

As noted in How the World's Best-Performing School Systems Come Out on Top, an international study comparing data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), "The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers" (Barber & Mourshed, 2007, p. iii). If we want to improve the quality of our schools and positively affect the lives of our students, then we must change the quality of our teaching. We can reform the curriculum but, ultimately, it is teachers who implement it; we can provide professional development on new instructional strategies but, ultimately, it is teachers who deploy them; we can focus on data analysis of student performance but, ultimately, it is teachers who produce the results we are analyzing.

This interactive presentation/workshop will be designed to link research to best practice in terms of how teachers directly affect student achievement. We will explain the value-added effect of teachers and then consider and apply those findings to school improvement and student learning. Simulations and situational in-basket activities will be included in the presentation.

Repeated Session: 1116
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1217 Adolescent Learning That Takes Place Anywhere and Anytime

Joe DiMartino, Education Consultant, West Warwick, R.I.

Active involvement in the community helps to clarify a student's purpose and defines the steps necessary to achieve successful adult roles. For many students, the community in which they live is the ideal location for earning credits needed for graduation in both core and elective courses. This session will provide an overview of how middle and high schools can provide community-connected learning experiences for adolescents, including methods to develop internships, service learning projects, and other vehicles to activate the community as a classroom. Additionally, this session will demonstrate how personalization strategies are essential to the successful and sustainable use of the community as the classroom and will suggest strategies that teachers can use to activate the community in teaching and learning.

The session will be 80 percent interactive and will employ ASCD products that include input from Mr. DiMartino: High Schools at Work video and facilitator's guide, and the ASCD online professional development tool PD In Focus™. The session will also employ Personalizing the High School Experience for Each Student, an ASCD publication by Joe DiMartino and John Clarke. Participants will leave the session with

• Methods to assist students in crafting projects for each student's interest that align with course competencies and that include valid and reliable methods for demonstrating mastery.
• Ways to connect the community to school-based structures that provide the personalized, student-centered supports necessary to successfully implement community-connected learning.

Repeated Session: 1117
Audience Level: Secondary
Audience: All
Session Level: All

1218 The Power of Productive Group Work

Nancy Frey, San Diego State University, Calif.

The benefits of group work are well documented, but any teacher (or student) can tell you about group work gone wrong—lack of accountability, restless students, unequal workloads, and too little learning for the effort involved. This session will examine how to make group work productive by differentiating tasks, ensuring individual and group accountability, and strategically grouping students. In addition, qualities of meaningful and productive group work will be discussed. Whether supporting teachers or designing group work in your own classroom, these quality indicators are useful for raising learning through collaborative experiences. In this session, participants will

• Gain knowledge about productive group work.
• Apply research-based strategies for organizing, grouping, and assessing group work.
• Use a rubric of quality indicators to examine videos of productive group work.

Repeated Session: 1118
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: Experienced

1219 Breaking Free from Myths About Teaching and Learning

Allison Zmuda, Education Consultant, Virginia Beach, Va.

The teaching and learning myths that hamper student achievement, engagement, creativity, and ingenuity are both a perception problem in the minds of the learners and a design problem in the systems of schools. The premise of this presentation is that school is not working—not for students, who are bored and disengaged; not for teachers or administrators, who are worn down from serving more purposes; not for college professors, who need to do more remediation with incoming students; and not for employers, who are more deeply concerned about the quality of prospective applicants than ever before.

This presentation focuses on each of the nine myths and how we can break free of them at the classroom, team, school, and district levels. If we treat it as a design problem and a policy concern, then we can make substantive gains in the engagement, joy, challenge, and authenticity of the work for everyone.

Repeated Session: 1119
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

^ Return to top

Conference Sessions for Saturday, October 29

Saturday Morning Networking Breakfast and Discussion, 7:30–8:15 a.m.

Mobile Technology in the Classroom: Friend or Foe?

Simon Cable and Tim Ito, ASCD, Alexandria, Va.

iPods™, smartphones, and now tablets—many educators believe that these and other devices should be neither seen nor heard once the opening bell rings. But there's no escaping the fact that emerging technologies and today's students are inextricably joined at the hip. This session will explore ways you can take these "distractions" and turn them into fun and effective learning tools.

Second General Session, 8:15–9:30 a.m.

Both Sides of the Classroom

Adora Svitak ,Teacher, Speaker, Activist, and Journalist, Redmond, Wash.

Students have already caught up to the 21st century. Now, teachers can learn from their speed of change. (A 13-year-old who started classroom teaching when her first book was published at age 7, Ms. Svitak has experienced being on both sides of the classroom.) Compare yesterday's students to today's students. Use statistics to compare life in, say, the '60s or '70s to life today—e.g., prevalence of homes with a calculator, TV, radio, or computer; average cost of everyday items—to show that the world has changed. Now education needs to catch up. Teachers should become more innovative and creative, exploring ways to motivate students and get them excited about learning. They can take advantage of engaging technologies like social media and use more democratic classrooms with emphasis on student voice. This session will give concrete positive examples of schools using the above methods. What can teachers learn from students and vice versa? What are the objectives/takeaways? Attendees will develop knowledge of collaborative technologies and web 2.0 technologies (e.g., social networking, Twitter, blogging, wikis), develop fluency in adapting such media for educational purposes, and create plans for empowering students within their own classrooms, using technology.

 

Morning Sessions, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 noon

2101 Developing a Robust Homework Policy

Cathy Vatterott, University of Missouri, St. Louis, Mo., and Bryan Szumlas, Calgary Catholic Separate School District, Alberta, Canada

Homework policies are often vague and general. A robust homework policy addresses the purpose, quality, and amount of homework; the grading of homework; late work; parental guidelines; and weekend, holiday, and summer homework. This workshop will demonstrate how to use input from teachers, students, and parents and other data to design a customized policy that balances standardization with teacher freedom. Participants will review homework policies from K–12 districts and discuss possible obstacles in policy design and implementation. Templates for the design and implementation process will be shared.

Outcomes:

• Participants will appreciate the role of homework policies in supporting homework reform.
• Participants will become aware of the breadth of data that should inform the design of a homework policy.
• Participants will review sample homework policies.

Repeated Session: 2201
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2102 Working with Advanced Learners in Differentiation

Maria Molina, Education Consultant, Miami, Fla.

Explore how differentiated instruction meets the needs of all learners. In this session, you will learn to understand the needs of advanced learners. We will discuss principles that are useful when teaching them to learn for growth, as well as strategies for differentiating content that will challenge these students.

Participants will

• Understand the rationale of how advanced learners need to be focused on learning for growth.
• Acquire a few strategies that will meet the needs of advanced learners when differentiating content.

Repeated Session: 2202
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2103 Inviting Students to Learn: 100 Tips for Talking Effectively with Your Students

Jenny Edwards, Fielding Graduate University, Evergreen, Colo.

In today's society, it is critical that all students achieve at their highest levels. The language that teachers use powerfully affects students' ability to learn. In this seminar, you will learn strategies for influencing the way that students think about themselves, learning, and their ability to achieve. Studies have shown the results of teacher language on student learning, as well as the importance of creating an inviting learning environment. This seminar is based on Ms. Edwards' ASCD book Inviting Students to Learn: 100 Tips for Talking Effectively with Your Students. 

Participants will

• Explore the thought patterns behind what they say to students.
• Discover strategies for creating an inviting environment in which students will learn.
• Experiment with language patterns to help all students achieve and make plans to use them with students.

Repeated Session: 2203
Audience Level: All
Audience: Teacher Leaders/Teachers
Session Level: All

2104 Leading Change in Professional Learning Communities

Deborah Wortham, School District of the City of York, Pa.

This session will reveal the critical components in improving student achievement through the implementation of professional learning communities. This approach is for total school reform and intended for those who need strategies for moving schools/districts forward.

Repeated Session: 2204
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2105 Leadership: Old Myths and New Realities

Phyllis Pajardo, Fairfax County Public Schools, Va.

How do you define leadership? What do you know about leadership capacity, instructional leadership, and leadership responsibilities? This session will explore the myths and realities of several leadership theories. Examine how leadership styles have personal and professional impact.

Repeated Session: 2205
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2106 Engagement with the Brain in Mind

Eric Jensen, Education Consultant, Maunaloa, Hawaii

This idea-packed session gives you three dozen classroom-tested and highly practical strategies you can use immediately. These are easy to use and feasible for every teacher and provider. You'll learn how to get sustainable engagement for the whole child in every class. You'll discover how to involve even the discouraged, hostile, or apathetic student. Each research-based strategy is role-modeled, highly adaptable, and debriefed for instant application at your school. You'll also get handouts with bonus strategies. Included:

• Learn an exciting new model of why kids fail to engage.
• Discover the critical "drivers" of student behavior and how to activate them.
• Get specific, research-based strategies that staff can implement immediately.
• Hear the insider secrets of how teachers can engage every student, every day, in any school.

Repeated Session: 2206
Audience Level: Elementary/Secondary
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2107 Language Development for English Language Learners: What's Leadership Got to Do with It?

Jane D. Hill, Education Consultant, Denver, Colo.

Jane has been delivering ELL strategy and leadership workshops for the past three years. McREL knows effective use of strategies with ELLs is no longer enough; it takes leadership to develop a community of shared beliefs and leadership to manage change. If we are to assist all regular classroom teachers in becoming teachers of language development, we should pay attention to purposes and outcomes that matter to all and the effect change will have on implementers.

This session for K–12 administrators and teachers combines hands-on strategies from Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners, by Hill and Flynn, with research-based leadership practices detailed by Waters and Marzano in School Leadership That Works. Through various types of group interaction, participants will apply tools and processes to deepen their understanding of how to employ leadership strategies to support all teachers in becoming teachers of language development. As participants, you will

• Understand the importance of assisting teachers in becoming teachers of language development by gaining awareness of the relationship between a taxonomy and stages of second language acquisition.
• Deepen knowledge about the value of developing a purposeful community, including purposes/outcomes that matter to all and collective efficacy.
• Understand the importance of managing change, including first- and second-order implications and personal transitions.

Repeated Session: 2207
Audience Level: Elementary/Secondary
Audience: Central Office Staff/ School-Based Administrators/Teacher Leaders
Session Level: All

2108 Teacher Leadership That Strengthens Professional Practice

CANCELED

Karyn Wright, Education Consultant, Las Vegas, Nev.

Charlotte Danielson defines teacher leadership as "teachers who informally and voluntarily lead efforts that mobilize colleagues in efforts to increase student learning. These are teachers who are committed to their work as teachers and, in addition, are willing to lead school-based improvement efforts. Informal teacher leaders, in addition to their work as exemplary teachers of their students, provide much of the professional energy required by excellent schools to pursue a path of ongoing improvement."

This session is designed for teachers who demonstrate the characteristics of teacher leaders described in Teacher Leadership that Strengthens Professional Practice (2006), by Charlotte Danielson and published by ASCD. These teachers demonstrate leadership skills and dispositions, but have no ambitions to become administrators. They don't even aspire to formal teacher leadership positions, such as department chair or instructional coach. However, they are undeniably leaders, but may not have yet acquired the knowledge of skills to serve in a leadership role with their colleagues. This session is designed to provide that perspective and knowledge.

As a result of attending this session, participants will

• Understand the framework for teacher leadership.
• Identify how teacher leadership is manifested in their particular settings.
• Acquire the knowledge necessary to provide leadership in schoolwide policies and programs, teaching and learning, and communications and community relations.
• Design a project for which they assume a leadership role in their own schools.

Repeated Session: 2208
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2109 Building Teacher Effectiveness through Data and Assessment Literacy

Jennifer Morrison, Education Consultant, Newberry College, S.C.

Data are like fish. The saying goes “give a man a fish and he eats for a day.” In the same way, give a teacher data and he may be effective for a day; teach him how to gather the data he needs and he will be effective for a lifetime. One of the best ways to improve and sustain teacher effectiveness is through the development of data and assessment literacy. Today’s emphasis on data can either reinforce deprofessionalization or make teachers the masters of their own classrooms and creators of significant, student-centered learning. Data literacy gives teachers a daily, classroom-based lens through which to view data, ask questions of it, and use it to inform and improve practice.

Participants will consider the connections between assessment, data, and teacher effectiveness; reflect on current school and classroom data use; and build on current data and assessment practices to improve data literacy in individual classrooms and across schools.

Repeated Session: 2209
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2110 Relationships Matter: Put the Teacher First and Student Results Will Follow

Angela Seiders, Tabb High School, Yorktown, Va., and Jennifer Hindman, Education Consultant, Williamsburg, Va.

How do you describe your school—struggling, improving, successful, hardworking, tired, energized, student-focused, or a combination of terms? This session focuses on cultivating strong working relationships between teachers and instructional leaders (principals, assistant principals, supervisors, and teacher leaders). Highly effective instructional leaders have schools where learning gains are evident, staff loyalty abounds, and others are inspired. They have invested time in creating schools with positive environments. They get results with diverse learners in challenging situations by deploying innovative approaches tempered by maintaining what is already working. Their approaches, tools, and strategies can be adapted by participants. In this interactive session, research-based ideas from the field will be modeled for use or adaptation to participants' settings to positively influence the climate and student achievement within their schools.

Key outcomes include:

• Strategies for immediate implementation.
• Considerations and ideas from the field shared with participants for adaptation.
• Shifting the focus from tests to students through actions.

Repeated Session: 2210
Audience Level: Secondary
Audience: School-Based Administrators
Session Level: Introductory

2111 Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works

Elizabeth Ross Hubbell, Education Technology Consultant, Denver, Colo.

Tablets such as iPads® have the potential to change our classrooms into the dynamic, differentiated, engaging learning environments that we envision, but only if teachers have an understanding of how these tools can be used to enable and enhance the use of research-based instructional strategies. Based on Classroom Instruction that Works (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001) and Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007), participants will first gain an understanding of the research behind the nine categories of instructional strategies as well as how student grouping, targeting ascending levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, and varying the evidences of learning creates environments that best prepare today's students for tomorrow. Each strategy will be followed by a demonstration of applications from Apple's iTunes® store that can be used on iPads, iPhones®, or the iPod Touch® and how these apps are integrated into pedagogy.

Outcomes:

• Participants will gain an understanding of the nine categories of strategies from Classroom Instruction that Works.
• Participants will see how student grouping, Bloom's Taxonomy, and evidence of learning allows for differentiation.
• Participants will learn how to use apps to implement the strategies.

Repeated Session: 2211
Audience Level: Elementary/Secondary
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2112 What Adult Learners Really Need: Maximizing the Effect of Successful Professional Development

Karen Dyer, Education Consultant, Greensboro, N.C.

Critical to the success of professional development that is tied to results is an understanding and appreciation of the needs of the adult learner. Participants can expect to be highly engaged in a review of applied research and conversations about best practices in identifying those factors that contribute to enhanced professional learning for adult learners.


Repeated Session: 2212
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2113 Tools and Teaching Strategies that Foster Student Learning

Pam Robbins, Education Consultant, Mt. Crawford, Va.

This session is designed to provide useful tools that can be embedded in professional learning community or school improvement team meetings. Participants will practice approaches to problem solving, decision-making strategies, and techniques for analyzing data. In addition, factors that negatively influence teamwork will be identified and solution strategies offered. The session will also employ the use of scenarios to engage participants in problem-solving team dilemmas. They will leave the session with a handout of practical tools they can use in their own team meetings. Participants will have the opportunity to

• Analyze the stages of team development.
• Practice tools that facilitate change.
• Explore learning-focused strategies for working with difficult people.

Repeated Session: 2213
Audience Level: Elementary/Secondary
Audience: All
Session Level: Introductory

2114 Designing and Implementing a Comprehensive K-12 Vocabulary Program

Robert J. Marzano, ASCD Author and Education Consultant, Centennial, Colo.

This session will describe the steps necessary to design and implement a comprehensive K-12 vocabulary program that meets the needs of both English language learners and students with English as their native language. Specific strategies will be provided at the classroom level and at the school or district level.

Repeated Session: 2214
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2115 Differentiation Grows Up: How Teachers Mature in the Practice of Differentiation

Carol Ann Tomlinson, ASCD Author, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and Marcia Imbeau, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

Although we sometimes talk about teachers who "do differentiate instruction" and those who "don't differentiate," the reality is that almost all teachers attend to students as individuals in some ways and few teachers have fully differentiated classrooms. It's important for both teachers and administrators to understand how teachers might progress in the practice of differentiation in order to encourage persistent growth in attending to student variance in the classroom. In this session, we'll look at a growth in differentiation with the goal of understanding how to encourage one's own growth in responsive teaching as well as the growth of others. As a result of the session, participants will

• Better understand why it's difficult for many teachers to incorporate differentiation in their classroom routines.
• Develop a framework for thinking about development of differentiation skills.
• Better understand what encourages and discourages teacher growth in differentiation.
• Analyze examples of differentiation at various stages of teacher development.

Repeated Session: 2215
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: Experienced

2116 Engagement and Motivation Strategies for Students to Support Learning

Jim Winter, Education Consultant, Chicago, Ill.

Discover how to use the research-based benefits of humor to engage students in learning, enhance concept attainment and retention, reduce stress and depression, and create a climate conducive to discipline and achievement. Based on brain and education research, this session introduces participants to activities that include improvisational exercises using the kinesthetic and dramatic arts, as well as interactive laughter exercises and humorous approaches to learning that enhance attitude, aptitude, atmosphere, and achievement.

Repeated Session: 2216
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2117 Effective School Leadership for Urban Schools

Baruti Kafele, Education Consultant, Jersey City, N.J.

The role of the principal is the most important role in the building! When the principal is effective, the school soars. In this high-energy, highly interactive session, nationally renowned principal Baruti Kafele discusses the characteristics of an effective urban principal, while outlining what he did to lead the transformation of four low-performing urban New Jersey public schools over the past 13 years. In his discussion on effective principal leadership, he argues that before we can focus on the achievement gap, we must focus on the learning gap, the attitude gap, the relationship gap, the relevance gap, and the opportunity gap. When these other gaps are adequately addressed, the achievement gap becomes a non-issue, he contends.

Repeated Session: 2217
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2118 Student Achievement Goal Setting: Using Data to Improve Teacher Effectiveness and Student Learning

James H. Stronge, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va.

How can student achievement data be used to set goals and incorporate the goal-setting process into the overall classroom assessment process? School districts across the country have struggled with how to include student achievement in both student learning and teacher performance assessment/improvement. This process honors both the needs of the curriculum and the needs of the student, thereby making the process individual for each teacher based on the context in which he or she teaches, leading to fair and equitable assessment of a teacher's important work. This professional development option is built upon a research-based and field-tested formula for school improvement.

Repeated Session: 2218
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2119 High Expectations for ALL Students: Strategies That Work

Jean Conyers, Seabrook Island, S.C.

Setting high expectations, communicating high expectations, and teaching students tools for success are all components of creating a learning environment in which all students achieve to their highest potential. In this workshop, you will

• Learn key ways that teachers communicate expectations to affect student learning.
• Gain strategies to increase expectations for all students.
• Gain instructional strategies to ensure that all students achieve high expectations.
• Learn specific approaches to teach students tools for learning.

Repeated Session: 2219
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2120 Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTI²)

Doug Fisher, San Diego State University, Calif.

Pick up any education journal, scan any conference program, even eavesdrop on a conversation between educators, and you're likely to see or hear RTI mentioned. But how can RTI help students and schools improve? We have focused on how students respond to instruction and intervention such that resources are aligned with student success. This requires that we examine quality core instruction (tier 1), supplemental interventions through the strategic use of questions, prompts, and cues (tier 2), and intensive interventions that build student confidence and competence (tier 3). In this session, we will

• Identify components of quality core instruction.
• Define guided instruction, including robust questions, prompts, and cues.
• Analyze teaching videos to determine needed interventions.
• Explore a feed-forward model for taking action on formative assessments.

Repeated Session: 2220
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

Afternoon Breakout Sessions, 1:30–3:30 p.m.

2201 Developing a Robust Homework Policy

Cathy Vatterott, University of Missouri, St. Louis, Mo., and Bryan Szumlas, Calgary Catholic Separate School District, Alberta, Canada

Homework policies are often vague and general. A robust homework policy addresses the purpose, quality, and amount of homework; the grading of homework; late work; parental guidelines; and weekend, holiday, and summer homework. This workshop will demonstrate how to use input from teachers, students, and parents and other data to design a customized policy that balances standardization with teacher freedom. Participants will review homework policies from K–12 districts and discuss possible obstacles in policy design and implementation. Templates for the design and implementation process will be shared.

Outcomes:

• Participants will appreciate the role of homework policies in supporting homework reform.
• Participants will become aware of the breadth of data that should inform the design of a homework policy.
• Participants will review sample homework policies.

Repeated Session: 2101
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2202 Working with Advanced Learners in Differentiation

Maria Molina, Education Consultant, Miami, Fla.

Explore how differentiated instruction meets the needs of all learners. In this session, you will learn to understand the needs of advanced learners. We will discuss principles that are useful when teaching them to learn for growth, as well as strategies for differentiating content that will challenge these students.

Participants will

• Understand the rationale of how advanced learners need to be focused on learning for growth.
• Acquire a few strategies that will meet the needs of advanced learners when differentiating content.

Repeated Session: 2102
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2203 Inviting Students to Learn: 100 Tips for Talking Effectively with Your Students

Jenny Edwards, Fielding Graduate University, Evergreen, Colo.

In today's society, it is critical that all students achieve at their highest levels. The language that teachers use powerfully affects students' ability to learn. In this seminar, you will learn strategies for influencing the way that students think about themselves, learning, and their ability to achieve. Studies have shown the results of teacher language on student learning, as well as the importance of creating an inviting learning environment. This seminar is based on Ms. Edwards' ASCD book Inviting Students to Learn: 100 Tips for Talking Effectively with Your Students. Participants will

• Explore the thought patterns behind what they say to students.
• Discover strategies for creating an inviting environment in which students will learn.
• Experiment with language patterns to help all students achieve and make plans to use them with students.

Repeated Session: 2103
Audience Level: All
Audience: Teacher Leaders/Teachers
Session Level: All

2204 Leading Change in Professional Learning Communities

Deborah Wortham, School District of the City of York, Pa.

This session will reveal the critical components in improving student achievement through the implementation of professional learning communities. This approach is for total school reform and intended for those who need strategies for moving schools/districts forward.

Repeated Session: 2104
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2205 Leadership: Old Myths and New Realities

Phyllis Pajardo, Fairfax County Public Schools, Va.

How do you define leadership? What do you know about leadership capacity, instructional leadership, and leadership responsibilities? This session will explore the myths and realities of several leadership theories. Examine how leadership styles have personal and professional impact.

Repeated Session: 2105
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2206 Engagement with the Brain in Mind

Eric Jensen, Education Consultant, Maunaloa, Hawaii

This idea-packed session gives you three dozen classroom-tested and highly practical strategies you can use immediately. These are easy to use and feasible for every teacher and provider. You'll learn how to get sustainable engagement for the whole child in every class. You'll discover how to involve even the discouraged, hostile, or apathetic student. Each research-based strategy is role-modeled, highly adaptable, and debriefed for instant application at your school. You'll also get handouts with bonus strategies. Included:

• Learn an exciting new model of why kids fail to engage.
• Discover the critical "drivers" of student behavior and how to activate them.
• Get specific, research-based strategies that staff can implement immediately.
• Hear the insider secrets of how teachers can engage every student, every day, in any school.

Repeated Session: 2106
Audience Level: Elementary/Secondary
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2207 Language Development for English Language Learners: What's Leadership Got to Do with It?

Jane D. Hill, Education Consultant, Denver, Colo.

Jane has been delivering ELL strategy and leadership workshops for the past three years. McREL knows effective use of strategies with ELLs is no longer enough; it takes leadership to develop a community of shared beliefs and leadership to manage change. If we are to assist all regular classroom teachers in becoming teachers of language development, we should pay attention to purposes and outcomes that matter to all and the effect change will have on implementers.

This session for K–12 administrators and teachers combines hands-on strategies from Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners, by Hill and Flynn, with research-based leadership practices detailed by Waters and Marzano in School Leadership That Works. Through various types of group interaction, participants will apply tools and processes to deepen their understanding of how to employ leadership strategies to support all teachers in becoming teachers of language development. As participants, you will

• Understand the importance of assisting teachers in becoming teachers of language development by gaining awareness of the relationship between a taxonomy and stages of second language acquisition.
• Deepen knowledge about the value of developing a purposeful community, including purposes/outcomes that matter to all and collective efficacy.
• Understand the importance of managing change; including first- and second-order implications and personal transitions.

Repeated Session: 2107
Audience Level: Elementary/Secondary
Audience: Central Office Staff/ School-Based Administrators/Teacher Leaders
Session Level: All

2208 Teacher Leadership That Strengthens Professional Practice

Karyn Wright, Education Consultant, Las Vegas, Nev.

Charlotte Danielson defines teacher leadership as "teachers who informally and voluntarily lead efforts that mobilize colleagues in efforts to increase student learning. These are teachers who are committed to their work as teachers and, in addition, are willing to lead school-based improvement efforts. Informal teacher leaders, in addition to their work as exemplary teachers of their students, provide much of the professional energy required by excellent schools to pursue a path of ongoing improvement."

This session is designed for teachers who demonstrate the characteristics of teacher leaders described in Teacher Leadership that Strengthens Professional Practice (2006), by Charlotte Danielson and published by ASCD. These teachers demonstrate leadership skills and dispositions, but have no ambitions to become administrators. They don't even aspire to formal teacher leadership positions, such as department chair or instructional coach. However, they are undeniably leaders, but may not have yet acquired the knowledge of skills to serve in a leadership role with their colleagues. This session is designed to provide that perspective and knowledge.

As a result of attending this session, participants will

• Understand the framework for teacher leadership.
• Identify how teacher leadership is manifested in their particular settings.
• Acquire the knowledge necessary to provide leadership in schoolwide policies and programs, teaching and learning, and communications and community relations.
• Design a project for which they assume a leadership role in their own schools.

Repeated Session: 2108
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2209 Building Teacher Effectiveness through Data and Assessment Literacy

Jennifer Morrison, Education Consultant, Newberry College, S.C.

Data are like fish. The saying goes “give a man a fish and he eats for a day.” In the same way, give a teacher data and he may be effective for a day; teach him how to gather the data he needs and he will be effective for a lifetime. One of the best ways to improve and sustain teacher effectiveness is through the development of data and assessment literacy. Today’s emphasis on data can either reinforce deprofessionalization or make teachers the masters of their own classrooms and creators of significant, student-centered learning. Data literacy gives teachers a daily, classroom-based lens through which to view data, ask questions of it, and use it to inform and improve practice.

Participants will consider the connections between assessment, data, and teacher effectiveness; reflect on current school and classroom data use; and build on current data and assessment practices to improve data literacy in individual classrooms and across schools.

Repeated Session: 2109
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2210 Relationships Matter: Put the Teacher First and Student Results Will Follow

Angela Seiders, Tabb High School, Yorktown, Va., and Jennifer Hindman, Education Consultant, Williamsburg, Va.

How do you describe your school—struggling, improving, successful, hardworking, tired, energized, student-focused, or a combination of terms? This session focuses on cultivating strong working relationships between teachers and instructional leaders (principals, assistant principals, supervisors, and teacher leaders). Highly effective instructional leaders have schools where learning gains are evident, staff loyalty abounds, and others are inspired. They have invested time in creating schools with positive environments. They get results with diverse learners in challenging situations by deploying innovative approaches tempered by maintaining what is already working. Their approaches, tools, and strategies can be adapted by participants. In this interactive session, research-based ideas from the field will be modeled for use or adaptation to participants' settings to positively influence the climate and student achievement within their schools.

Key outcomes include:

• Strategies for immediate implementation.
• Considerations and ideas from the field shared with participants for adaptation.
• Shifting the focus from tests to students through actions.

Repeated Session: 2110
Audience Level: Secondary
Audience: School-Based Administrators
Session Level: Introductory

2211 Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works

Elizabeth Ross Hubbell, Education Technology Consultant, Denver, Colo.

Tablets such as iPads® have the potential to change our classrooms into the dynamic, differentiated, engaging learning environments that we envision, but only if teachers have an understanding of how these tools can be used to enable and enhance the use of research-based instructional strategies. Based on Classroom Instruction that Works (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001) and Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007), participants will first gain an understanding of the research behind the nine categories of instructional strategies as well as how student grouping, targeting ascending levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, and varying the evidences of learning creates environments that best prepare today's students for tomorrow. Each strategy will be followed by a demonstration of applications from Apple's iTunes® store that can be used on iPads, iPhones®, or the iPod Touch® and how these apps are integrated into pedagogy.

Outcomes:

• Participants will gain an understanding of the nine categories of strategies from Classroom Instruction that Works.
• Participants will see how student grouping, Bloom's Taxonomy, and evidence of learning allows for differentiation.
• Participants will learn how to use apps to implement the strategies.

Repeated Session: 2111
Audience Level: Elementary/Secondary
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2212 What Adult Learners Really Need: Maximizing the Effect of Successful Professional Development

Karen Dyer, Education Consultant, Greensboro, N.C.

Critical to the success of professional development that is tied to results is an understanding and appreciation of the needs of the adult learner. Participants can expect to be highly engaged in a review of applied research and conversations about best practices in identifying those factors that contribute to enhanced professional learning for adult learners.


Repeated Session: 2112
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2213 Tools and Teaching Strategies that Foster Student Learning

Pam Robbins, Education Consultant, Mt. Crawford, Va.

This session is designed to provide useful tools that can be embedded in professional learning community or school improvement team meetings. Participants will practice approaches to problem solving, decision-making strategies, and techniques for analyzing data. In addition, factors that negatively influence teamwork will be identified and solution strategies offered. The session will also employ the use of scenarios to engage participants in problem-solving team dilemmas. They will leave the session with a handout of practical tools they can use in their own team meetings. Participants will have the opportunity to

• Analyze the stages of team development.
• Practice tools that facilitate change.
• Explore learning-focused strategies for working with difficult people.

Repeated Session: 2113
Audience Level: Elementary/Secondary
Audience: All
Session Level: Introductory

2214 Designing and Implementing a Comprehensive K-12 Vocabulary Program

Robert J. Marzano, ASCD Author and Education Consultant, Centennial, Colo.

This session will describe the steps necessary to design and implement a comprehensive K–12 vocabulary program that meets the needs of both English language learners and students with English as their native language. Specific strategies will be provided at the classroom level and at the school or district level.

Repeated Session: 2114
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2215 Differentiation Grows Up: How Teachers Mature in the Practice of Differentiation

Carol Ann Tomlinson, ASCD Author, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and Marcia Imbeau, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

Although we sometimes talk about teachers who "do differentiate instruction" and those who "don't differentiate," the reality is that almost all teachers attend to students as individuals in some ways and few teachers have fully differentiated classrooms. It's important for both teachers and administrators to understand how teachers might progress in the practice of differentiation in order to encourage persistent growth in attending to student variance in the classroom. In this session, we'll look at a growth in differentiation with the goal of understanding how to encourage one's own growth in responsive teaching as well as the growth of others. As a result of the session, participants will

• Better understand why it's difficult for many teachers to incorporate differentiation in their classroom routines.
• Develop a framework for thinking about development of differentiation skills.
• Better understand what encourages and discourages teacher growth in differentiation.
• Analyze examples of differentiation at various stages of teacher development.

Repeated Session: 2115
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: Experienced

2216 Engagement and Motivation Strategies for Students to Support Learning

Jim Winter, Education Consultant, Chicago, Ill.

Discover how to use the research-based benefits of humor to engage students in learning, enhance concept attainment and retention, reduce stress and depression, and create a climate conducive to discipline and achievement.
Based on brain and education research, this session introduces participants to activities that include improvisational exercises using the kinesthetic and dramatic arts, as well as interactive laughter exercises and humorous approaches to learning that enhance attitude, aptitude, atmosphere, and achievement.

Repeated Session: 2116
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2217 Effective School Leadership for Urban Schools

Baruti Kafele, Education Consultant, Jersey City, N.J.

The role of the principal is the most important role in the building! When the principal is effective, the school soars. In this high-energy, highly interactive session, nationally renowned principal Baruti Kafele discusses the characteristics of an effective urban principal, while outlining what he did to lead the transformation of four low-performing urban New Jersey public schools over the past 13 years. In his discussion on effective principal leadership, he argues that before we can focus on the achievement gap, we must focus on the learning gap, the attitude gap, the relationship gap, the relevance gap, and the opportunity gap. When these other gaps are adequately addressed, the achievement gap becomes a non-issue, he contends.

Repeated Session: 2117
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2218 Student Achievement Goal Setting: Using Data to Improve Teacher Effectiveness and Student Learning

James H. Stronge, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va.

How can student achievement data be used to set goals and incorporate the goal-setting process into the overall classroom assessment process? School districts across the country have struggled with how to include student achievement in both student learning and teacher performance assessment/improvement. This process honors both the needs of the curriculum and the needs of the student, thereby making the process individual for each teacher based on the context in which he or she teaches, leading to fair and equitable assessment of a teacher's important work. This professional development option is built upon a research-based and field-tested formula for school improvement.

Repeated Session: 2118
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2219 High Expectations for ALL Students: Strategies That Work

Jean Conyers, Seabrook Island, S.C.

Setting high expectations, communicating high expectations, and teaching students tools for success are all components of creating a learning environment in which all students achieve to their highest potential. In this workshop, you will

• Learn key ways that teachers communicate expectations to affect student learning.
• Gain strategies to increase expectations for all students.
• Gain instructional strategies to ensure that all students achieve high expectations.
• Learn specific approaches to teach students tools for learning.

Repeated Session: 2119
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

2220 Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTI²)

Doug Fisher, San Diego State University, Calif.

Pick up any education journal, scan any conference program, even eavesdrop on a conversation between educators, and you're likely to see or hear RTI mentioned. But how can RTI help students and schools improve? We have focused on how students respond to instruction and intervention such that resources are aligned with student success. This requires that we examine quality core instruction (tier 1), supplemental interventions through the strategic use of questions, prompts, and cues (tier 2), and intensive interventions that build student confidence and competence (tier 3). In this session, we will

• Identify components of quality core instruction.
• Define guided instruction, including robust questions, prompts, and cues.
• Analyze teaching videos to determine needed interventions.
• Explore a feed-forward model for taking action on formative assessments.

Repeated Session: 2120
Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

Conference Sessions for Sunday, October 30

Closing General Session, 8:15–9:30 a.m.

Technology Integration Best Practices from Successful Classrooms

Cindy Johanson, Edutopia/The George Lucas Educational Foundation, San Rafael, Calif.

By the time today's students graduate from high school, they will have been exposed to more information than their grandparents were in a lifetime. What's more, they enjoy previously unheard-of opportunities to create, collaborate, and share their own content both inside and outside the classroom. During this keynote, the George Lucas Educational Foundation shares some of the best, most cutting-edge approaches to integrate technology into the curriculum in order to create a student-centered learning environment, increase student motivation, and raise student achievement. Better yet, the multimedia session will showcase Edutopia's "Schools That Work" series, offering practical "how-to" advice from those who have been innovating and implementing technology-rich programs at the classroom, school, and district levels. Find out what's possible, what's working, and how you can share in the success of some of America's most innovative classrooms!

Outcomes:

• Video profiles of real-world schools with technology-enriched education.
• Tips and strategies for bringing similar efforts to your school or district.

Morning Breakout Sessions,10:00–12:00 noon

3101 Project-Based Learning that Aligns with Standards, Builds 21st Century Skills, and Engages Students in Meaningful Learning

Alfred Solis, Buck Institute for Education, Novato, Calif.

This session will explore the what, why, and how of effective Project-Based Learning (PBL). In an interactive presentation, participants will discuss the need for PBL in 21st century education, then learn about the Buck Institute for Education's research-based and experience-tested PBL design process. This process includes developing ideas for standards-aligned authentic projects, writing a Driving Question, planning an Entry Event, teaching and assessing both content knowledge and 21st century skills, and managing student teams to conduct inquiry and create high-quality products and presentations. Sample projects, planning forms, and other tools will be provided.

Outcomes:

• Understand the rationale for using PBL as an instructional strategy.
• Understand the features of effective PBL.
• Know how to begin designing a project.

Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: Introductory

3102 Principals and Teachers: Partners in Leadership

Phyllis Pajardo, Fairfax County Public Schools, Va.

What happens when principals and teachers are involved in the work of leadership? Come and hear selected stories in which principals and teacher leaders became partners in leadership. Learn about the results of these collaborative efforts and how you might be able to further enhance your collaborative partnerships.

Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

3103 Teaching Self-Regulation Through Nine Strategies in Interactive Notebooks

Jane Pollock, Education Consultant, Centennial Colo.

The participants will learn that the recognizable nine high-yield strategies are for the students to use in every lesson. Learn how to blend the nine strategies with Interactive Notebooks to make gains and improve learning habits.

• Learn about corroborating research from 2009 about the nine high-yield strategies.
• Learn to adapt Interactive Notebooks to explicitly require the nine strategies for students to use as self-regulating techniques to improve their learning in preparation for college and careers.

Audience Level: All
Audience: Teacher Leaders/Teachers
Session Level : All

3104 Understanding Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom

Doug Fisher, San Diego State University, Calif.

Much like the mariner in the ancient "rime" who says "water, water everywhere," teachers are awash in a resource that isn't as helpful as might be expected. Most schools and districts have more assessment data than ever before. There is more information about individual students at teachers' fingertips than could have been imagined a decade ago. But what should school systems do? The solution is twofold. First, we have to understand the components of a feedback system that affects student understanding. And second, we have to align the multiple measures that are available to use and create a system of data collection, analysis, and effective techniques that results in higher levels of student achievement.

• Participants will identify the components of a formative assessment system that includes feed-up, feedback, and feed-forward.
• Participants will assess their school or district efforts in creating a formative assessment system.
• Participants will evaluate a number of tools useful in formative assessments, including oral language, questioning, writing, and projects.

Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

3105 Classroom Instruction That Works for English Language Learners

Jane Hill, Education Consultant, Denver, Colo.

This session views the nine categories of research-based instructional strategies first identified in Classroom Instruction That Works (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001) through a filter of five stages of language acquisition. The result is applications that allow mainstream K–12 teachers to successfully engage ELLs. Many educators believe "it's just good teaching" when it comes to implementing ELL strategies, but it's more than just good teaching, it's effective instruction with oral language development as the focus. During this three-hour workshop, the following information/strategies are covered: Introduction to the Research, Stages of Second Language Acquisition, Cues and Questions, and Setting Objectives. Before attending, participants should read the Classroom Instruction That Works chapters "Cues and Questions" and "Setting Objectives." This background knowledge is a necessary component because the workshop will concentrate on the ELL applications for the strategies delivered by one of the authors, Jane Hill. As participants, you will

• Understand how McREL identified strategies to enhance student achievement.
• Learn about the importance of the stages of second language acquisition and their instructional implications.
• Learn strategies for engaging English language learners in K–12 mainstream classrooms.

Audience Level: All
Audience: Teachers
Session Level: All

3106 Frequently Asked Questions about Differentiation

Carol Ann Tomlinson, ASCD Author and Education Consultant, University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Questions teachers and administrators ask about differentiated instruction are remarkably similar across settings. This session will provide some answers to a number of the most commonly asked questions and will also provide participants with an opportunity to ask additional questions important to their understanding and work. Among topics addressed in the session are: standards and differentiation, fairness and differentiation, grading and differentiation, and the appropriateness of differentiation at various grades and in various subjects. As a result of the session, participants should

• Develop a deeper understanding of key elements related to differentiation.
• Address some common misunderstandings about differentiation.
• Explore questions of personal interest related to differentiation.

Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

3107 Creating Highly Engaging Learning Environments: Strategies for Success

Jean Conyers, Seabrook Island, S.C.

This workshop presents the most promising instructional strategies for engaging students based on the strongest research and theory available. Explore key questions students ask themselves, the answers to which help you determine how engaged they are in classroom activities. In this practical workshop, you will

• Gain instructional strategies for engaging students based on current research and theory.
• Learn methods for engaging students through establishing positive relationships between you and your students.
• Connect classroom goals to students' personal goals.
• Learn approaches to helping students monitor their own learning.
• Understand how to build a sense of self-efficacy in your students.

Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

3108 The Process of Transforming a School Through Professional Learning Communities

Deborah Wortham, School District of the City of York, Pa.

This session will depict the process involved in school/district improvement. Participants will engage in experiencing concrete strategies to use professional learning communities as framework for total school improvement.

Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

3109 Learning from Lincoln: Leadership Lessons for School Success

Pam Robbins, Education Consultant, Mt. Crawford, Va.

This session, based on Learning from Lincoln (ASCD, August 2010), is designed to provide school leaders with success strategies for their daily work. Participants will have the opportunity to explore Lincoln's leadership practices through examples of his actions, prior to and during his presidency. Then, the implications for leading in the 21st century will be delineated. Participants will analyze a framework of ten themes associated with Lincoln's example that have profound implications for school leadership and school success. The objective of this session is to invite school leaders to become authentic leaders guided by historical events that connect with and address present-day challenges.

Outcomes: Participants will have the opportunity to

• Analyze a framework of 10 leadership practices linked to school success.
• Practice habits of mind such as reflection, analysis, and synthesis as they explore scenarios and derive implications for their own work as leaders.

Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

3110 Three Myths About High Expectations

Robyn Jackson, Education Consultant, Washington, D.C.

We all know that we need to have high expectations for students, but our expectations are often compromised by three persistent myths. Learn what these myths are, how to overcome these myths, and the secret to developing, communicating, and sustaining high expectations for all your students.

Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

3111 Teach Less, Learn More, Think Well: Teaching with 21st Century Skills

Robin Fogarty, Education Consultant, Chicago, Ill. 

This session captures the spirit of 21st Century futures thinking. In describing the active, engaged classroom, it asks the question, "Who's doing the talking?" Participants discover teacher-friendly ways to utilize problem-based learning, clear communication, and metacognitive reflection as 21st-century tools for compelling learning—for immediate use on Monday morning! Participants will

• Apply best practices to problem scenarios.
• Utilize the principles of the brain and learning.
• Incorporate habits of mind to futures thinking.

Audience Level: All
Audience: School-Based Administrators/Teacher Leaders/Teachers
Session Level: All

3112 Low-Prep Instructional Strategies for Differentiation

Maria Molina, Education Consultant, Miami, Fla.

Become comfortable with differentiated instruction by beginning to use low-prep instructional strategies. In this session, you will learn some of these strategies to get you started in your classroom. These strategies may take less time to prepare for and yet begin to meet the needs of all learners. With such strategies, you can begin building your way to a highly differentiated classroom.

Participants will

• Understand that differentiated instruction is a teaching philosophy accompanied with some suggested strategies.
• Learn a variety of low-prep instructional strategies that may require less planning time than others.
  

Audience Level: All
Audience: All
Session Level: All

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