Reading, Literacy, & Learning

This past weekend, I attended the 2015 Virginia State Reading Association Annual Conference in Richmond, Virginia! The theme of this year’s conference was “Reading Is Magical”. Jen Eubank and I presented on the topic of motivation regarding adolescent readers to educators, administrators, reading specialists, and literacy coaches from across the state of Virginia and other visiting states. We were extremely pleased and grateful that over 50 people chose to attend our session! Our 50 minute presentation included the following: group discussion (think-pair-share), the definition of an adolescent readers, what the research says, instructional practices, engaging activities, and a wrap-up discussion/what stuck with you? The engaging activities included: Pecha-Kucha, Gummy Bears Story-Telling, Sticky Notes, and Create-a-Story. We provided attendees with a detailed newsletter with step-by-step instructions for each activity, materials needed, time required, and how to incorporate these activities into the classroom. It was a wonderful experience to be able to talk with these attendees as they shared their prior classroom experiences and offered ideas to enhance or modify the activities. Laughter and excitement filled our entire room as attendees collaborated and communicated with one another. An experienced reading specialist stated, “I could see myself modeling and sharing each of these activities with the teachers I work with.”

After presenting, I was able to attend several other featured speakers and concurrent sessions. One featured speaker I loved listening to was Richard Allington, who happens to be the author of one of our textbooks (What Really Matters for Struggling Readers). His passion for literacy is very moving and inspiring. These speakers and sessions provided me with several ideas, resources, and activities that I will definitely utilize within my future classroom. It was exciting to watch my fellow grad students present on topics they have become so knowledgeable of. The amount of support I felt from my professors and fellow grad students was very comforting. We have become one big happy literacy family! There were also lots of vendors at the conference that supplied me with resources, websites, leveled readers, and other books to use within my own classroom library.

I had such an amazing time at VSRA! Reading truly is magical!

      Last Friday, March 13th, Mary Lacen Kinkel and I were able to present at the Virginia State Reading Association’s “Reading is Magical” Annual Literacy Conference. The Conference took place at the Richmond Marriott Hotel and Greater Richmond Convention Center in Richmond, Virginia from March 12th to March 14th. Our 50 minute presentation theme was “Motivational is Marvelous: Engaging Strategies for Adolescent Readers.” The presentation included: information regarding who are adolescent readers; research-based engaging reading strategies for adolescents; and instructional practices and resources for teachers to use in their classrooms. There were a variety of participants who attended our session including graduate students, undergraduate students, program professors, administrators, reading specialists/coaches, and classroom teachers. I believe that this opportunity to present allowed me to network with professionals from around the state, as well as prepared me for future presentations that I may be required to give in my career.

     Throughout the conference, I was able to visit a variety of vendors, attend numerous concurrent sessions, and attend the general session with featured speaker Richard Allington. I especially enjoyed the concurrent sessions led by my fellow classmates because I was able to learn new literacy ideas and see their hard work come to life! I even gained a wealth of free resources and leveled texts from vendors such as Pearson, McGraw-Hill Education, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Overall, presenting at the “Reading is Magical” VSRA Conference was a highlight in my Graduate career thus far and I have expanded my knowledge of teaching literacy by attending this annual event!

A highlight of the conference for me was learning about leveled text and PALs. I was able to attend a presentation on where to find leveled text on the same topic which is a hard thing to do.  Throughout my time tutoring and student teaching I had a hard time finding materials on different levels that were about the same topic.  The presentation provided me with useful tools on how to create my own text and where to find text.  The other presentation that I found very helpful was a presentation on PALs.  Due to me not having a classroom of my own I have never been able to work on the PALs website so seeing a presentation on how to use the website will help we a lot in the future.  Presenting at the conference was also a highlight because being able to share information to other teachers is very rewarding.  It was my first time ever presenting at a conference and just knowing that some teachers learned information from my presentation was the best feeling.  Overall I learned a lot of useful strategies and tools that will benefit me in the future when I begin my career.

Kayla Brock and I were one of the first sessions to present on the first day, Thursday, March 12, 2015.  Our presentation was entitled “I Like to Move-It, Move-It: Literacy in Motion”.  We were incredibly grateful to have over 50 people show up to our presentation and listen to what we had to say about the importance of incorporating movement into to classroom.  Our audience was more than willing to participate in our activities and they came with some great questions and suggestions as well!  After our presentation was over, I decided to stay for the rest of the conference to support my fellow classmates and take away as much as I could from a wonderful weekend.  Within the convention center, they had vendors that provided wonderful resources so one of the biggest benefits gained from this conference was all of the resources and materials I received to incorporate into my future classroom.  I am very grateful for having the opportunity to present and attend such an amazing conference and I look forward to next years!