north carolina reading conference

A week or so ago, I was lucky enough to attend the NCRA 2016 Reading Conference in Raleigh, NC.

Reasons I consider myself lucky to attend:

• Stay at a fancy hotel and get two solid nights worth of sleep.
• Go out to eat at fabulous restaurants that I don't often get to frequent.
• Socialize with colleagues that I work with in my county, and with colleagues from around the state
• Get free stuff from vendors
• Choose sessions to attend that are important to me and my position
• Breakfast with one of my favorite authors

Can you see where my priorities are? Sleep and food. Then learning. :)

I arrived in Raleigh around 6:30 pm on Sunday night - too late to pick up registration due to the crazy traffic. Checked into the Marriott then headed to my favorite Raleigh restaurant:

When Pat lived in Raleigh and we were doing the "long distance" thing several years ago, this was one of my favorite places we would frequent for meals. Fantastic "Mexican" food - fresh and delicious. Finally for Sunday was staying up super late to watch The Best of Me on Netflix.

OK now to the real reason I went to Raleigh.

Saturday morning was the general session with Tim Shanahan. I've never heard who this guy is and I'm not entirely certain I trust everything he said. And I think everyone around me was kind of doubtful as well. His big preach was that teachers shouldn't be teaching students on their instructional level, but rather their frustrational level. Even up to 2 grade levels above their ability. So we'd teach 3rd graders with 5th grade text. Yeah, I'm not sold. I get high expectations and all the fluff about if we let them know they can, they will. But creating frustration in children is not the way to get them to grow or love to read. So I wasn't impressed, but was glad he clarified you shouldn't be doing this in K-1.

My first chosen breakout session was with Dr. Michael Ford on Guided Reading: What's New & What's Next.

 

This guy was good! He is an author of a ton of books on Guided Reading, which I immediately ordered on Amazon. Don't tell my teachers but I'm thinking of choosing one of his books for our next book study. He gave some realistic suggestions for Guided Reading K-8, with great slides and handouts. He was even funny, he sang to us several times. The only bummer about this session was that he didn't get to the last two pieces of information due to time constraints. I'm glad I bought the book so I can read it for myself.

 

Second breakout session was with Diana Radcliff on ROCKS TO BLOCKS for Constructing Meaning! (the OPERATORS to BUILD written comprehension).

 

I think overall this was the best session I attended. This lady is fighting the fight in real schools and real classrooms TODAY. She gave specific strategies, examples, pictures, anchor charts, handouts, websites, all kinds of stuff that is useful. I'm doing this workshop with my staff first - in less than a week. The best thing is this lady has a blog and website that she keeps updated with resources that are REAL and relevant.

I didn't go to the third breakout session so that I could spend time in the vendor's exhibit hall.

Fourth breakout session was supposed to be on Reading Readiness with Reciprocal Teaching. I was very excited about this session and of course the presenter no-showed. So I popped in next door to "Tame the Shame" in a Reluctant Reader presented by Lauren Buck Johnson.

 

I liked this lady's passion for building readers who believe in themselves. She had a lot of strategies like Donalyn Miller speaks of. I really was applying this to my own kids. Right now they LOVE being read to, and I want to be sure I don't squash that love for reading. I want them to love to read and to make time to read.

The final breakout session was by Jill Jones on Reading Interventions - One Size Doesn't Fit.

 

I did get some good reading intervention take-aways from this session. Mostly I was impressed with the research she had done on interventions and how students learn to read. I think this will be a big one for my teachers. Reading interventions that WORK are a constant struggle to find.

 

At the end of Monday's sessions, all the Lincoln County folks met at the Cheesecake Factory for some food and fellowship. It was a lot of fun to talk with people I work with in another setting other than work. Of course the kale salad, mozzarella basil tomato flatbread, and vanilla bean cheesecake were a lot of fun as well!

 

Headed to bed a little earlier Monday night so I'd be ready for the real reason I came on Tuesday morning. Donalyn Miller held an author's breakfast at 7:45 am. She has written several books, one of which I had most of my staff read last summer: The Book Whisperer. I just appreciate her honesty about teaching and reading and the importance of allowing students to self-select text, give them the time to read alone, talk to them about what they're reading, and suggest books to them based on their interests. I could go on...

 

Here's a picture of us:

 

The breakfast itself wasn't much to write home about - some really runny eggs, spicy potatoes, and bacon (blech). I did enjoy a few cups of coffee though.

 

I saw Donalyn speak this past summer in Concord - with my entire School Improvement Team. Her talk at the breakfast was pretty similar - so I was slightly disappointed. It didn't hold my attention well, since there wasn't really anything new - no new stories or slides or pictures or reading truths. I'm not saying I regret going, but...I guess I just was hoping for something new.

 

 

The first Tuesday breakout session I went to was by Dr. Karen Wood, Delphia Smith, and Joyce Farrow an was entitled: What's New in Literacy Teaching? Strategies for New Age Teaching and Learning.

 

I don't even know what to say about this session. First of all, nothing was "new" - and second of all, they lost me after 3 minutes. Good thing? I got caught up on responding to all of my work email.

 

The second breakout session I was SO EXCITED to go to was by Jen Jones and was called Guided Reading: Making the Most of It. Well, evidently I didn't get there fast enough. By the time I arrived, there was a line out the door and they couldn't allow more people in due to fire code. I decided to pop in next door to a session by Julie McEachin and Cheryle Ferlita called Teachers Want to Know.

 

This session was about providing feedback to teachers after observations. I did learn some effective practises, but since I've completed all of my observations for the year I believe I'll have to wait until next year. I'm always open for better ways to do this and I liked several of their suggestions. I missed the first 15 minutes of this session though so I don't feel like I got the whole picture.

 

The final breakout session was by two teachers: Tya Tyrell and Melissa Haydon and was called Why Write When You Can Blog About Your Reading?

 

I didn't learn a whole lot new in this session. My take-aways were how to introduce blogging to students - the concept of posting and responding to posts, and a few new blog sites that are appropriate for students and convenient for teachers. Blogging is a great way for teachers to hit element IVg in their evaluation and have a solid artifact. It is also a great way to get all students to participate, particularly those that don't often feel comfortable doing so verbally. I was one of those students once!

 

I decided not to stay for the final general session. It was by Steven Layne and was called In Defense of Read-Aloud. I'm already a huge advocate for read-aloud K-5, so I felt like getting a head start on the 3 hour trip home to see my boys was a better idea.

 

 

The five sessions I attended that relate to items in which I felt my teachers might be interested, I planned a teach the teachers workshop for each. Thankfully each presenter was more than willing to send their slideshows to me, along with their hand outs so that I can share my new-ish knowledge with any of my staff who are interested.

 

I really did enjoy this Raleigh reading jaunt and hope to go maybe every other year - depending on who the guest speakers are. I'd love to be able to send teachers as well, but it is an expensive trip with the registration, gas, food, and lodging.

Guess what arrives tomorrow? My STITCH FIX BOX!!! Woot woot!
Look for another blog post this week.