Theory+Into+Practice


 * EDC 448 CONTENT LITERACY CONFERENCE: THEORY INTO PRACTICE**
 * April 30, 2013**




 * ROUND 1: Posters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5**
 * ROUND 2: Posters 6, 7, 8, and 9**
 * ROUND 3: Posters 10, 11, 12, and 13**

1. Click on the edit toolbar. 2. Position the cursor after your abstract where you want your handout to be inserted. 3. Click "File" on the toolbar and then click on "upload files" in the upper right corner (You have to be logged in for this to show up). 4. Wait while the cursor spins and imports your file into the system - when the file icon appears, click on the file and it will be inserted onto the wikipave. 5. Click "Save" on the toobar to make sure your file saves.
 * Directions for uploading your handout: **

Here is an example of an abstract from a session I just presented to show how you might incorporate voice into your own abstracts.

This poster shares findings from a study that sought to understand the forms and functions of productive talk used by three sets of Internet reading partners as they engaged in an online inquiry task. First, we will highlight illustrative examples of productive collaborative talk patterns among pairs of students in Grades 3, 5, and 7 to give you a better sense of how students effectively work together to build on each other's ideas during paired Internet reading activities. You can even use your cell phones to scan QR codes and view videos of these students while talking with others about what you see. Then, we will pair these findings with a teacher-friendly set of practical ideas for how to support collaborative dialogue among elementary and middle school learners during the Internet inquiry process. You can download instructional materials featured on our poster by visiting http://coiroira2013.wikispaces.com/ Poster One Page Handout
 * Emerging Patterns of Productive Collaborative Talk During Online Inquiry**
 * Julie Coiro, Jill Castek, Lizabeth Guzniczak, and Diane Sekeres**

Nicole Buckless In my presentation, I will display a poster-board outlining the important points I think all teachers need to know about this topic, hopefully enlightening them on ways to integrate new literacies (after all this is the 21st century) with traditional ways of teaching, such as the Gradual Release of Responsibility model. This remixing allows educators an opportunity to offer a base of new literacies experiences as a way to support differentiated learning across social, cultural, and economic differences. I will include a number of examples for how these strategies can apply to everyday practice in the classroom. I will also provide a handout outlining these key points, so that everyone can take the information with them.
 * POSTER #1**
 * Envisioning New Literacies Through A Lens of Teaching and Learning**

Amanda Kedra This presentation will discuss research-based strategies that teachers can use to adapt grade level text and teach comprehension for students with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities who are early readers or nonreaders. These approaches offer support for teachers in developing materials and instruction to promote student interaction with appropriate, grade-level text. Key points you will learn about for promoting effective reading comprehension include re-reading, think-alouds, modeling, vocabulary instruction, looking at the structure of the text and designing assessments in line with the Common Core Standards. I hope to be able to apply a great deal of information that we have learned in class and help make connections and apply our knowledge of literacy strategies to the realm of Special Education. Most of the strategies can be applicable for students without disabilities, including low-achieving students and English language learners.
 * POSTER #2**
 * Helping Students with Moderate and Severe Intellectual Disability Access Grade-Level Text**

Jay Clarke This presentation explains a method that successfully teaches mapping in social studies classrooms. Typically, teachers assign blank, black and white maps that studies are asked to fill in and memorize the countries. This method is very straightforward and easy to assign; however, this information will usually only stick for a few months. This article explains a method of teaching mapping called “Mental Mapping” that revolves around maps using basic shapes. Students are asked to create a basic outline of continents and countries using basic shapes rather than precise outlines. The method assesses students' prior knowledge by asking them to fill in the map they have created with geographical features that they already know. Then, the teacher offers more detailed information and each student's map is expanded. This process keeps students from glancing over certain geographical phrases such as “The German army crossed over the Rhine River”; instead, students will know exactly where this is and why it might have been strategically important. Methods like this are important in teaching and assessing subjects in social studies.
 * POSTER #3**
 * Beyond Memorization: Rethinking Maps in the History Classroom**

Deborah Husak My poster will show how science literacy can be encouraged by engaging students in an activity that is participatory, focuses on content, and is geared toward communication of scientific ideas. Students may be given a complex science text, but they will need to search for key ideas and understanding in order to present that information to peers in the form of a zine, which is a small pamphlet or booklet. I will use Andrew Yang’s article to explain how zines can be made and used for science and plan to have several examples of zines to show and perhaps even give a demonstration of how to make the example in Mr. Yang’s article.
 * POSTER #4**
 * Communicating and Understanding Science Text Using Zines**

Mark Pechak One of the most challenging aspects/themes of literacy comprehension that we’ve continuously discussed in this course is differentiated instruction. In other words, what can we as teachers do to provide the right growing tools for students on different learning levels in our classrooms? There’s no such thing as a classroom where all students think, read, speak, write and learn at the same level. Making our lessons accessible for higher level learners is especially difficult with respect to this sort of diversity in learning. It isn't easy to prepare for these variances that we will encounter in our lesson plans. It is our job as teachers to be ready for these challenges through effective differentiated instruction. A vital element for secondary social studies teachers is to utilize teaching strategies that provide an enriching experience in US history classrooms that will engage intellectually gifted learners. Maintaining these aspects in our teaching becomes especially challenging in culturally diverse classrooms where the students may not have been born in the United States and the content may seem less easy to identify with. This presentation will explore models for delivering a framework for delivering a culturally responsive curriculum for diverse and gifted level students within the content area of US history.
 * POSTER #5**
 * Engaging Young Intellectuals: Identifying With US History in a Diverse Classroom**

Eric Hirschbein-Bodnar In my presentation, I will discuss how to teach American History from a more global context that considers the view of European and other world powers. This allows for students to view American history literature that offers different opinions and view points then they are used to. It challenges them to read difficult primary sources from other countries to learn American history. This can tie into some topics we have discussed in class because it is an alternative to text books and is a useful text that does not sacrifice rigor. It is an example that using rigorous text that students are unfamiliar with can help them further expand their educational mindsets. I can use this to help fellow educators because I believe that by learning American history from an outsider, such as from a historian from over seas, it allows us to see a different perspective on our history. It gives our students the ability to see an unbiased opinion on our history and how other countries viewed us.
 * POSTER #6**
 * Teaching American History in A Global Context**

Marissa Brasil This presentation examines a study conducted with students with learning disabilities in a freshman biology class. Students with language-based learning differences often struggle in science courses and on subsequent standardized tests due to difficulty committing vocabulary to memory. This study thus evaluates the effects of study tools on the long-term retention of biology vocabulary. Students were split into two groups: one group used paper flashcards and the other used the interactive Web site Study Stack. Both groups experienced increases in vocabulary learning and reported that the cards were useful study tools that they would like to use again. These learned vocabulary words, in turn, resulted in higher standardized test scores and higher semester grades in the cases of the students in the study. This article relates to the topic of effective vocabulary instruction that was covered in class this semester. In order to present this material to the class, a PowerPoint presentation will be constructed to cover the main points of the article and its implications in the classroom. A demonstration of the techniques used in this article will also be created, with both paper flashcards and a sample vocabulary list on the Study Stack Web site.
 * POSTER #7**
 * Teaching Biology Vocabulary to Students with Learning Disabilities**

This presentation shares the results of a year-long qualitative study of two eighth grade U.S. History teachers who used simulations on a regular basis to teach heterogeneously-grouped students in a high-stakes testing environment. We describe the purposes the teachers espoused for implementing simulations and provide detailed portraits of three types of simulations used: role-play, game, and trial. We argue that because the ambitious teachers know their discipline well, see the potential of all their students, and feel that learning rather than testing should drive instructional decision-making, they are able to engage and challenge their students with historical simulations. This study adds to the sparse field of simulation research and to the emerging literature on ambitious history teaching. It also shows educators what is pedagogically possible in teaching history.
 * POSTER #8**
 * Using Simulations to Teach Middle Grades U.S. History in an Age of Accountability**
 * Ryan Mycroft**

The technique of having students write historical fiction borrows from the work of Martin, Brooke, and Hicks. Students in their class used 15 lessons to create their own historical fiction books to enter into a competition and the winner got their book published. Students made huge academic gains in directing their own learning, acquiring new historical vocabulary and deepening their understanding of the content. Students became enthusiastic about learning, writing and reading which was a great result! Students had freedom to direct their own research to explore topics (within a theme) that they were interested in. In my presentation, I will explore students’ opinions about having less structured topics and I will argue that this project built on skills needed to access accounts and evidence from historical resources, which transfers outside the classroom. I will also provide examples of situations where these skills will be needed in real life.
 * POSTER #9**
 * Write Your Own Historical Story Competition**
 * Laura Briggs**

POSTER #10 This study was made in reaction to educational reforms to history standards and research literature. Students were engaged with historical investigations to tech them how to think historically and better understand the past. The teacher then introduced the notion of a historic interpretive paradox and guided lessons using this principle. Students then looked at a variety of primary and secondary sources regarding the settlement of the Jamestown Colony. From these sources students were able to piece together what happened during this time period using evidence to support their thinking. This teaches students a very important skill, teaching them how to think like historians while addressing new content standards in history.
 * Confronting Histories Interpretive Paradox While Teaching Fifth Graders to Investigate the Past**
 * Andrew-Miles Teixeira**

In the past, scientific literacy has focused on the direct communication of concepts and therefore focused on the end result in writing to explain. In this study, it was shown that students from middle school to college who were taught to organize their ideas using a set of progressive writing steps were able to explain themselves better and improve their scientific literacy. These steps were created as a series of writing prompts that moved students from writing to inform and use of scientific terms to ultimately expressing connections and authentic ideas about the topic. In my presentation, I will explain the use this writing system to aid biology students in expressing ideas effectively both orally and in writing.
 * POSTER #11**
 * Using Organizational Activities in Writing and Reading to Improve Scientific Literacy**
 * Stephanie Waterman**

//More Than a Game// article is a unique way of getting students to understand the scholarly argument through meaningful choice and trial and error. My presentation will be to help fellow History teachers learn a new way to get students engaged with what an author is trying to argue with a twist on the Gamic Mode game. First, I will explain the theory behind the Gamic mode and how it uses procedural rhetoric to effectively model scholarly arguments to students. Then, I will explain how this process can help students understand how to construct an argument by getting to play with the content rather than only reading about it. In this way, as teachers, we can foster our students' learning of important content while also making efficient use of class time.
 * POSTER #12**
 * More Than a Game…Teaching in the Gamic Mode: Disciplinary Knowledge, Digital Literacy, and Collaboration**
 * John Worstell**


 * POSTER #13**

**Mackenzie Weaver** In my presentation, I will display a poster board which discusses the importance of focusing on literacy perspectives to frame cognitive and social relationships. During Jane Hansen’s research on a U.S. History course, she observed the importance of educators teaching their content in a way which creates direct connections within a content area and towards each individual student. Connections can be made through the use of various texts with a variety of complexity and language use. Ultimately, this form of teaching encourages students to make personal connections to the text's subject through writing and prepares them for the state test. I will provide an outline of this research project and some examples of how connections to rigorous texts were used to prepare the students in that content area.
 * Multiple Literacies in the Content Classroom: High School Students' Connections to U.S. History **