"Getting to the Core of K-8 Literacy"

Learn how to:

• increase student motivation in literacy
• help K-8 students meet the Iowa Core literacy standards
• organize reading and writing around real purposes for kids

Time: 9:00-3:30

Mark your calendars now!  October 8, 2013!  Register for the Conference on the Iowa ASCD web site.  The fee is $120 for members and $165 for non-members.  All participants receive the book, Reading and Writing Genre with Purpose in K-8 Classrooms.   

You can read the first chapter of her book. It will convince you this is a MUST learning opportunity for you to impact your students and their learning.  

• Register on line at the Iowa ASCD events website.
• Mail a check/purchase order with date/name of conference and names of participants to Bridget A. Arrasmith, Drake University School of Education, 3206 University, Des Moines, IA  50311.
• E-mail a purchase order with name/date of conference and names of participants to Bridget A. Arrasmith at bridget.arrasmith@drake.edu. 
• FAX purchase order with name/date of conference and names of participants and grade level/role to Bridget A. Arrasmith at 515.271.2233.     

"Nell Duke - a favorite of the State Wide Reading Team!! She shares both practical information on best practices and the literacy research behind them. You'll come away from the institute with real-world solutions and a deeper understanding of what's needed to bring the Iowa Core standards in reading, writing, and language to life in your classroom."  Rita Martens, Iowa Department of Education

We encourage you to register now and follow the tweets starting in mid-August on Nell Duke and her book, Reading and Writing Genre with Purpose in K-8 Classrooms.

• Use personal performance feedback from multiple digital data streams and dashboards to inform their own learning and development
• Draw upon their intrinsic motivation to take responsibility for evaluating available learning opportunities and for co-designing their unique learning pathways with learning agents
• Seek out and work with mentors, peer learning groups, and digital and human learning agents to support and further their learning experiences
• Use those same resources to navigate the array of choices offered by the learning ecosystem
• Engage with a variety of learning tools, resources, and learning formats to acquire and apply core knowledge and essential skills such as collaboration, initiative, global awareness, creativity, critical thinking, and perseverance
• Demonstrate mastery of core knowledge and essential skills through performance-based assessments and digital portfolios that represent each learner's unique potential to the world. 

So what does that mean for us, their "learning agents"?  Existing educators will be redefining their professional roles to match their strengths.  In addition, developers, entrepreneurs, and technologists will create new roles and responsibilities for themselves.  For us to be successful with and for these learners of the future, we will need to . . .  

• Use and create multi-layered visual dashboards to discern meaning from learning analytics that guide instruction and communicate progress
• Integrate technology to customize learning on a continuous basis and to make performance predictions that allow for early interventions designed to prevent failures and dropouts
• Collaborate with other "learning agents" and use community and global resources to facilitate engaged learning that ignites students' intrinsic motivation and builds students' core knowledge and essential skills
• Integrate performance-based assessments and guide learners in building digital portfolios that represent their unique potential to the world
• Cultivate our own entrepreneurial skills in using public and private resources to develop customized learning pathways for all students
• Re-envision our own roles by exploring new ways of blending digital learning tools with other services and resources to leverage our professional strengths and passions in working directly or indirectly with learners
• Establish professional peer communities to develop our knowledge about deepening and accelerating student learning and closing the achievement gap
• Use digital portfolios to manage and represent their own continuous learning.

Our students' future depends on our growing, learning, and changing now!