Literacy Conference

EDES 6359

Natalie Lozano

Loyola Marymount University

 Running Head: LITERACY CONFERENCE 1

I attended the SoCal Kinder Conference in Pasadena, CA. This was a very informative

conference that focused on strategies and new creative tools to help support students, particularly

in TK, kindergarten, and first grade. There were many notable presenters including Dr. Jean

Feldman and Melissa Leach, who shared real strategies that have been proven effective in their

own professional practice.

I began the day with a deep dive on guided reading with Melissa Leach. This guided

reading seminar was extremely informative on how to polish best practices when it comes to

implementing guided reading in the classroom. The presenter was very knowledgeable and

organized, and gave conference attendees the tools we needed to set up our very own guided

reading binders and planners. One of the biggest takeaways I learned from the deep dive on

guided reading is that it is not just a practice that is done in the primary grades. If students in

middle school need it, middle school teachers should be doing guided reading with students in

even 6th grade every day!

Another one of the takeaways I learned from the conference was how to create

meaningful work stations in my classroom to create an environment that is conducive to small

group instruction. Melissa Leach gave great examples on how to model teaching these

workstations so students can independently learn while individualized instruction is taking place.

Examples of these work stations include independent reading, fluency, writing, and word work.

The presenter also gave many low-prep ideas and strategies that can be used for workstations

with the rationale that the biggest prep during work station time should be for guided reading and

differentiated instruction. I have immediately implemented these strategies in my own classroom

 Running Head: LITERACY CONFERENCE 2

since attending this conference, and I have seen such a great impact on my students and their

learning from all that I learned.