Literacy Now

With the spread of the novel coronavirus rendering in-person professional development all but impossible, PD providers scrambled to move planned face-to-face events onto an online setting. Unfortunately, most organizers failed to leverage the potential of the virtual space or even truly adapt the program to fit the platform.

Instead of trying to shoehorn the traditional ILA 2020 programming into an online format, ILA opted to cancel the conference altogether. The decision paved the way for ILA to rethink what PD could—and should—look like in the age of COVID-19. The result: ILA Next.

From the beginning, ILA Next was designed for a digital environment. Conferences that take place in the physical space often schedule a multitude of sessions into a few short days to minimize the time educators spend away from their jobs and families. Virtual events, on the other hand, eliminate the need for sunup-to-sundown programs and networking opportunities.

To combat online meeting fatigue, ILA put together a program that spans four weeks, with sessions, workshops, and learning labs running 90 minutes or less and spread across the entire week at times meant to minimize disruptions to educators’ day-to-day responsibilities.

To get a sense of what this type of event looks like in practice, we’ve put together a walk-through of the basic program.

Main Stage Sessions—every Saturday (over 18 hours of PD)

The weekly schedule for ILA Next starts on Saturdays with a Main Stage Session. From 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. ET, you can select to participate in one live Main Stage Session. During week 1, there is only a single Main Stage Session; however, in the weeks that follow, you will have four options from which to choose. But don’t worry if you are having a difficult time deciding which to attend: You will have on-demand access to all the Main Stage Sessions within five businesses days of the live broadcast.

Interactive Exhibitor Showcase—every Saturday

If you’ve ever been to an ILA conference, you know the exhibit hall is one of the highlights of the event. It’s a quick and easy way to keep apprised of the latest products, meet book authors, and explore new technology available in the education field.

We are bringing a bit of that exhibit hall experience into ILA Next. Each of our exhibitors has a virtual booth at which they can share product overviews, resources, contact information, and a variety of other info. Participants have 24/7 access to the space, but each Saturday there’s also an hour after the Main Stage Sessions dedicated to interactive experiences with exhibitors. Corwin Press, for example, is offering a live Q&A with best-selling authors Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, coauthors of The Distance Learning Playbook, a #1 bestseller, immediately following their October 10 Main Stage Session.

Be sure to check out the ILA Next coupon booklet before making any purchases from the Exhibitor Showcase to make sure you’re maximizing savings.

Learning Labs—every Saturday (eight hours of PD)

Two 40-minute Learning Labs round out the day, offering additional opportunities to learn from speakers such as Ernest Morrell and Cornelius and Kass Minor. Some weeks there will be concurrent Learning Labs, but just like the Main Stage Sessions, all Learning Labs will be available on demand within five businesses days of the live broadcast. That’s another eight hours of on-demand professional development.

Pathway Workshops—every Tuesday (six hours of PD)

ILA Next is anchored by a workshop series organized by age of learners. During registration, participants pick one of four pathways from the following options:

• Primary (ages 5–8)
• Intermediate (ages 9–11)
• Middle (ages 12–14)
• Secondary (ages 15+)

The Pathway Workshops will be streamed live every Tuesday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET, but if you can’t make it to the live session—you guessed it!—you’ll have on-demand access within five business days, but only for the Pathway selected during registration.

Office Hours—every Thursday (six hours of PD)

Office Hours complement each week’s workshop and also run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET. Come to these informal, small-group sessions to pose questions to speakers, share ideas from your mid-week reflection, or just to meet with other educators in your field. Grow your personal learning network and develop professional contacts. And, yes, these too will be recorded and available on demand within five business days.

Four weeks of professional learning; four months of on-demand access (over 36 hours of PD!)

ILA Next attendees can access nearly six hours of live professional learning each week (factoring in the extra on-demand sessions, that’s more than 36 hours of professional learning in total). Once the event ends, though, the learning doesn’t stop; registrants retain access to all content through January 31, 2021.

ILA members pay just $99 to register. Nonmembers who join before registering to get the lower rate save more than $100 over standard pricing.

Register now for ILA Next—and don’t miss catching the opening Main Stage Session live this Saturday, October 3.

To our valued members, and to the vibrant community of literacy educators around the world, we extend our sincerest gratitude for your service.

We know the toll the current global crisis has had on you and our profession, and we know that you are being asked to perform Herculean feats daily. So many of you have shared the need and desire for professional development that addresses the challenges you’ve been facing. And because of the economic devastation COVID-19 has wrought, you have been clear that this professional development must be affordable.

Please know that we hear you—and that we are taking action.

The registration rate for ILA Next, our upcoming multiweek professional learning event for literacy educators, has been reduced by half for ILA members.

This means that all members can gain access to the high-quality, evidence-based professional learning that ILA Next provides for just $99. Nonmember pricing remains the same, but those who join ILA before registering will still see savings of more than $100 total.

Registration to ILA Next includes:

• Programming offered in 90-minute segments, spread out over four weeks
• Convenient Saturday sessions with established and emerging speakers representing a diverse range of roles, experiences, and areas of expertise
• Weeknight workshops and informal discussion groups designed for live interaction with speakers and fellow attendees
• Closed-captioned recordings available for on-demand viewing within five business days of live presentations
• 24/7 access to an Exhibitor Showcase, plus additional Learning Lab sessions each week
• Unlimited access to recordings through January 31, 2021, which equals nearly four months for the first week’s programming
• Letter of attendance awarding clock hours for participation

Members who registered for ILA Next previously will receive a refund for the price difference. Please look for an email later this week confirming that the refund has been processed.

Our goal for ILA Next has always been to provide you with a program that is responsive to your ever-evolving needs--one that not only acknowledges the unique circumstances that educators currently face but also provides practical solutions that can be implemented immediately.

Stephen G. Peters
President, ILA Board of Directors

Marcie Craig Post
Executive Director, ILA

I am on a major professional development binge. There are just so many free and appropriately priced online conferences, webinars, and events happening right now! It is a petri dish of opportunities. I feel as though something new pops up in my Twitter feed every day.

Soul searching

During this one-hour conversation between Ernest Morrell and Nell K. Duke, they not only spoke their truths but also invited the viewers to do their own soul searching. I was confronted with my own inherent beliefs about literacy and the individuals who sit in the seats before me each year. I was confronted with my own understanding of equity in my context. And I was confronted with my passive role in being better for every single student. 

At the end of the hour, Ernest stated:

“We don’t want to go back, we want to go forward. Turbulence can disrupt…and there are some things that need to be disrupted…. This is a time to forge a new narrative; a narrative of excellence that is widely distributed. An ethic of love where we mention the word love as much as we mention the word science when we’re talking about reading pedagogy and achievement…. There is an opportunity to form a transformative vision for literacy education that will lead society…. We want literate human beings, but we want humane ones. Some of the most literate societies in human history have been responsible for some of the most atrocious acts. Literacy doesn’t make you a better person; humanizing education does. It’s reading and writing in the interest of self-love and social transformation is what we want.”

(I could end this blog post here with this mic-drop moment. Such powerful words!)

We need to remember that the current context we are in not only is happening to everyone in the world but also is no one’s fault. There is no one to blame. And as such, we need to take this opportunity to come together as a collective and see the possibilities afforded to us, to focus on the little (and big) humans who come to our classes everyday (whether digitally or face to face).

One concept that was reinforced for me in this webinar was that of connection. Building relationships and creating a trusting environment must be at the forefront of all classes as schools reopen this fall.

Connecting to Tricia Ebarvia’s work

This webinar made me think about the work done by Disrupt Texts.

Numerous times I have been lucky to hear Tricia Ebarvia speak. She says that teaching is a political act and that teaching literacy is teaching for freedom. She asks the questions “How many times do we have students cross off parts of who they are (gender, race, religion, etc.) when they walk into our schools and our classrooms? How do we show up as teachers?”

We have an opportunity to nurture the self-love and social transformation that Ernest espouses through the literature that we bring into students’ lives. As Tricia says, we are “stewards of stories,”  and we have the power to transform our classrooms into beautiful spaces where students can read stories of themselves and those of others. We have an opportunity to diversify our curriculum and to help create those literate and humane individuals that society desperately needs.

Nell mentioned the historical link between racism and literacy, how White people and White systems worked actively to suppress people of color from learning how to read and write. This, too, made me consider Tricia’s point about the literary canon (brought to you by a bunch of White men), which, just like race and religion, was socially constructed, and therefore it can be torn down and rebuilt.

The narratives within these stories don’t need to be placed on a pedestal. Especially now, during these turbulent times, we need to disrupt the status quo of inequity. Educators are in a powerful position to do just that.

Breaking the cycle

In a recent Hidden Brain podcast on NPR, the host speaks to author and behavioral economist Sam Bowles about his book Moral Economy. Sam explains how he believes we have moved from the species Homo sapiens (wise human) to “Homo economicus.” This new species, he says, “cares only about himself or herself and therefore evaluates actions that may be taken simply in terms of what’s in it for me.”

This shift in human behavior is affecting our ability to cope with and gain perspective on the current COVID-19 and racism pandemics. Educators have an opportunity to disrupt this me-me-me mind-set and nurture a more collective mentality.

And literature can help. Literature creates bridges to empathy. Literature can connect people from different races, classes, cultures, and generations. Literature can heal.

But we, as educators, need to step up and learn how to do it better.

Kristin Bond is currently exploring new avenues in education after 15 years of teaching high school English abroad in China, Brunei, and the UAE. She is passionate about the benefits of workshop models in the classroom and believes that at the core of student learning is first establishing a connection and community of trust. Follow her on Twitter @readwritemore.

Last week, we hosted a free event during which Stand for Children's Jonah Edelman facilitated a frank conversation with Ernest Morrell and Nell K. Duke about the challenges and opportunities of teaching during an unsettling and uncertain time. If you were able to join the live event, you know that Ernest and Nell offered not only powerful inspiration and uplifting motivation but also quite a few practical resources and book recommendations.

If you weren’t able to join us during the live event, don’t worry: The video is available on demand and for free through Facebook Live or on our YouTube channel.

Rather than have you go through and write down all the resources they shared, we did it for you!

Note that although I list a time stamp for when the resource was mentioned, it might not be entirely accurate depending on which of the recordings you watch. Each has been edited a little differently. But it should be close enough that you match the resource to what is being mentioned.

The resource

12:55: Nell mentions Catherine M. Bohn, Alysia D. Roehrig, and Michael Pressley’s study “The First Days of School in the Classrooms of Two More Effective and Four Less Effective Primary-Grades Teachers”

14:24: Nell mentions two videos on her YouTube channel:

Small-Group Literacy Instruction at a Distance and Word Work at a Distance.

25:23: Ernest mentions Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America and Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped From the Beginning 

37:31: Nell mentions her study from January 2000: For the Rich It's Richer: Print Experiences and Environments Offered to Children in Very Low- and Very High-Socioeconomic Status First-Grade Classrooms

46:45: Jonah recommends Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist

49:21: Nell mentions the Anti-Racism Educational Consultants Network

And there you have it! If there any resources we missed, you can email us to let us know. Be sure to check out our Digital Events page or follow us on Facebook or Twitter to stay apprised of what’s coming next from ILA.

Wesley Ford is the senior social media strategist for ILA.

I think it’s safe to say that 2020 has been a strange year for everyone. Disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have been widespread and ongoing, especially in the educator field. Back in March, as schools shut their doors for extended spring breaks and shifted over to distance learning, we at ILA immediately started looking for ways to support educators.

We leveraged digital platforms like Zoom and Facebook Live to provide new professional learning experiences. We canceled our annual in-person conference, ILA 2020, and created ILA Next, an entirely new program built from the ground up for the digital space. Much like educators who very suddenly shifted to teaching remotely, we’re learning as we go, and we’re continuing to design new profession development models to provide the best learning experience for educators.

ILA Workinar

Which brings me to our next professional development event, our webinar/workshop hybrid, the ILA Workinar (see what we did there?). For our inaugural workinar, Planning for Social-Emotional Learning in Literacy Instruction (August 16, 5:00 p.m.–6:30 p.m. ET), we teamed up with CASEL to create a robust learning experience that focuses on helping educators understand the social-emotional needs of their students.

During the first half of this 90-minute event, participants will learn how to apply the four SEL Critical Practices outlined in CASEL’s Roadmap for Reopening School to literacy teaching and learning from our keynote speakers, Justina Schlund from CASEL and Christine M.T. Pitts from NWEA.

The workshops

But this event goes beyond listening to a presentation. Following the keynote, attendees will be asked to select one of four smaller discussion groups, three of which are organized around the age of the learner, with the fourth focusing on the needs of principals, literacy coaches, and administrators. Each workshop will be guided by literacy educators immersed in social-emotional learning (SEL) work.

We’ve broken these workshops into four categories:

• Primary/elementary students (grades K–3), led by Rhonda M. Sutton and Tamera Slaughter
• Intermediate/middle school students (grades 4–8), led by Sara K. Ahmed and Chad Everett
• Secondary/high school students (grades 9–12), led by Gerald Dessus and Kimberly Eckert
• Principals and staff developers, led by Arlène Elizabeth Casimir

These facilitators will prompt discussion and reflection as well as providing additional resources to workshop participants. Participants will also have the chance to connect with colleagues and deepen their understanding of their students’ SEL needs.

Video archives

We understand how busy educators are. Professional development needs to flexible and accessible to fit educators’ schedules. That’s why our digital events are recorded. The main keynote and all four workshops will be recorded and available to all registrants. That’s right: You get access not only to the workshop you attended but also the other three. That’s a total of 135 additional minutes of professional to watch and learn from at your leisure.

Confirm your membership or join ILA before you register

Registration for this ILA Workinar is just $25 for members ($75 for nonmembers). You can become a member of ILA for just $44. Plus, membership gives you access to a suite of resources free for members.

That includes our ILA at Home webinars, such as “Making a Case for Reading Joy” (featuring Donalyn Miller) on August 30, as well as archives of previous webinars featuring educators such as Timothy Shanahan, Marjorie Y. Lipson, Jeanne R. Paratore, and Victoria J. Risko.

Be sure to join us for this new professional development event!