SESSION 9

SATURDAY | 28 MARCH 2015 ROOM

11:30 - 12:45 ASHLEY ALFANO Literacy (Writing/Reading) PS FUNCTION ROOM 8

Target Audience: Grades K-8 writing teachers Creating and Using Demonstration Writing to Enhance Your Students Writing - Conferencing is a powerful tool to improve student writing. In this workshop, we will discuss the different components that make up a teacher’s conferencing toolkit. With special attention dedicated to creating demonstration pieces tailored to your students writing needs, you will walk away with a practical methodology to generate your own student-tailored demonstration pieces.

SHELLEY ARNOLD / KAREN KAM Early Childhood Education PS FUNCTION ROOM 9

Target Audience: Teachers of 4-7 year-olds Meaningful Mathematics in Early Childhood - Building a solid foundation and love of mathematics in early childhood goes far deeper than rote learning and memorizing facts. Children learn best in a hands-on environment where they are encouraged to conjecture, invent, and solve problems. A deep, concrete understanding of math includes exploration, experimentation, and discovery through the use of manipulatives. Come learn strategies for implementing a wide range of manipulatives into your classroom to enrich your students learning!

MICHAEL E. BALDWIN ELL PS FUNCTION ROOM 1

Target Audience: All teachers (K-12), curriculum leaders, ELL experts An Inquiry-based Framework for Differentiating Instruction for All Learners - The VESTED approach is an inquiry-based model for improving student achievement in all classrooms. This strategy provides a step-by-step model for lesson delivery that develops a structure so that all students have access to instruction and are therefore successful. The overall goal is to provide a framework for teachers to successfully organize and implement proven strategies designed to meet the needs of diverse learners.

ELAINE BROOKER Early Childhood Education PS FUNCTION ROOM 6

Target Audience: Early years educators and administrators An Approach to Managing Learning Stories in the Early Years - Learning stories have been shown to be a powerful tool in assessing and documenting the learning journey of early years students. However, the implementation and management of this assessment approach can seem daunting to practitioners. In this workshop, participants will learn about one school’s approach to digital learning stories that has been relevant and well-received by the school community, while being manageable on a day-to-day basis. Participants are encouraged to bring learning stories to share!

TIM BUNN / MINQI CHUA SENIA / Open to All PS FUNCTION ROOM 7

Target Audience: Psychologists and teachers who use or work with educational psychologists Towards Better Psychological Assessment: Does WISCV Help? - We introduce some of the main issues in psychological assessment in East Asia: over-reliance on tests, tests not normed in East Asia, reports that use inaccessible language, medical model assumptions, unrealistic recommendations, or too broad in scope, etc. We provide an improvement agenda, and some data from parents’ questionnaires; then we review our own recent experience of using WISC V and encourage discussion of it, in the light of the improvement agenda already discussed.

CHRIS CAPADONA Literacy (Writing/Reading) MS MEETING ROOM 5

Target Audience: Teachers, grades 6-12 “Are We Challenging Our Students?” Text Complexity and Content Areas - In order for all students to be college and career ready, schools demand that students engage in appropriately complex text to develop the stamina, skills, and concentration necessary to be successful readers in high school and beyond. This presentation will provide teachers with the tools necessary to determine appropriate text complexity, differentiate between academic and domain specific vocabulary, discuss productive failure, scaffolding/overscaffolding, and specific elements of the close reading process.

SOPHIE DELAPORTE Modern Languages MS MEETING ROOM 4

Target Audience: Grades 6-12, any second language teacher Free Writing for All Levels in the Additional Language Class - Share a new approach to develop motivation for writing in the second language classroom. In the workshop, participants will live the “free writing” experience from the beginning to the end. Participants will become aware of how regular journaling in the second language classroom with no prescribed topic and format can: 1) Inform the gaps in their teaching and their students’ learning; 2) Change the perspective of students about their limitations to writing in a second language; 3) Be applied to all levels of language acquisition and become a key tool for differentiation.

ROMY FRIEDMAN Technology MS MEETING ROOM 3

Target Audience: Grades 6-12 teachers looking to integrate technology Integrating Technology: My Personal Journey Showcasing a Non-traditional Approach - A showcase of a collaborative journey to create personalized online resources, to both serve the needs of an ELL student population and overcome various challenges associated with being an educator in China. It promotes a non-traditional style classroom, problem-based learning, and is an example and motivation to other teachers looking to do the same. It will explain the philosophy behind this methodology, and allow time to explore and share various resources.

SATURDAY | 28 MARCH 2015 ROOM

11:30 - 12:45 JODI KITTLE

SENIA / Open to All PS FUNCTION ROOM 10

Target Audience: Middle and upper school, learning support, ESOL, SEN, teacher trainers Educational Support Services: One Department to Serve them All (SEN + ESOL) - We have a large ESOL population to support, and a community striving toward inclusion of students with learning needs, especially those deemed “twice exceptional.” These goals require knowledgeable specialists, but also need “boots on the ground.” How do we meaningfully support both groups, and teachers serving them, within typical school budgetary confines? Educational Support Services is a new department that encompasses SEN and ESOL professionals, and plans for an ESS intern program: a two-year, cross-departmental training to prepare teachers for work in all facets of support in international schools.

JOEL LLABAN, JR. Literacy (Writing/Reading) MS MEETING ROOM 1

Target Audience: Early years-grade 5 Cultivating a Culture of Thinking using Visible Thinking Routines - What kinds of thinking do we value and promote in our classroom? How do we uncover students’ thinking about thinking? How do we unearth students conceptions of what thinking is and the mental moves it encompasses? And how can this be done in an open way that captures individual responses? This workshop explores how Visible Thinking promotes understanding, engagement, and independence in learning; and how employing thinking routines engenders and promotes sophisticated and elegant thinking.

KRISTIN PARTRIDGE Early Childhood Education PACIFIC BALLROOM 2 & 3

Target Audience: Early years teachers (student ages 3-5) Playful Inquiry in the Early Years - During this workshop, teachers will investigate Playful Inquiry: an exploration that invites children to learn and make sense of the things they encounter with curiosity and joy. Children are allowed to be avid seekers of meaning and relationships who explore the world using all of their senses. Playful inquiry develops the whole child, is challenging and engaging, encourages thinking, promotes language development, and honors the image of the child.

TIM PRUZINSKY Literacy (Writing/Reading) PACIFIC BALLROOM 1

Target Audience: High school and middle school English, including IB teachers The IKEA Experience—Creating a Vibrant Independent Reading Culture - Designed to build upon the work of such authors as Penny Kittle in Book Love, Donalyn Miller in The Book Whisperer, and Nancie Atwell in The Reading Zone, “The IKEA Experience” outlines how to put the systems, structures and routines in place in order to create a vibrant culture of reading in any high school or middle school English classroom.

CAMARIN SACHDEV Literacy (Writing/Reading) MS MEETING ROOM 6

Target Audience: Primary grades 1-5 Understanding Working Memory: A Critical Cognitive Function for Struggling Readers in Primary Level - Working memory is a cognitive function responsible for keeping information online in order to perform efficiently and effectively in our daily routine. Children struggle to cope with the demands of the classroom for many different reasons including poor working memory. This workshop will provide an insight into the difficulties faced by learners with poor working memory. Strategies to explore and implement as part of interventions using visual and verbal processing activities in the classroom will be discussed.

LAIMA VINCE SRUOGINIS Literacy (Writing/Reading) PS FUNCTION ROOM 4

Target Audience: All teachers Strategies for Integrating Creative Writing Techniques into Your Classroom - Teachers will be given the opportunity to participate in two creative writing exercises that can be integrated into the language and literature classroom, and adapted to all school levels. These exercises, developed during two decades of teaching creative writing, are designed to unlock the unconscious mind in order to generate ideas and themes, which can then be shaped into stories, poems, and memoirs. The exercises are designed to unlock narrative structures that are already around us in daily life.

HEIDI STEINBRING Technology(Early Years) MS MEETING ROOM 2

Target Audience: Early years and primary Creating Books Using Book Creator, with Early Years Students - This workshop will share with participants how they can use Book Creator to effectively create student eportfolios, personal learning journals, and class books. We will look at the benefits of using the app, discuss how using Book Creator allows young children to take a more active role in creating their portfolio or learning journal, and go through the step-by-step process of creating them. We will also talk about how books can be created together with more than one class, both within the school community and at other schools.

JEFFREY YACUK ELL PS FUNCTION ROOM 2

Target Audience: Teachers grades 6-12, administrators, counselors Welcoming Asian ESOL Students to Western Education - The International School Consultancy reported in 2014 the largest numbers of students enrolled in international schools are locals (TIE, October 2014). We must properly welcome and accommodate Asian ESOL students in our western-style schools. We will compare and contrast Asian and Western education to discover what we can do at the school and classroom levels to accommodate Asian ESOL students. The efforts we make to welcome and accommodate Asian ESOL students will have positive effects for all!