Fall Meeting Pre-Conferences are all held on Wednesday, November 6, 2018 in Cambridge, MA. This year, you can choose from full day sessions and half day sessions.
You can sign up for your pre-conference of choice when registering for the Fall Meeting. If you are interested in attending a pre-conference but are not able to attend the Fall Meeting, please contact Chris Jones at chris@schoolreforminitiative.org or by phone at 303-586-1169.
Full-Day Pre-Conferences
Defining Equity: Disrupting Inequity
Morning Pre-Conferences
Creating a Foundation of Trust for Fierce Conversations
Afternoon Pre-Conferences
Building Language Equity through Reading and Play
Comprehensive Exploration of School Culture, Climate, and Equity
Full-Day Pre-Conferences
Defining Equity: Disrupting Inequity
Presented by: Daniel Baron, CEO, The School Project Foundation
This session will be grounded in Paul Gorski’s Equity Literacy Framework. Using Restorative Practices Circles and a variety of other dialogue structures, we will work on identifying, responding to, and redressing the inequities that we encounter in our work. Our focus will be on both individually driven and systemic inequities.
We will use a restorative approach that includes constructivist listening, text-based dialogue, affinity-mapping, and mindfulness strategies.
The goal of the session will be that each participant will leave at the end of the day with the will, skill, ability and knowledge to be a threat to the inequitable practices and policies in his/her own classroom, school, department and/or district.
Audience
Any educator or student
Session Outcomes:
- Participants will leave with a rich understanding of what educational equity means.
- Participants will leave with a rich understanding of what it takes to achieve educational equity.
- Participants will leave with several strategies to interrupt inequities in their professional settings.
Morning Pre-Conferences
Creating a Foundation of Trust for Fierce Conversations
Presented by: Jill Harrison Berg, Leadership Coach & School Improvement Consultant; Lea-Antoinette Serena, Second Grade Teacher, Mather Elementary School; Reid Jones, Fifth Grade Teacher, Mather Elementary School
Under what condition might educators be willing to take the risks required for fierce conversations that advance equity? A foundation of trust is needed.
In this session we’ll unpack why the essential conversations about whether each child is getting what they need cannot happen without trust; we’ll utilize the research literature on how trust is built to analyze and amp up SRI Protocols; and we’ll hear how school-based teacher leader teams have worked to embed the practice of SRI protocols and their components within school routines in order to keep the fierce conversations going with authenticity and impact.
When you return to your school, you will be prepared to empower school colleagues with activities and resources that can help them understand how trust is built, to adapt SRI protocols to ensure your colleagues are prepared for the kinds of trust they require, and to collaborate with school colleagues to embed the practice of protocols and their components within school routines requiring fierce conversations.
Audience
This session is appropriate for all informal and formal school leaders, that is, all who endeavor to be a positive influence on the quality of teaching and learning throughout the school: teachers, team leaders, principals, coaches, etc.
Session Outcomes:
- Empower school colleagues with an understanding of the underbelly of how trust is built
- Recognize and enhance the features of SRI protocols that help to strengthen trust
- Collaborate with school colleagues to embed the practice of protocols within school routines requiring fierce conversations
SRI Pre-Service Convening
Presented by: Anastacia Galloway Reed, Professional Development Associate, Dan Condon – Associate Director of Professional Development, Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center
SRI Pre-Service Network’s Aim: To better support pre-service teacher candidates in pre-service education using SRI Tools & practices. To prepare teacher candidates in the context of principles of SRI critical friendship.
The SRI Pre-Service Network has been convening for several years at Fall Meeting, virtually throughout the school year, and also through a summer retreat.
The agenda will include an opportunity for networking and sharing of best practices; time for feedback on individual dilemmas or problems of practice; as well as an opportunity to partner with other pre-service educators to take up common issues and dilemmas using the Network Improvement Community model.
Audience
Pre-service programs
Session Outcomes
SRI Pre-Service Network’s Aim: To better support pre-service teacher candidates in pre-service education using SRI Tools & practices. To prepare teacher candidates in the context of principles of SRI critical friendship.
Our desires for working together & intended outcomes include:
- Gather information & evidence of things that are already working
- Collect best practices
- Share our successes & best practices broadly
- Invite more people into the conversation
- Reflect on our work, gain perspective, & collaborate with others
Afternoon Pre-Conferences
Building Language Equity through Reading and Play
Presented by: Ruth Whalen Crockett – Spanish Teacher and Director of New Teachers Collaborative, Mandy Levine – Spanish Teacher and Domain Leader, 3-4 Developing Multilingual students who attend the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School
Quién eres?
Using Spanish, a first language for some, an unknown language for others, Spanish-speaking high school students and teacher facilitators will lead participants in community building, play, and literacy activities that develop a group culture so that we can embark on this learning experiences together. Facilitators will use the SRI protocol “What? So What? Now What?” to reflect on the shared Spanish-speaking experience and establish operating norms for our work together.
How do we acquire language?
Using the SRI Protocol Microlabs, participants will work in small groups to reflect on one’s own experiences acquiring language and explore how these experiences shape our everyday interactions with multilanguage speakers and impact our instructional moves with adults and children.
Next, using the Text-Based Protocol “The Four ‘A’s” participants will examine the Theory of Comprehensible Input and examine how literacy and play can make language more accessible.
Participants will return to a Spanish-only differentiated language environment where they will experience first-hand how play and literacy support language acquisition, including their own.
Making our Classrooms and Schools more Comprehensible
Using Comprehensible Input Tools, participants will explore how to make their classrooms and schools more welcoming environments for multilanguage learners. Participants will be exposed to several strategies that will support these revisions and make a plan for how to transform their classroom and school community. Using the SRI Tuning Protocol, participants will get feedback on their plan.
Audience
Teachers and school leaders of all levels, especially those who teach and serve multi-language learners
Session Outcomes
Participating teachers and leaders will experience, and learn to facilitate, language acquisition games and activities that help to develop engaging classroom cultures, promote language acquisition and elicit communication from all members of the class no matter their language level.
Participating teachers and leaders will experience and learn compelling transferable tools and protocols, that they can bring back to their schools, and that support adult learners as they build equitable schools where language teaching and learning is shared and supported by the entire school community.
Comprehensive Exploration of School Culture, Climate, and Equity
Presented by: Ayodele Harrison, Senior Partner, CommunityBuild Ventures AND Assistant Director, CREATE Teacher Residency
Despite reform efforts aimed at reducing achievement disparities among marginalized students of color and poor students, gaps persist. There is a growing awareness that more systemic and implicit factors such as school culture and climate impact student and school success to a great degree and should be essential components of any school reform or improvement efforts. In this session, participants will explore and assess their school’s culture, climate, and equity through five interrelated and interconnected dimensions – cultural leadership, physical environment, psychosocial environment, academic environment and equity and cultural competency. These five dimensions make up the total school learning environment and are linked to higher performing culturally responsive schools who have eliminated gaps. This session will be experiential and will include the use of protocols (chalktalk, kiva, and student profiles) to build community and deepen understanding. participants will walk away with a baseline self-assessment of the current culture, climate strengths, weaknesses, inequities and key leverage areas for consideration when thinking about ways to eliminate academic performance gaps in their schools.
Audience
Principals, assistant principals, district administrators, program executive directors, school leaders of equity and inclusion work, teachers, funders, etc
Session Outcomes:
- Explore five dimensions (and 29 indicators) of school culture, climate and equity that make up the total school learning environment
- Assess their school’s culture, climate, and equity using the School Leadership Self-Assessment tool
- Pinpoint key leverage areas for consideration when thinking about ways to eliminate academic performance gaps in their schools.