Teaching Begins with the Learner

This session will challenge educators to give voice to the students and families they serve and guide them on a path towards providing all students with access to Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education (CRSE) and Formative Assessment. When it comes to advancing CRS formative assessment, it is important to recognize that we have historically failed to partner with English Learners and their families to formatively assess language acquisition, identify language acquisition levels, set goals around language acquisition, and celebrate gains. We will explore strategies to begin this process as well as to build the critical consciousness of our ELs so that they are empowered to own their learning and create change in their lives, thereby disrupting the status quo. It is time to “Amplify the Voice” of all students and families through CRS formative assessment.

Join us for this highly engaging session where participants will learn how to build student agency, advance equity, and accelerate learning through a proven process that leverages the power of self- and peer- assessment and goal setting. Learn strategies that empower educators and learners to drive their own learning through gathering and analyzing evidence and taking collective actions, thereby building collective efficacy. Join us and learn how teacher collaboration can increase student ownership and agency and build efficacy for both students and teachers!

What does it mean to have a mastery moment? How do we foster motivation for change and growth in both students and educators? What enabling conditions must be in place? Have we considered how mastery moments can revolutionize learning in our schools?

During this keynote, we will explore how redefining how we notice, share, and build on mastery moments can impact an entire system, build self and collective efficacy, and propel learners and educators into an upward spiral of success. That upward spiral will impact all learners in the system, building the dispositions of learning and the desire for more and deeper learning. You are invited to listen in and discover a missing link in empowering learners and educators.

When teachers and students share a clear understanding of what success looks like, the pace of learning is accelerated, motivation increases, and progress is visible. Join us to explore simple but powerful practices, paired with examples and models of success from classrooms. Walk away with ideas about student-friendly tools that promote deep learning, formative assessment, and effective feedback as well as structures for supporting the work through leadership and coaching.

• Explore practices related to establishing clarity in the classroom
• Experience models of success and student-friendly learning tools
• Gain ideas and structures to empower learners and grow efficacy in teachers and students.