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Friday November 07, 2025
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366489
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LitCon 25 Keynote - Bridging Comprehension and Constructed Responses: Teach the Critical Read-Write Skills Needed for Success on STAAR
8:30 AM - 11:15 AM
Cedar Room A*
Join us as national speaker Kristina Smekens presents the keynote for LitCon 25 - Illuminate Writing. Before students can write insightful responses about their reading, they must first learn to think beyond the text. This keynote tackles both critical components—strengthening students’ inferential thinking and sharpening their short-response writing skills.
In Part 1, attendees will discover a straight-forward 5-step process to guide students in answering text-dependent questions with well-supported inferences. The focus will be on how to make this abstract and invisible thinking process more concrete and visual for learners of all ages.
In Part 2, the session shifts from reading to writing, preparing students to confidently articulate their understanding in clear, cohesive responses. Attendees will explore how to scaffold six essential skills needed to craft strong short-constructed responses on STAAR—supporting all students, from emerging writers and multilingual learners to advanced secondary writers.
This high-energy keynote address is packed with strategies, practical tools, and ready-to-use resources that will leave attendees inspired and equipped to elevate both reading comprehension and writing performance in their classrooms.
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Keynote K-12
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2/240
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Friday November 07, 2025
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394866
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Words that WOW-Elevate Creative Writing with Collaboration, Art, and Neuroscience with Figurative Language (Gr. 3-8)
12:30 PM - 1:15 PM
Birch Room*
Help students create writing that WOWS while building neural pathways to utilizing and retaining new information with the use of illustrations, communication, and collaboration. We’ll briefly explore the brain science behind this technique and do a little collaborating & creating too as we build sentences that engage the senses and the reader with the use of figurative language.
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Grades 3-8
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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366492
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LitCon 25 Breakout - Crack the Code: Understanding & Responding to STAAR ECR Prompts (Gr. 3-12)
12:30 PM - 1:15 PM
Cedar Room A*
Nationa presenter Kristina Smekens - Understanding STAAR ECR prompts and structuring accurate responses is the focus of this session for grades 2-12. First, learn the universal format and common academic vocabulary needed to decode any ECR prompt. Then, learn strategies to guide your students in organizing their ideas to fit the required genre response (e.g., explanatory, compare-contrast, argumentative, correspondence, etc.). This session will provide the instructional tools you need to help your students generate well-developed, multi-paragraph responses with confidence.
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Grades 3-12
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0/25
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Friday November 07, 2025
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394878
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Strategy Showcase: Elevating Instruction with STAAR Prompts and Stems (Gr. 3-12)
12:30 PM - 1:15 PM
Cedar Room B
In this interactive session, teachers and instructional coaches will explore practical strategies for integrating STAAR ECR and SCR prompts and question stems into daily instruction. Participants will engage in a hands-on “Strategy Showcase” that highlights how to annotate prompts, build genre-specific reading and writing guides, and scaffold SCR writing using sticky notes and formative checkpoints. Whether planning summative assessments or daily warm-ups, this session equips educators with tools to make STAAR-based writing and reading tasks manageable, meaningful, and instructionally aligned across grades 3–12.
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Grades 3-12
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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394889
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Literacy Layers: Exploring Depth & Complexity for Richer, Deeper Thinking and Writing (Gr. K-8)
12:30 PM - 1:15 PM
Cedar Room C
Join us to explore how blending Depth & Complexity into instruction can enrich and deepen layers of thinking and writing in your content areas. Discover practical strategies to elevate classroom discussions, foster flexible thinking, and strengthen student writing through thoughtful integration of these powerful tools. Perfect for educators looking to enhance literacy instruction and engage students in meaningful, creative learning experiences.
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Grades 3-8
Grades K-5
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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394892
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Interactive Writing That Works (Gr. K-2)
12:30 PM - 1:15 PM
Cypress Room*
In this breakout session, participants will learn a fun way to make writing fun and interactive for your students. We will go through the process of helping students extend their writing and adding description to their writing. We will also talk about ways students can edit and revise their work without realizing it is "work."
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Grades K-5
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1/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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395067
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LitCon 25 Breakout: The Price is "Write" - Integrating Writing Across the Curriculum (Gr. K-5)
12:30 PM - 1:15 PM
Dogwood Room*
Step right up and spin the wheel of writing success! In this fast-paced, interactive session, teachers will explore fun, practical ways to weave writing into every subject. Discover quick routines and engaging mini activities that build confidence, strengthen literacy skills, and make writing a daily win for students. Walk away with ready-to-use ideas to turn your classroom into a place where writing is purposeful, joyful, and worth the prize!
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Grades K-5
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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395218
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Building Your Own Adventure: Helping Students Create Choose Your Own Adventure Stories within the Book Creator Program (Gr. 3-8)
12:30 PM - 1:15 PM
Elm Room
Inside each student is a creative element just waiting to be uncovered! Help your students expand their creative thinking by working to build an exciting adventure story infused with elements of choice. "Choose Your Own Adventure" Stories/Books have been around for years. The concept allows the story to proceed differently depending upon choices made by the reader throughout the book. Using the program "Book Creator", discover ways that you can help your students unleash their creativity to build their own digital versions of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" Story. Whether using pre-constructed templates, story maps or allowing students a bit more creative freedom to develop their own outlines, this session will provide you with suggestions on how to introduce this type of writing to your students. Designed for upper elementary and/or middle school students, these ideas can also be adapted for lower grade levels when done as a collaborative project. Join us as we explore different ways that you can help students to construct their own "Choose Your Own Adventure Stories".
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Grades 3-8
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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395222
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Engaging Minds and Hands: Multisensory Learning and Writing with Loose Parts (Gr. K-2)
12:30 PM - 1:15 PM
Innovate* Room
Explore how a multisensory writing approach using loose parts can strengthen young children’s comprehension and expression, particularly in constructed responses. This session introduces a technique that engages multiple senses to help early learners organize their thinking, articulate ideas, and demonstrate understanding in writing. Participants will leave with a practical tool to make learning more accessible, interactive, and impactful for ALL students.
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Grades K-5
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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395228
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Mindful Making: A Creative Retreat for Rest & Connection (Gr. K-12)
12:30 PM - 1:15 PM
Sycamore Room
Step away from the hustle and bustle and recharge in a space designed for relaxation, creativity, and connection. Create a beaded pen, doodle in a journal, decorate a bookmark, or just color while you chat with fellow educators and reflect on the day's learning. No pressure, no expectations—just a chance to unwind, create, connect, and maybe gather a little inspiration for your classroom or personal well-being. Pens ready, imagination open—join us and let your creativity flow!
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Grades K-12
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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394874
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Breaking the Script: Bringing Life and Movement to Bluebonnet Lessons (Gr. K-2)
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
Birch Room*
This session will provide strategies for internalizing and annotating Bluebonnet lessons to incorporate kinesics—body movement and expression—as a means of increasing student engagement and knowledge retention. Participants will explore practical ways to bring authenticity and individuality into a scripted curriculum, transforming it from a rigid guide into a dynamic, student-centered experience. Educators in Bluebonnet networks sometimes express feeling restricted by the script; however, by closely examining the Teacher’s Editions and thoughtfully adding personal touches, you'll discover that instruction can feel both structured and creative.
During the session, you will learn about actionable strategies, real examples, and reflective insights that can enhance students’ enthusiasm for learning and your own enjoyment of teaching.
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Grades K-5
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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394884
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LitCon 25 Breakout: From Prompt to Proficiency - Strengthening ECR Instruction with the Prompt Annotation & Writing Guide (Gr. 3-12)
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
Cedar Room B
In this session, educators will explore how to use the TCMPC ECR Prompt Annotation and Writing Guide to support consistent, effective instruction in Extended Constructed Responses. Participants will examine a streamlined four-step process that promotes clarity and alignment across grade levels, with a focus on practical classroom application using TCMPC tools and resources.
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Grades 3-12
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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394890
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Writing SCRs in Elementary Science (Gr. 3-5)
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
Cedar Room C
Help your students turn science thinking into science writing! In this interactive session, explore how short constructed responses (SCRs) are scored, analyze real student samples, and discover easy ways to weave writing into your daily science lessons. Leave with ready-to-use tools, sentence stems, and strategies that help students write clear, evidence-based explanations aligned to the Science TEKS.
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Grades K-5
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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394893
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Phonemic Awareness in Early Learners (Gr. K-2)
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
Cypress Room*
Phonemic awareness is one of the strongest predictors of a child’s future reading success, making it a vital skill for early learners. It allows children to recognize and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words, which directly supports decoding, spelling, and overall literacy development. Without a solid foundation in phonemic awareness, many students face challenges in becoming fluent readers and may fall behind academically. In this session, participants will learn the importance of intentional, evidence-based instruction in early literacy. By understanding how critical phonemic awareness is, teachers can implement strategies and activities that strengthen these skills in young learners, setting them up for long-term reading achievement and confidence.
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Grades K-5
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1/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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395070
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Author's Panel: Storytellers Among Us - A Conversation with Local Authors (Gr. K-12)
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
Dogwood Room*
Join us for an engaging session featuring local and regional published authors who bring stories to life and share their journeys from inspiration to publication. This panel offers educators a unique opportunity to hear firsthand how authors craft meaningful texts, connect with readers, and support literacy development. Discover fresh perspectives, ask questions, and explore ways to integrate author insights into your reading instruction and coaching practices.
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Grades K-12
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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395219
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Illuminate Your Voice: Showing Students’ Voice and Choice in Writing (Gr. 6-8)
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
Elm Room
This workshop will focus on strategies to promote students’ voice in writing through the lens of writing stations. Each station focuses on one aspect of building voice. One station will include a teacher led station that will allow the teacher to do check-ins with each student and their writing.
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Grades 6-12
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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395232
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Mindful Making: A Creative Retreat for Rest & Connection (Gr. K-12)
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
Sycamore Room
Step away from the hustle and bustle and recharge in a space designed for relaxation, creativity, and connection. Create a beaded pen, doodle in a journal, decorate a bookmark, or just color while you chat with fellow educators and reflect on the day's learning. No pressure, no expectations—just a chance to unwind, create, connect, and maybe gather a little inspiration for your classroom or personal well-being. Pens ready, imagination open—join us and let your creativity flow!
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Grades K-12
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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366498
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LitCon 25 Breakout - From Confused to Confident: Master Compare-Contrast ECRs (Gr. 3-12)
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Cedar Room A*
National presenter Kristina Smekens - ECR prompts often ask students to collect and compare information from two texts. However, for many students, their responses end up as a flat list of similarities and differences, leaving the potential for insightful analysis untapped. This session is your game-changer! Learn how to demystify the process of comparing and contrasting texts, empowering students to independently craft well-developed, evidence-backed pieces that are logically organized and meet the high expectations of ECRs. Get ready to transform your students into comparative thinking champions!
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Grades 3-12
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0/25
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Friday November 07, 2025
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394875
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Writing Remix: Teaming Up to Edit & Revise with Authentic Student Writing (Gr. 3-8)
2:30 PM - 3:15 PM
Birch Room*
Ditch the worksheets and bring on the sample sentences taken directly from your own students. Enhance paragraph writing by leveraging student collaboration, thereby improving the quality of student work, increasing engagement, and boosting cognitive retention as students apply, share, and refine their knowledge of one the most difficult skills to teach.
In this workshop, we'll watch brief clips of students in action as they edit and then revise an authentic writing sample and share their final versions. Participants will get first-hand experience of the power of collaboration and communication by recreating this activity following the same steps as the students.
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Grades 3-8
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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394887
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Digging Deeper - Close Reading That Sparks Thinking (Gr. 3-5)
2:30 PM - 3:15 PM
Cedar Room B
In this hands-on session, 3rd–5th grade teachers will explore strategies to help students become thoughtful, curious readers. We’ll break down the process of close reading into manageable steps that encourage deeper comprehension, critical thinking, and meaningful discussion. Discover how to guide students through multiple reads of a text—each with a different purpose—and how to use text-dependent questions to unlock layers of meaning. Walk away with ready-to-use tools and routines that make close reading engaging, purposeful, and accessible for all learners.
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Grades K-5
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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394891
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Off Script - Improv Strategies to Strengthen Student Writing (Gr. 6-12)
2:30 PM - 3:15 PM
Cedar Room C
Step Off Script and into a classroom full of energy, creativity, and fearless writing! This interactive session shows how improv games can spark student imagination, strengthen voice, and turn reluctant writers into confident creators. Experience hands-on activities that build character, dialogue, and storytelling skills. No theater experience required - just a willingness to play, experiment, and write boldly!
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Grades 6-12
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0/20
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Friday November 07, 2025
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394895
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LitCon 25 Breakout: Little Voices, Big Writers - The Power of Oral Language (Gr. K-2)
2:30 PM - 3:15 PM
Cypress Room*
Strong writing begins long before children ever pick up a pencil. In this session, we’ll explore how early oral language experiences lay the foundation for later writing success. Discover how everyday conversations, storytelling, and play-based interactions nurture vocabulary, sentence structure, and idea development, all essential for confident, expressive writers. Participants will leave with practical strategies to intentionally build oral language in the classroom and see how “little voices” truly grow into “big writers.”
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Grades K-5
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1/20
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|
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Friday November 07, 2025
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395074
|
LitCon 25 Breakout: Author's Panel: Storytellers Among Us - A Conversation with Local Authors (Gr. K-12)
2:30 PM - 3:15 PM
Dogwood Room*
Join us for an engaging session featuring local and regional published authors who bring stories to life and share their journeys from inspiration to publication. This panel offers educators a unique opportunity to hear firsthand how authors craft meaningful texts, connect with readers, and support literacy development. Discover fresh perspectives, ask questions, and explore ways to integrate author insights into your reading instruction and coaching practices.
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Grades K-12
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0/20
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|
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Friday November 07, 2025
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395220
|
LitCon 25 Breakout: Helping Students Write Clear, Convincing Arguments Across Subjects (Gr. 3-12)
2:30 PM - 3:15 PM
Elm Room
From science labs to social studies essays to math explanations, students in grades 3–12 are asked to make claims and back them up. This session will give you practical ways to help students strengthen their arguments with clear claims, solid evidence, and connected reasoning. You’ll see cross-curricular examples, try out simple routines, and leave with sentence stems you can use right away to help your students’ writing shine.
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Grades 3-12
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0/20
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|
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Friday November 07, 2025
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395225
|
LitCon 25 Breakout: Clarifying Central Ideas with Word Choice (Gr. 3-5)
2:30 PM - 3:15 PM
Innovate* Room
Help your students move beyond restating text evidence to crafting clear, precise, and insightful central ideas. In this hands-on session, participants will explore practical strategies for guiding students to analyze word choice and use it as a tool to refine their understanding of a text’s main message.
Teachers will learn step-by-step methods to help students transform weak, formulaic statements into strong, text-driven central ideas using intentional language and academic vocabulary. The session’s findings and activities are immediately actionable, giving educators tools they can apply in their classrooms the very next day to strengthen reading comprehension and written analysis.
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Grades 3-8
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0/20
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|
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Friday November 07, 2025
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395233
|
LitCon 25 Breakout: Mindful Making: A Creative Retreat for Rest & Connection (Gr. K-12)
2:30 PM - 3:15 PM
Sycamore Room
Step away from the hustle and bustle and recharge in a space designed for relaxation, creativity, and connection. Create a beaded pen, doodle in a journal, decorate a bookmark, or just color while you chat with fellow educators and reflect on the day's learning. No pressure, no expectations—just a chance to unwind, create, connect, and maybe gather a little inspiration for your classroom or personal well-being. Pens ready, imagination open—join us and let your creativity flow!
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Grades K-12
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0/20
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