Lynn McKee Erwin Conference on Children’s Literature

This conference will address the following six objectives:

1. To celebrate, acknowledge, encourage, and support K-5 teachers in their day-to-day classrooms by providing them with free books and resources to use at school as they work with children and families. 
2. To provide K-5 teachers with professional development opportunities from three of the nation’s renowned authors and experts on children’s literature and literacy, alongside fellow educators. 
3. To reinforce K-5 classroom teachers’ knowledge and skill base to include research-based practices related to teaching academic/subject content, expository and narrative texts, reading skills, vocabulary development, phonics and phonemic awareness, textural complexity, comprehension skills, and other ELA concepts, all in the context of good and widely reviewed books for children. 
4. To engage K-5 teachers in the systematic practice of “reviewing” books for use in the classroom. 
5. To provide opportunities for K-5 classroom teachers to participate in a collaborative “deep dive” with colleagues using Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an approach that allows teachers to meet the needs of varying learners through instruction. UDL strategies allow classroom teachers to access multiple levels of readers using common material. 
6. To explore with participants strategies that foster inclusive learning environments to help bridge cultural and linguistic divides.