Student Support & Learning Strategies

Speakers: Heidi Tringali, Tringali Occupational Therapy Services, and Heather Wynkoop, The Fletcher School

Boost cognitive connections with purposeful movement. Join this session to learn
routines and tips to maximize your space for effective, movement-based learning. By
incorporating purposeful movement into the curriculum, educators can enhance student
engagement, boost cognitive development, and support the holistic achievement of each
student’s potential. This approach not only strengthens academic outcomes, but also aligns
with the forward-thinking goals of curriculum design, ensuring that schools remain innovative
and responsive to the diverse needs of learners.

Participants of this session will gain a deeper
understanding of how and why purposeful movement enhances learning outcomes and overall
student growth, practice safe and effective movement activities that can be easily integrated
into their classrooms, and leave with a practical toolbox of ideas and strategies to implement
movement-based learning activities right away, enhancing student engagement and success.

Speaker: Dr. Carrie Willmore, Boyd-Buchanan School

The role of homework in student learning has been debated among educators for years. While some argue that homework is essential for reinforcing classroom learning, others raise concerns about its potential to cause stress and negatively impact student well-being.

This session offers a deep dive into the latest research on homework, focusing specifically on
middle-grade education. Participants will explore findings from a recent qualitative study that
examines middle-grade teachers’ perceptions of homework and its impact on student achievement. The session will highlight how teachers can design homework that enhances learning and supports student well-being. Educators will gain strategies for creating meaningful homework assignments that contribute to all student’s success.

Speakers: Luciana De Benedictis and Eileen Pinero Rodriguez, St. Thomas Episcopal Parish School

In this session, we will show how we invite and schedule students to participate in a pragmatic skills developmental playgroup. The emphasis of these small groups is to support the development of social communication and social skills through play. In the playgroups, students will refine key components of successful social interactions:

• Thinking: knowledge, perspective-taking, and self-awareness,
• Feeling: regulating emotions, and
• Doing: execution of the social performance.

Students will acquire and refine essential skills that work as a foundation for executive function skills. Well-developed executive functioning skills during
preschool and kindergarten years are an indicator of academic, social, and emotional achievement and are target skills for the playgroup sessions.

Speakers: Jill Gough and Mary Jacob Harris, Trinity School

In Upstream, Dan Heath teaches us to prevent issues before they start. What if we formatively assess to gain insight and proactively plan to teach where students are in their learning journey? By looking at how students attack unfamiliar words, we gain insight into a child’s ability to decode fluently. Is the child struggling at the phoneme level? Do they need support tackling within word patterns? Are they ready to move into meaning morphology
instruction?

Grow student independence in learning by growing fluent readers. In understanding individual students’ abilities, teachers can meet learners with diagnostic and prescriptive instruction to bolster all levels of reading within the classroom.

In this session, we will understand how to analyze data to learn more about what students know, and how to collaborate with a team to plan targeted, differentiated group work sessions that support what students need.

Speakers: Porter Burgess and Maggie Simms, Christ Church Episcopal School

Discover strategies to integrate executive functioning skills into daily instruction,
equip students to understand themselves as learners, and prepare them for success beyond
the classroom.

In this session, you will learn how to support executive functioning needs within your classroom through research-based methods and equip students with strategies to understand themselves as learners. This session will demonstrate how strong executive functioning skills are crucial for future success. Educators will leave with tools to create a more supportive learning environment, fostering skills that help all students thrive.