Mary Howard has presented at numerous conferences across the country, generally as a keynote speaker with one or more breakout sessions. Several sessions can be scheduled as long as the total lecture time does not exceed six hours, with a full day charged regardless of the number of hours contracted.
Note: Guided reading is a minimum of two hours. All others can be adapted for one or two hours.
Learn how to implement engaging procedures to promote early learning by building sound awareness, sound-symbol relations and word recognition. Get children off to the right start using flexible procedures that can be adapted to an early literacy program through authentic tasks.
Guided reading is the critical "how" piece of reading that forms the heart of the reading program using carefully selected texts at an appropriate level. Learn how to increase the effectiveness of guided reading at each important stage by addressing both the teaching and learning process.
Engaging strategies for building a store of words for listening, speaking, reading and writing using the brain-body connection, visuals, color, and student-created mnemonic devices use oral language to build connections to written language.
Drawing is a powerful symbol system that can be designed to enhance reading and writing. This assumes, however, that certain research-based criteria are considered. This session will address these key considerations with demonstrations of specific strategies to strengthen literacy.
Current research has provided significant information about how the brain learns to read and write. This powerful information can help teachers better understand the learning process in order to design a more brain-compatible program. Understand the implications of this exciting research for literacy.
Comprehension is the result of active engagement with text as readers combine a variety of sources of information. This must be explicitly taught by building mental models to help children internalize the thinking for successful comprehension. Powerful strategies will be provided in this highly practical session.
The elementary grades are a critical time for building a framework for understanding the role writing plays in our lives and increasing motivation for writing by addressing both the why and how. Learn how to design a nurturing environment with rich models to set the stage for writing.
This session will provide structured instructional strategies for building on phonics and spelling. Two strategies developed by Mary Howard, Day-by-Day Reading and Sentence-a-Day will be modeled, using a student-created sentence as a springboard to learning.
Building a strong reading and writing sight vocabulary should be an early and continuing goal. As students gain automaticity, more energy is available for comprehending and constructing meaningful texts. This session will address specific strategies for enhancing word learning to build a long-term store of words for reading and writing beyond the skill and drill and weekly spelling list mentality.
The current research on the brain shows that music can promote thinking and memory and, in some cases, even prime the brain for learning. This engaging session will address the role that music plays in the learning environment with suggestions for using music throughout the day as a background for learning and to enhance literacy.