45th Annual Conference for Middle Level Education

The 45th Annual Conference for Middle Level Education (AMLE) will take place October 25 - 27 in Orlando, Florida. KaiLonnie Dunsmore, Director of NORC's LOCI project, will attend and present at the event.

The world's largest professional development conference for any person who works with students grades 5 - 9, AMLE2018 is designed around four topics:

  • Creating a Culture that Makes a Difference
  • Principal and Teacher Leadership that Transforms
  • High Impact Classroom Strategies
  • Characteristics of High Performing Middle Schools

See KaiLonnie's presentation schedule below:

Friday, October 26
LEADING IN LITERACY: Implementing Strategies to Build School Wide Effective Literacy Teaching and Learning
9:45 - 10:45 a.m.
Osceola 3-4
AMLE and LOCI at the University of Chicago are collaborating on a one day workshop for middle grade leaders (building principals, instructional coaches and lead teachers) that provides practical and immediately useful tools and research based practices to create school wide agreements and rigorous implementation of effective literacy instruction across the disciplines. Presenters include experienced literacy experts and school and district administrators who have significant experience in middle grade instruction and working closely with school leaders to improve the rigor, quality, and coherence of literacy teaching and learning system wide.

Simplify, Support, and Sustain: Struggling Readers in the ELA, Science, Social Studies Classroom
1:45 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.
Sun Ballroom B
This session provides strategies for supporting the incredible diversity of reading abilities in the middle school classroom. As a middle school teacher with certifications in English language arts, science, and social studies, I (KaiLonnie Dunsmore) started pursuing my doctoral degree in literacy out of a desire to understand how to effectively (and sanely!) support students who needed to achieve grade level learning outcomes but struggled to read grade level texts. In this session, we will examine how to differentiate instruction for reading ability differences without writing 10 different lesson plans or needing a reading specialist degree. We will examine instructional strategies, technology tools, and curriculum frameworks that simplify the design of instruction for differentiated access to common standards and learning outcomes. This workshop includes synthesis of best practice by seeing models and exemplars (including through looking at several video clips); an opportunity to play with some tools useful across the disciplines; and participating in modelled practices in interactive conversations about ways to structure instruction that particularly meets the needs of ELL, special education, and other struggling students while not limiting opportunities for advanced students or making yourself crazy by designing multiple lesson plans. The session focuses both on practical strategies as well as deep understanding of what research says about models and practices that best support struggling readers.

Saturday, October 27
Supporting Writing Development Across the Middle School Disciplines
9:55 - 10:55 a.m.
Osceola Ballroom A
This session is designed intentionally for both classroom teachers and instructional leaders. We will look specifically at writing instruction and practice for classroom teachers in ELA, science, and social studies with several practical applications and examples for the mathematics teacher included as well as implications and actions for ELL and special education support. We encourage middle school principals and literacy coaches to attend this session because there are implications for effective writing instruction that include decisions and practices school-wide related to assessment, progress monitoring, common rubrics and templates, and creating formal shared agreements about what good instruction looks like and how it is assessed.

Visit the conference website: AMLE2018extlink