69th MRA Conference

Participants will explore how to develop student voice through quick writes that align with a theme from a text. Through thoughtful book choice, conversation, and writing prompts, participants will explore ways to use text to garner opportunities for students to write about their own lives. Sample structures and collaboration with others around text and through quick writes will also be explored.

This session will introduce participants to “Stories of Leadership & Liberation,” an innovative curriculum that uses select picture books to affirm, challenge, and deepen notions of leadership for children and adult learners. The liberatory texts center themes of communication, trust, and decision making. Participants will engage in dialogue, interactive read-aloud, and critical text analysis. Maren Oberman is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Marsal Family School of Education in Ann Arbor, MI. She teaches in both undergraduate- and graduate- teacher- and leader-preparation programs. Her work uses both literature and history to support students' growth and development, advance justice-oriented education, interrogate white supremacy, and de-center whiteness, through the teaching of courses such as Stories of Leadership & Liberation, Exploring Whiteness, Introduction to Leadership Development, and Teaching to Transgress. Oberman also provides consultation and professional development to individuals, teams, schools, and organizations in the areas of racial identity development, intergroup dialogue, and justice aims.

Seeking a literacy resource to enhance instruction & engage families? There's an app, a show, and a Michigan platform for that! Explore the PreK-Grade 5 literacy program, Read, Write, ROAR!, aligned with Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy. Discover ways to support literacy development in and out of school (e.g., summer learning & family engagement efforts) with this free resource!