STLinATL

Cancel your registration for the Trauma Trade Show Conference.  Learning how poor kids learn can wait. The most significant trauma in education has been perpetrated on educators. You’re confused right now, so you need my coaching. During this keynote, based on my upcoming book, I’ll stand you in front of a mirror and hold you there until you see who I see. I will whisper to your soul and show you who you are.

How do we learn about our various group identities like female, African American, Buddhist, gay, middle class, etc.? Why do some people develop proud and healthy self identity and others experience own-group shame and hatred? How do identity dynamics show up in the classroom? Learn how we can, in age appropriate ways, support positive self identity in our students and teach them to be positive influences on others' identities. Together, we can co-create inclusive communities that work toward success for all.

Cognitive science has provided solid evidence for strategies like retrieval practice–but those strategies only work if they’re applied to substantive content or transferable skills. Too often, literacy instruction emphasizes isolated skills, such as “making inferences,” which do not easily transfer across subjects. The overwhelming focus on such skills at lower grade levels, combined with a failure to recognize the heavy cognitive load imposed by reading and especially writing, leaves many students without the knowledge and skills assumed by the curriculum later on. Even in the age of AI, it’s crucial to have that knowledge and those skills stored in long-term memory. To unlock every student’s potential, we must dismantle the artificial barriers between reading, writing, and learning—both in research and in the classroom.