Plant the Seeds of Joyful Reading This Spring

Margarita Pérez García
Free Voluntary Reading: Free to Read but Still Accountable?
How do we let students read for themselves—completely free—yet still stay in the loop? In this session, discover how to run a reading program that empowers learners to select their own texts, read as much as they like, and remain accountable. Learn ways to monitor reading attitudes, track progress, and seamlessly weave reading into the curriculum—without losing its joy. Expect practical, autonomy-focused strategies that spark authentic engagement.

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Eric Richards
Engaging Students with Reading
Dr. Bill VanPatten said it best, when he stated, "For maximum vocabulary development, learners need to read all along the way." But, for educators, the question is, "How can we make reading enjoyable and drive our students to engage with the text?" Find out in this interactive presentation as we use excerpts from readers (available on Voces) to look at simple, practical activities that help increase student engagement and understanding.

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Mike Peto
Zero Prep Reading for True Beginners
Are you putting off reading with your lower-level students because you don't think that they are prepared for the text? Let's develop a simple routine so that you'll be reading painlessly with your beginners from day one!! We will discuss (1) making the most of community-created Write & Discuss texts, (2) finding a balance between extensive and repeated reading, and (3) the recent success that I have had in my own classes with scaffolding for beginners.

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Mira Canion
Literacy Pirates: Plundering Language Skills through Novels
See how to navigate three strategies while using CI novels: special person interviews, mapping the setting, and dramatic performances of key scenes.

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Adriana Ramírez
Enhance Your Classroom with Adriana Ramírez's Novels and Teacher's Guides
Are you a fan of Adriana Ramírez's work? Thinking about reading one of her novels with your class or already doing so? Discover how to effectively use her teacher's guides to enhance language learning and cultural exploration. Join this session to learn about her books, get tips on incorporating them into your curriculum, and ask questions about the best titles for each grade level. Some of her books will be raffled during this session.

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Justin Slocum Bailey
Reading with Flangoo: More Books for Them, More Freedom for You
Independent reading? Check. Class novels? Check. Optional assessments? Check. With almost 300 readers and counting, housed on a beautifully simple online platform, Flangoo is both an ever-expanding library and a practical tool for helping learners become eager, successful readers. See how Flangoo can simplify your life as a teacher and your students' lives as language learners through page-turning encounters with language and culture!

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Cécile Lainé
Our First Classroom Novel: Student Voice and Choice
Doing a class novel for the first time with our Novice Learners can be a daunting task: Will my students like it? Will they understand it? Will they retain anything? Using a powerful student-centered approach to selecting, reading, and assessing a novel, this session will empower you to make your first class novel a rewarding adventure for both you and your Novice students.

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AC Quintero
Read the Room: 3 Ways to Keep Students Hooked on Reading
How can we make reading in the world language classroom more engaging, interactive, and meaningful? Discover three powerful strategies to keep students hooked on reading—engaging with the text, engaging with each other, and leveraging communicative skills in the target language. Whether you're using novels, short stories, or authentic texts, you'll walk away with practical, low-prep ideas to make reading an active, student-centered experience.

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Laura Adams

Using Stories and Readers to Teach and Learn Languages Stories provide an immediate context and help to generate a springboard of activities for students to read, write, and speak in the target language. From building geographical knowledge to cultural understanding, reading helps to engage students in a more dynamic, authentic journey of understanding grammar, vocabulary, global awareness and communication skills. In this session, learn ideas that work well in achieving these goals!

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Bryan Kandel
Building Bridges: Preparing Students to Read Challenging Texts
What do we do when a novel, article, or other reading contains vocabulary our students do not know yet, or cultural concepts that they have never heard of, or grammar they have never studied? In this session, we will discuss strategies for before and during reading to prepare our students to engage with texts and grow from the experience.

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Andrea Caulfield
8 Reading Activities That Will Work With Any Whole-Class Novel
This session will support you from start to finish as you read a novel with your class. We'll examine 8 flexible strategies that work with any whole-class novel, including how to build excitement about the text before students start reading, strategies that promote 'sneaky' re-reading of each chapter, activities that leverage higher-order thinking and textual analysis, and ways to wrap up your novel study meaningfully!

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Erica Peplinski-Burge
Voces "Our Story": A Story From Start to Finish
Join us for an interactive session on the power of storytelling in the language classroom! Discover how stories create a sense of belonging, build cultural connections, and foster inclusivity among learners. Explore key storytelling techniques, from introducing vocabulary with TPR to using PQA and pre- and post-story activities. Walk away with strategies to weave language, culture, and connection seamlessly into your teaching through the art of storytelling.

View the recording here.