NM PED 2026 Literacy and Humanities Summer Conference

In this session, you will explore practical strategies for strengthening student comprehension by harnessing the power of grammatical building blocks and syntactic awareness. You will learn how a function-first approach to grammar instruction can directly support meaning-making, helping students see how sentences are built to convey specific ideas.

Using free Reading Universe resources, including video demonstrations and ready-to-use instructional materials, you will build practical knowledge and skills for teaching syntax in ways that are immediately applicable to your classroom. You will discover how intentional instruction in grammar and sentence structure can transform a reader's ability to navigate and understand complex text. You will leave with a toolkit of routines that turn grammar from a dry subject into a dynamic key for unlocking deep comprehension.

Despite decades of reading research, a persistent gap remains between what the science of reading tells us and what happens in classrooms every day. While you may want to shift your practice toward evidence-based instruction, you might feel uncertain about where to start, what skills to prioritize, or how to teach those skills effectively. Reading Universe, a free online platform, directly addresses this challenge by serving simultaneously as a research library, a professional learning pathway, and a classroom-ready resource bank.

In this session, you will explore Reading Universe as a tool organized around three essential questions every literacy educator faces: What do I need to teach, why does it matter, and how do I teach it well? Through hands-on navigation of the platform, video analysis, and collaborative reflection, you will leave with both a deeper understanding of structured literacy and a concrete, accessible resource to support your ongoing professional growth.

In this engaging and interactive session, you will explore how to build capacity for disciplinary literacy in grades 6 through 12. Grounded in the science of reading, this session provides practical routines and strategies that support student comprehension, vocabulary, and knowledge building across all content areas at the middle and high school levels.

You will experience and examine examples of discipline-specific work being done in classrooms across New Mexico and leave with tools you can use immediately. Additionally, you will be introduced to the Reading Apprenticeship framework, which is an approach that supports student reading, thinking, and learning in every discipline. You will also learn how your school or district can access free training for teachers and administrators during the 2026–27 school year. By the end of this session, you will have a clear path for empowering your secondary students to master the complex texts of their specific subjects.