NM PED 2026 Literacy and Humanities Summer Conference

As schools shift toward evidence-based literacy instruction, you are likely balancing high expectations with an already full plate. Meaningful improvements do not come from adding more to your workload; they come from identifying what you can remove to make space for practices that truly support student learning.

In this session, you will learn how to intentionally let go of routines, materials, or programs that aren't supported by research or data. Using the analogy of "pulling weeds and planting flowers," you will explore how clearing away less effective practices allows evidence-based instruction to take root and thrive in your classroom. Together, we will reflect on what is working, what may be crowding your "garden," and how to use student data to guide your next steps. You will leave with practical strategies based on implementation science and reflective tools to help you focus instruction, strengthen classroom practices, and improve student outcomes.h.

Designing instruction to support reading comprehension can be a daunting task. This session introduces a Comprehension Framework designed to support the planning and implementation of instruction that attends to the language strands of Dr. Scarborough’s Reading Rope.

Attendees will utilize a sample text to practice planning and implementing effective comprehension instruction using this structured approach. The framework enables diverse learners across all grades to access grade-level-appropriate text while strengthening vocabulary, background knowledge, syntax, and more. You will leave with a clear process for ensuring your instructional design aligns with the necessary components for skilled reading.

Foundational literacy is often reduced to "cracking the code," yet a child’s oral language proficiency is a strong predictor of long-term reading success. Hulme and Snowling’s recent model, the Reading is Language Model (2025), expands on the Simple View of Reading to demonstrate that language is the primary contributor and the basis of all literacy learning, including both word learning and comprehension. This session explores an expanded definition of foundational skills, positioning oral language, specifically vocabulary depth, syntactic complexity, and frequent peer-to-peer speaking, as the essential building block for later reading comprehension.

In this interactive session, participants will gain an understanding of the role of language as the "glue" for foundational skills. You will discover practical ways to integrate robust oral language development into daily foundational routines, ensuring students are not just decoding words, but are building the linguistic wealth necessary for true comprehension.

TBA

In this session, discover how explicitly teaching decoding and word parts can transform the way students read, spell, and write. When students understand phonics, morphology, and word origins, complex academic words become less intimidating and far more meaningful.

Grounded in structured literacy, this engaging session will show how morphology can be woven into everyday instruction to boost reading, spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension across grade levels and content areas. Participants will explore how breaking down words into prefixes, suffixes, and roots provides a "key" that unlocks the meaning of thousands of related words. Walk away inspired and equipped with knowledge and practical ideas that make word learning powerful, purposeful, and fun.

This session highlights the successful implementation of Reading Apprenticeship and Disciplinary Literacy at Raton High School (grades 7–12). Participants will examine leadership moves, instructional shifts, student impact, and replicable practices that contributed to measurable improvement.

This session is intentionally designed to be highly interactive so participants can actively engage with the strategies and leadership practices shared. Rather than a traditional presentation format, attendees will participate in structured reflection, collaborative discussion, and analysis of real instructional artifacts from Raton High School.

Join this high-energy, practical session designed to equip you with research-based Smart Literacy Centers that truly work. You will discover how to bring joy back to reading and writing by creating centers that are rigorous, meaningful, and easy to maintain. Imagine setting up centers that you do not have to change for nine weeks while your students engage in complex literacy tasks that build real, lasting skills.

In this session, you will learn how these centers support all five components of reading, including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. You will explore how to align these tasks seamlessly with State Standards, Content Area Standards, and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge levels using materials you already have. These strategies are simple to implement, highly effective, and sustainable. By moving beyond worksheets toward hands-on, purposeful tasks, you will help your students strengthen deep literacy skills and stay engaged in their learning. You will walk away inspired and ready to launch Smart Literacy Centers that make a meaningful difference in your classroom.