Agenda

Dr. Joi A. Spencer is Dean and Professor of UC Riverside's School of Education, where her work is centered on educational equity in higher and K-12 education. Joi’s research investigates the mathematics learning opportunities of African American and other minoritized youth. Along with colleagues Drs. Perla Myers and Odesma Dalrymple she founded, designed and now runs STEAM Academy. Now in their 11th year, these interactive 2-week summer learning labs serve middle and high school youth from under-resourced communities with the goal of shifting the narrative and outcomes of Black and Latinx students in mathematics and science. Dr. Spencer has chaired the Editorial Board for the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education (JRME), served as the president of the California Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (CAMTE) and sits on the National Association of Educational Progress’ (NAEP) Mathematics Standing Committee. Her most recent books Anti-Blackness at School: Creating Affirming Educational Spaces for African American Students (2023) and the upcoming, Understanding Anti-Blackness: A Primer for Educators, (both with Teachers College Press) draw on her 30+ years as an educator. Both elucidate how racism derails us all, and how intentional practices (pedagogical, structural, normative and technical) release brilliance, potential and solutions to society’s most challenging problems. Joi is a proud graduate of Downtown Business Magnet High School in Los Angeles. She holds BA and MA degrees from Stanford University and a PHD in mathematics education from UCLA.

Computing for Cooler Communities

Catalyst Room

Alec Barron, Director of the UC San Diego Science Project, UC San Diego

Rudy Escobar, STEM & Computer Science Coordinator, Stanislaus County Office of Education

In this hands-on workshop, participants will experience how the integration of computer science, data science, and science expands what disciplinary literacy looks like in elementary and middle school classrooms. Science disciplinary literacy includes collecting, visualizing, interpreting, and communicating with data. Facilitated by the UC San Diego Science Project in partnership with the Stanislaus County Office of Education, this session invites participants to step into the role of learners throughout.

Participants will program micro:bit physical computing devices to collect live temperature data, then use accessible visualization tools, including land surface temperature maps, schoolyard tree canopy data to investigate the inequities in infrastructure that create health vulnerabilities to extreme heat events. This investigation surfaces the ethical dimensions of disciplinary literacy in science: when students learn to read data critically, they also learn to ask who is most impacted by extreme heat, why those patterns exist, and how evidence can support advocacy for change in their own communities.

Participants will learn how to use the Cooler Communities instructional unit to design youth participatory action research projects that address environmental justice issues connected to extreme heat. Through a tour of classroom artifacts and stories from the field, participants will examine how students have put these literacies into practice, including an elementary urban heat island investigation in which students presented playground redesign proposals to district leaders at an Environmental Justice Showcase, and a middle school lesson sequence in which students used micro:bit sensors, radio networks, and both block-based and text-based programming to move from data collection to evidence-based design solutions.

Throughout the session, participants will engage in dialogue about what it means for students to be literate across science, computer science, and data science. Participants will leave with access to a Resource Hub of instructional units, data tools, and sensemaking routines ready for adaptation in their own contexts.

Exploring Disciplinary Literacy in Physical Education and Health Education

Innovation Room

Lori Suydam, Teacher Leader/Bay Area Physical Education-Health Project

Daniele Della Gala, Long Beach Physical Education-Health Project

What we’ve experienced, as students and perhaps seen as educators, has no doubt influenced our thoughts and perspectives on what disciplinary literacy in physical education and health education encompasses.

You’ll want to join us as we explore the complex world of disciplinary literacy in physical education and health education.
As behavior-based learning focused on informing multiple decisions made by each human being on a daily basis, the learning in physical education and health education is founded in a trifecta of knowledge, skill, and dispositions which impact the ability to plan, carry out, evaluate, and adjust decisions and actions each person makes toward their physical activity and their health.
When utilized in lesson design across the school day, the elements of disciplinary literacy from physical education and health education provide a rich web of learning connecting common elements of disciplinary literacy with all other disciplines establishing strong partnerships benefiting students.

Fostering Artistic Literacy: Exploring Text in the Arts

Artistry Room

Nicole Robinson, Executive Director, The California Arts Project

Ahran Koo, Regional Director, Central Valley, The California Arts Project

Christine Rudy-Reed, Regional Director, South Counties, The California Arts Project

Fostering Artistic Literacy: Exploring Text in the Arts examines how arts disciplines support literacy and language development while expanding and redefining the concept of “text” to include artistic processes and products.
This interactive session invites participants to explore Artistic Literacy as a dynamic way of knowing, communicating, and making meaning, with a focus on the California Arts Education Framework and California Arts Standards. Participants will engage in hands-on activities across dance, theatre, and visual arts. Together, we will examine how the California Arts Education Framework supports artistic literacy across disciplines and consider how the arts can honor past wisdom, deepen present learning, and inspire new possibilities for teaching, learning, and leadership.

Same Roots, Different Branches: Content and Disciplinary Literacy

Pathways Room

Shervaughnna Anderson, Executive Director, California Reading and Literacy Project

Literacy is essential across every content area, but reading, writing, reasoning, and communicating do not look the same in every discipline. While content literacy provides students with transferable strategies for accessing and learning academic content, disciplinary literacy develops the specialized ways of thinking, using evidence, interpreting information, and communicating that are valued within specific fields. Students need both to successfully navigate increasingly complex learning.

In this interactive session, educators will explore the important distinctions and connections between content literacy and disciplinary literacy and consider why both are essential for all learners. Participants will examine how historians, scientists, mathematicians, and literary scholars approach texts, evidence, language, and problems differently—and what these differences mean for classroom instruction.

Through collaborative activities, participants will experience the shift from simply helping students comprehend information to intentionally apprenticing them into the ways experts within a discipline build and communicate knowledge. Particular attention will be given to supporting multilingual learners, and students who may need additional access to complex texts and disciplinary practices while maintaining rigorous expectations.

Participants will leave with a practical framework for examining their own lessons through content and disciplinary literacy lenses. They will identify opportunities to strengthen knowledge building, literacy supports, disciplinary reasoning, evidence use, and academic communication so that students are not simply learning content, but developing the capacity to read, write, think, question, and communicate with increasing independence within and across disciplines.

Commemorating and Learning from the 250th Anniversary of the Anza Expedition: Decolonizing the curriculum through grounded inquiry

Catalyst Room

Thomas Herman, California Global Education Project and the California Geographic Alliance

Any useful reflection on 250 years of countryhood depends on thoughtful reflection on facts on the ground. This session will be a guided and grounded geo-historical inquiry into the events that led to the first permanent European settlement in the land we now call California. The learning journey uses primary source documents, mapping, and critical thinking to lead the audience to a deep and nuanced understanding of how our state (and any political territory) is defined by overlapping and intersecting human stories. These sources are integrated into one StoryMap that participants (and their students) will be able to explore on their own during and after the session. The stories of California's making are diverse. Though they exist in a common geography and it's tempting to align them into a single historical narrative, they are framed in different worldviews and can never be resolved into one reality. The persistence, perseverance, creative living, and (when necessary) resistance of people is what makes our state, our country, and any community worth celebrating. Note that the content of the presentation has special relevance to H-SS standards for 5th and 8th grades and to Ethnic Studies.

Statistical Literacy Across the Curriculum

Innovation Room

Kyndall Brown, Interim Executive Director, California Mathematics Project

Kristine Ho, Site Director, UCLA Math Project

The American Statistical Association guidelines for instruction state that every high school graduate should be able to use sound statistical reasoning to intelligently cope with the requirements of citizenship, employment, and family and to be prepared for a healthy, happy, and productive life. In this session, participants will engage in the statistical reasoning process to make sense of real world data, and reflect on how to apply this process in their own content area.

Students as Knowledge Producers: Expanding Engagement in Disciplinary Literacy

Artistry Room

Beth Slutsky, Deputy Director, California History-Social Science Project
Dawniell Black, Executive Director, California History-Social Science Project
Sareena Crawford, Marchand Public Engagement Intern, California History-Social Science Project

How can positioning students and teachers as researchers, historians, and creators of knowledge – rather than simply consumers of information – expand opportunities for meaningful literacy engagement? This session explores how the California History-Social Science Project (CHSSP) uses archival research, local history, media literacy, and community partnerships to deepen disciplinary literacy. Through these experiences, students learn to analyze evidence, evaluate information, construct interpretations, and communicate knowledge to public audiences. Three examples illustrate how this approach has influenced teacher practice and student learning. A partnership with the Yolo County Archives supported teachers in developing locally-focused curriculum projects. Through History Labs, university students collaborated with elementary-school students to investigate their communities’ histories using primary sources connected to the places they call home. Media literacy workshops and curriculum projects have also reshaped disciplinary literacy in the social sciences while extending the CHSSP’s reach. Together, these initiatives demonstrate how locally relevant, inquiry-driven learning can position students and teachers as active producers of knowledge. Participants will leave with adaptable ideas for using primary sources, community partnerships, and media analysis to expand literacy engagement in their own educational settings.

Teaching Literacy in the Secondary Classroom: Practical Strategies for Multilingual Learners

Pathways Room

Christina Estrada, Co-Director, Berkeley World Language Project, UC Berkeley

How can teachers intentionally develop literacy skills while helping students build proficiency in a new language? This session explores practical, classroom-ready strategies for integrating reading and writing instruction into the high school multilingual classroom.

Participants will explore approaches for teaching literacy as more than vocabulary and grammar practice. The session will highlight strategies for supporting students as they read authentic and adapted texts, develop reading fluency, build comprehension, and communicate ideas through writing. Particular attention will be given to scaffolds that make grade-appropriate texts accessible to learners at different proficiency levels without lowering expectations.

The session will also address ways to make literacy instruction engaging and meaningful through culturally relevant texts, student choice, collaborative learning, and purposeful writing tasks. Participants will leave with practical tools, sample activities, and strategies they can immediately adapt for their own classrooms.

Whether teaching emerging or developing multilingual learners, educators will gain a framework for making literacy a consistent and intentional part of their classroom instruction while supporting students’ overall language proficiency and confidence.

Tuesday, October 6, 2026

Wednesday, October 7, 2026