On Monday, June 10th, Penguin Random House Education and DK Learning co-hosted a Reading with Purpose Summit Event in collaboration with Molly Ness, PhD. The event took place at Penguin Random House’s NYC headquarters and included sessions featuring leading education experts and a lunchtime author panel.
The in-person professional learning event was built to show educators how they can maximize the benefits of phonics instruction, with an eye towards growing their students into readers of authentic texts, namely books that are fun, of high interest, and focus on fostering and affirming reader identities to create lifelong readers. Attendees included K-5 teachers, librarians, professors of education, education distributors, and PRH/DK staff.
Welcome and Frame the Day
Molly Ness, PhD.
Featured speakers included Melissa Orkin, PhD, Esther Klein Friedman, PhD., and Doug Distefano, PhD whose sessions included: : “Fluency Routines to Accompany Decodable Texts”, “Ins and (Getting) Out of Decodable Text: The Value of Decodable Text and Methods for Transitioning to Authentic Text”, and “The Role of Authentic Text in Upper Elementary Grades”, respectively.
Fluency Routines to Accompany Decodable Texts
Melissa Orkin, PhD.
Ins and (Getting) Out of Decodable Text: The Value of Decodable Text and Methods for Transitioning to Authentic Text
Esther Klein Friedman, PhD.
The Role of Authentic Text in Upper Elementary Grades
Doug Distefano, PhD.
The event also featured an exciting lunchtime panel of award-winning Penguin Random House authors discussing their books: Veera Hiranandani (Amil and the After, Kokila), Greg Pizzoli (Lucky Duck, Knopf Books for Young Readers), and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich (Operation Sisterhood, Yearling).
Panel Discussion with Penguin Random House Featured Authors
moderated by Molly Ness, PhD.
Molly Ness, PhD. moderated the author panel and led a discussion and Q&A with the featured speakers that afternoon.
Panel Discussion and Q and A with Featured Speakers
moderated by Molly Ness, PhD.
“It was really fantastic to have this unique opportunity to connect with educators and showcase the power of our Phonic Books offering in person,” said Kristen Pozzuoli, Assistant Director, Education and Library Marketing.
“The event combined the best of what PRH and DK Learning have to offer: high quality authentic texts authored by diverse creators and top-notch instructional materials crafted by education thought leaders, respectively,” said Michael Gentile, VP Education Sales & Marketing.
The event provided an opportunity for educators to learn how to engage strategies to maximize diverse types of texts with students of all levels and abilities, offered an understanding of the role of various text types, and affirmed the use of read-alouds, independent reading, and the role of classroom and school libraries.
