Reaching All Learners Speaker Series 2026
The Reaching All Learners Speaker Series brings you cutting-edge ideas and strategies to make learning engaging, inclusive, and meaningful for every student. These sessions will inspire fresh approaches to teaching and help you create classrooms where all children can thrive as literate, confident learners.
You’ll explore innovative ways to reimagine engagement through hip-hop pedagogy, foster agency and purpose in young writers, deepen inclusion and representation of Indigenous cultures and histories, and differentiate instruction for students who struggle with word recognition.
These nationally recognized author-educators will challenge your thinking, spark inspiration, and provide the tools and ideas to make a lasting impact in your classroom, school, and community. You’ll leave with fresh ideas for making a real difference in every child’s learning, every day.
- Classroom Teachers K–8
- Interventionists/Specialists
- Literacy Coaches/Teacher Leaders
- School & District Leaders
- Series Bundle: $100
- Individual Speaker: $35
Heidi Anne Mesmer
Edmund Adjapong
Stella Villalba
Wunneanatsu
Lamb-Cason
Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Time in Text: Differentiating Instruction for Intermediate Students Struggling with Word Recognition
Heidi Anne Mesmer is the co-author of There’s Research for That: Your K-5 Literacy Instruction Questions Answered.
This will not be recorded.
About Heidi Anne Mesmer
Heidi Anne E. Mesmer is a Professor in Literacy Education at Virginia Tech, who examines the impact of texts on readers’ development. She is published in Reading Research Quarterly, The Educational Researcher, Elementary School Journal, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly. Her work focuses on problems of practice and has policy implications.
Mesmer’s work in the early 2000s examined the impact of decodability on beginning readers informing a heated national debate. This work expanded to address the full range of textual scaffolds for beginners (e.g., word, sentence, and discourse levels) and culminated in a model of early grades text. A second line of work, motivated by the K-3 text difficulty increases in the Common Core, empirically tested increases on readers and challenged the evidence for claims. Recent work has examined technical limitations of readability formulas and the nature of vocabulary in texts.
Mesmer has been the principal investigator for eight grants aimed at improving K-5 reading instruction and been supported by the Spencer Foundation/AERA/IES. She is the author of several books for K-5 including Big Words for Young Readers: Teaching Kids in K-5 to Decode- And Understand Words with Multiple Syllables and Morphemes (Scholastic) and recently, There’s Research for That: Your K-5 Literacy Questions Answered. She regularly delivers keynotes to schools, state departments of education, non-profits, and educational companies.
Monday, February 9, 2026
Exploring Hip-Hop Pedagogy to Support Student Achievement and Engagement
Edmund Adjapong is the author of Teach Like An MC: Hip-Hop Pedagogy in the K-12 Classroom
This will not be recorded.
About Edmund Adjapong
Edmund Adjapong, Ph.D., is a dynamic educator, author, scholar, and community-based practitioner whose innovative approach to teaching leverages hip-hop culture as a transformative tool in educational spaces. He is the Director of the Hip-Hop Culture, Equity, and Excellence Academy and Associate Professor of Educational Studies at Seton Hall University. Edmund’s work sits at the intersection of culturally responsive pedagogy, youth culture, and equity-driven education. His research and practice focus on exploring how hip-hop can be utilized to connect with students, foster positive educational outcomes, and challenge systemic inequities within K-12 schools and beyond.
March 19, 2026
Wondrous Learning Environments: Nurturing Conditions for Writers to Grow
In this session, Stella Villalba will expand on some of the principles described in the latest edition of Wondrous Words: Reimagining Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom. This session will focus on the learning conditions that support the growth of writers in elementary classrooms. Some of these learning conditions include: time to explore mentor texts, naming craft moves, and students sharing with intentionality and purpose.
Stella Villalba is the co-author of Wondrous Words: Reimagining Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom
This will not be recorded.
About Stella Villalba
April 15, 2026
Bringing Indigenous Histories, Cultures, and Voices Into Classrooms
Learn how to present Indigenous cultures and histories as living, ongoing, and relevant—not confined to the past or special occasions. Join us and learn how to move beyond surface-level inclusion to center Indigenous voices and perspectives in K-8 classrooms. Together, we’ll explore practical strategies for evaluating texts and materials, avoid harmful stereotypes, and create classroom environments that honor Indigenous identity and presence today.
About Wunneanatsu Lamb-Cason
Cancellation Deadline & Refund Policies
Cancellation Policy: Refunds are not available for this series. Substitution requests are acceptable. Please e-mail centerliteracyteaching@lesley.edu.
Requirements for Participation
In order to receive your certificate of attendance, you will be asked to complete a digital one-page insight form. We will provide more information about this process after each session. Please allow our team 2-3 weeks to process your certificate.
The New Benchmark Assessment System 2.0 (System 1, Levels A-P)
This two-day workshop will help you learn how to use the new BAS 2.0 system to pinpoint student strengths and needs as readers, including oral reading behaviors, fluency, comprehension, writing about reading, and phonological awareness and early phonics skills.
The New Benchmark Assessment System 2.0 (System 2, Levels K-Z)
In this two-day workshop learn how to use BAS 2.0 to pinpoint students’ reading behaviors and instructional needs with word-solving, fluency, and comprehension.
Reading Fluency: So Much More than Reading Fast!
In this fast-paced workshop, you’ll explore the key dimensions of reading fluency and learn how to assess and teach for automaticity and expression across whole-group, small-group, and individual instruction.