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Dr. Katherine McKnight

Education Avenger

Dr. Katherine McKnight is a dynamic presenter, dedicated teacher, and award-winning author. Dr. McKnight began her career in education over 30 years ago as a middle school and high school English and social studies teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. In addition to speaking at professional development conferences, she is a regular consultant in schools and classrooms in the United States and Internationally.

Dr. McKnight’s 15-year distinguished university career culminated in her assignment to Distinguished Professor of Research at National Louis University. She is the founder of Engaging Learners, an educational company built around her successful Literacy and Learning Center model. Her work in educational leadership, literacy and student skill development has resulted in unprecedented academic achievement in many struggling schools.

Dr. McKnight has received several awards for her publications and teaching at the university level. She has authored 21 books that support educational strategies to engage all learners. Her titles include the best-selling The Teacher’s Big Book of Graphic Organizers, winner of the 2013 Teachers’ Choice Award and Literacy & Learning Centers for the Big Kids, grades 4-12. Most recently, she founded Coffee with Katie and Richard webinars (with renowned educator and author, Dr. Richard Cash during the COVID 19 pandemic as a weekly forum to bring together educators to engage in professional learning.

Categories: Educator, Educator - AEIs Most Popular Educators, Educator - Assessment and Grading, Educator - Common Core Standards, Educator - Differentiated Instruction, Educator - Growth Mindset, Educator - Inquiry Instruction, Educator - Literacy and Reading, Educator - Math, Educator - Technology and 21st Century Learners, Educator - Virtual Learning

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View Dr. Katherine McKnight's

Videos

Topics

Virtual Learning Topic

Developing Reading and Literacy in an e-Learning Context

Literacy

Keynote:
A Plan for Success: Merging Literacy and Self-Regulation to Increase Achievement (grades K-12)
Our students’ personal abilities to appropriately manage their affect, behaviors, and cognition (ABCs) are critical for college and career readiness. Self-regulation for learning is the ability to effectively balance the ABCs to pursue worthy academic goals. Join this session to learn a holistic approach to assisting all students (from special education to gifted education) in gaining greater social/emotional well-being, developing scholarly behaviors, and acquiring valuable thinking tools to be successful in school and beyond.

Recently featured on the Teaching Channel.

Format: 60-90-120 minute presentation, Half Day session, or Full Day session

Suggested Companion Book: Cash, R. M. (2016). Self-regulation in the classroom: Helping students learn how to learn. Free Spirit Publishing.

Workshops:
1. Literacy & Learning Centers: The Intersection of Content Knowledge and Literacy Skills
Dr. Katie McKnight has a 100% success rate in achieving academic gains with her unique, centers-based approach. Elementary schools have long used learning centers, stations and rotations, but middle and high school teachers have unique challenges. So Katie worked with teachers all over the country to develop collaborative learning centers designed specifically for grade 4-12 learners. In this session readers can explore the research that prompted the creation of the LLC model for big kids and learn how to start using it in their own classrooms.

Learn about the four foundational centers that are integral to the model. Find out how to set up additional centers in order to customize the LLC model for any content-area classroom. Learn to create developmentally appropriate tasks that automatically align instruction to standards/skills-based assessment, increase student engagement, and allow you to cover more content and skill-development in less time. Avoid discipline problems with self-directed activities that provide the independence students crave with the guidance they need.

Resources, teacher tips, and sample book lists are included.

Format: Half Day session or Full Day session

Suggested Companion Books: Literacy & Learning Centers for the Big Kids, and Literacy & Learning Centers: Content Area and Disciplinary Literacy Tools for Grades 4-12.

2. The Inclusive Literacy Classroom: What is it Exactly, and How to Build It
Our classrooms are filled with dynamic students with diverse learning needs. In this session you will learn the fundamentals of the inclusive classrooms for developing literacy skills including effective teaching strategies and differentiating instruction.

Format: 60-90-120 minute presentation, Half Day session, or Full Day session

3. Yes, Differentiating Text CAN Be a Good Practice
We teach diverse readers. In this session, we will focus on how to differentiate reading (in all subjects) for grades k-12 How do you select texts based on choice and complexity to motivate and engage students? Example differentiated book lists will be shared with participants.

Format: 60-120 minute session

4. Kids Love to Argue, We Need to Let Them (grades 4-12)
Teachers will find out how to prepare students in all content areas to write arguments and support claims with reasoned evidence and gain confidence in teaching a challenging skill that is important for students’ career and college readiness.

Format: Half Day session or Full Day session

5. Hands on Grammar and Vocabulary
Draw your students into the power of language and help them make the connection between abstract grammatical concepts, academic vocabulary, and concrete writing experiences. Dr. Katie McKnight, renowned author, speaker, and adolescent literacy specialist, shares will share classroom lessons that actively involve multiple intelligences and help students internalize concepts far more readily than traditional worksheets.

Format: 60-90-120 minute presentation, Half Day session, or Full Day session

Suggested Companion Book: Hands on Grammar (Second Edition)

6. Words, Words, Words: Making Academic Vocabulary Stick
Words matter. Our students must be skilled in the ability to determine and clarify word meanings and phrases that they encounter within the disciplines. When we take a systematic approach to the teaching of vocabulary, student achievement rises. In this session learn about engaging lessons and strategies to strengthen students’ vocabulary muscles!

Format: 60-90-120 minute presentation, Half Day session, or Full Day session

7. What Created the Knowledge Gap (and what we can do about it)
You know the reality. Over 65% of our students are not reading on level. This is a staggering statistic, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. What practices can educators leverage to close the gap? What does the research really indicate about grade-level text and differentiated reading? In this session, we will burrow into these questions, and you’ll emerge with some concrete answers and vision to create engaged and proficient readers in all disciplines.

Format: Keynote, 60-90 minute session

8. Disciplinary Literacy for Every Content Area, grades 5-12
Teachers will explore research-based, classroom-tested strategies for engaging students in rigorous texts that are relevant to a discipline or content area and learn how to develop a classroom environment that supports reading, writing and language development for learning

Format: Half Day session, Full Day session, or two Full Day sessions with coaching and practical application

SEL

Keynotes:
1. Yes, And: Developing Social-Emotional Learning with Academic Skills

Improv is an ideal pedagogical strategy for teaching and learning because it has both inherent structure and flexibility. As a teaching method, it facilitates a student’s ability to unlock textual meaning, generate ideas, and solve problems. Additionally, the principles of improv are all linked to SEL Guiding Principles. Through ensemble building, teamwork, sharing focus, and giving/receiving side-coaching, students learn to care, practice, ask, reflect, respect, communicate, and empower.

Recently featured on the Teaching Channel.

Formats: Keynote, Keynote with follow up breakout session, or Full Day session

Suggested Companion Book: McKnight, K. S., & Scruggs, M. (2008). The Second City guide to improv in the classroom: Using improvisation to teach skills and boost learning. John Wiley & Sons.

2. Do What Matters Most for Educators

In our research of more than 1,260 leaders, we found that 68% feel their biggest challenge is how to prioritize their time, yet 80% of those same people do not have a process to do what matters most. Consequently, teachers and administrators are reporting excessive stress and burnout at unprecedented levels. In this session, learn three high-performance habits you can use to prioritize time and focus and do what matters most for yourself AND your students.

Formats: Keynote, Keynote with follow up breakout session, or Full Day session

Suggested Companion Book: Shallenberger, R and Shallenberger, S. (2021). Do What Matters Most

Workshops:
1. The Inclusive Literacy Classroom: What is it Exactly, and How to Build It
Our classrooms are filled with dynamic students with diverse learning needs. In this session you will learn the fundamentals of the inclusive classrooms for developing literacy skills including effective teaching strategies and differentiating instruction.

Format: 60-90-120 minute presentation, Half Day session, or Full Day session

2. Promoting Equity and Social Justice in the Literacy Classroom
Our classrooms are filled with dynamic students with diverse learning needs. In this session, learn how to promote equity and social justice in classrooms while developing literacy skills.

Format: 60-120 minute session

Grading & Assessment

Workshops
1. Grading and Assessment for E-Learning and the Modern Classroom
The A, B, C, D, F grading system is as obsolete as a typewriter. The inherent issue isn’t that grading exists; it’s how we’re grading. Deep down we know there are better ways to evaluate student learning than assigning a percentage, a number, or a letter grade. Informed educators are aware of the substantial evidence indicating that the new paradigm of Skills/Standards-Based Grading (SBG) contributes greatly to meaningful learning. In this FREE webinar, you will learn how to develop Skills/Standards-Based Grading, even if you are required to use traditional letters and numbers as grades. You will also receive great resources to get started on your journey toward grading and assessment strategies that grow student student learning.

Format: Half Day session or Full Day session (Full Day session is preferred)

2. Using Assessment to Motivate, Support and Nurture ALL Learners
In this session, participants will learn how to use assessments and explicit feedback as powerful tools for nurturing a growth mindset. Additionally, participants will discover various assessment techniques: pre-assessments to determine needs for support prior to instruction or compacting; formative assessments to check for depth of learning; and summative assessment to encourage further study

Format: Half Day session or Full Day session

Instruction

Workshops
1. Literacy & Learning Centers: The Intersection of Content Knowledge and Literacy Skills
Dr. Katie McKnight has a 100% success rate in achieving academic gains with her unique, centers-based approach. Elementary schools have long used learning centers (also known as “rotations”) but middle and high school teachers have unique challenges. So Katie worked with teachers all over the country to develop collaborative learning centers designed specifically for grade 4-12 learners. In this session readers can explore the research that prompted the creation of the LLC model for big kids and learn how to start using it in their own classrooms.

Learn about the four foundational centers that are integral to the model. Find out how to set up additional centers in order to customize the LLC model for any content-area classroom. Learn to create developmentally appropriate tasks that automatically align instruction to standards/skills-based assessment, increase student engagement, and allow you to cover more content and skill-development in less time. Avoid discipline problems with self-directed activities that provide the independence students crave with the guidance they need.

Resources, teacher tips, and sample book lists are included.

Format: Half Day session or Full Day session

Suggested Companion Books: Literacy & Learning Centers for the Big Kids, and Literacy & Learning Centers: Content Area and Disciplinary Literacy Tools for Grades 4-12.

2. Hands on Grammar and Vocabulary
Draw your students into the power of language and help them make the connection between abstract grammatical concepts, academic vocabulary, and concrete writing experiences. Dr. Katie McKnight, renowned author, speaker, and adolescent literacy specialist, shares will share classroom lessons that actively involve multiple intelligences and help students internalize concepts far more readily than traditional worksheets.

Format: 60-90-120 minute presentation, Half Day session, or Full Day session

Suggested Companion Book: Hands on Grammar (Second Edition)

3. Yes, Differentiating Text CAN Be a Good Practice
We teach diverse readers. In this session, we will focus on how to differentiate reading (in all subjects) for grades k-12 How do you select texts based on choice and complexity to motivate and engage students? Example differentiated book lists will be shared with participants.

Format: 60-120 minute session

4. What Created the Knowledge Gap (and what we can do about it)
You know the reality. Over 65% of our students are not reading on level. This is a staggering statistic, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. What practices can educators leverage to close the gap? What does the research really indicate about grade-level text and differentiated reading? In this session, we will burrow into these questions, and you’ll emerge with some concrete answers and vision to create engaged and proficient readers in all disciplines.

Format: Keynote, 60-90 minute session

5. Promoting Equity and Social Justice in the Literacy Classroom
Our classrooms are filled with dynamic students with diverse learning needs. In this session, learn how to promote equity and social justice in classrooms while developing literacy skills.

Format: 60-120 minute session

Growth Mindset In a Collaborative Learning Model

Implementing a center-based learning approach to maximize instructional time by effectively integrating best practices, standards/skills based grading, differentiated instruction, collaboration, higher order thinking and rigorous activities and questioning. The session focuses on the relationship between instructional leaders, teachers and students that focuses on a growth mindset to foster contextual change. The growth mindset and collaborative learning approach is divided into three implementation phases: Phase 1- Change Physical Environment, Phase 2- Increase Cognitive Load, Phase 3- Assessment and Feedback

Books

Teaching Writing in the Inclusive Classroom: Strategies and Skills for All Students, Grades 6 - 12

Teaching Writing in the Inclusive Classroom: Strategies and Skills for All Students, Grades 6 - 12

Teaching Writing in the Inclusive Classroom offers teachers in grades 6-12 everything they need to help all students develop basic writing skills, relate writing to real-life tasks, and explore writing as a creative and enjoyable practice. Filled with fifty engaging activities, this hands-on resource is an important and valuable tool that can supplement any teacher's approach to writing instruction. Teaching Writing in the Inclusive Classroom offers strategies based on the proven TIP Writing Process that is designed to individualize the writing process by focusing on the specific needs of each student within the classroom.

You can purchase this book here

Teaching the Classics in the Inclusive Classroom: Reader Response Activities to Engage All Learners

Teaching the Classics in the Inclusive Classroom: Reader Response Activities to Engage All Learners

Teaching the Classics in the Inclusive Classroom offers teachers a practical resource for helping students in grades 6-12 connect to and appreciate classic literary works. The book is filled with high-interest and engaging exercises that work with a variety of learners (with a particular emphasis on students with special needs), utilizing "pre-reading," "during reading," and "after reading" activities. Many of these exercises help to strengthen reading comprehension while other activities are specifically designed to reinforce vocabulary skills, as these apply to selected classic texts. Using these exercises and techniques to teach the classics will help your students appreciate literature and become better critical thinkers, writers, and readers. The strategies and lessons in this book-which combine current practices in teaching literature, adolescent reading, and multiple intelligences-have been proven to work with all levels of readers, from average general education pupils to exceptional students who are mainstreamed in a regular education classroom. Teaching the Classics in the Inclusive Classroom uses the reader response theory to engage students in a dynamic process where they experience, explore, and synthesize meaning by actively connecting what they read to issues in their lives. With this book as your guide, your students will come to appreciate such classic works as The Canterbury Tales, Romeo and Juliet, The Scarlet Letter, Macbeth, The Odyssey, Antigone, The Crucible, and Great Expectations.

You can purchase this book here

The Second City Guide to Improv in the Classroom: Using Improvisation to Teach Skills and Boost Learning

The Second City Guide to Improv in the Classroom: Using Improvisation to Teach Skills and Boost Learning

Most people know The Second City as an innovative school for improvisation that has turned out leading talents such as Alan Arkin, Bill Murray, Stephen Colbert, and Tina Fey. This groundbreaking company has also trained thousands of educators and students through its Improvisation for Creative Pedagogy program, which uses improv exercises to teach a wide variety of content areas and boost skills that are crucial for student learning: listening, teamwork, communication, idea-generation, vocabulary, and more. The scores of ready-to-use exercises offered here can be used to teach a wide variety of subjects-including language arts, math, science, and social studies-as well as to build classroom community and develop cooperative learning skills. All of the lessons are linked to current national standards for the United States and Canada, and have been proven particularly effective with kinesthetic learners and students with attention difficulties.

You can purchase this book here

Teaching English in Middle and Secondary Schools

Teaching English in Middle and Secondary Schools

Ideal for pre-service and new teachers, this book shows what it's really like to step before a classroom of grade six to 12 students and make English language arts approachable and real. Presenting a constructivist approach that asks, "How can my students best learn?" and emphasizing reflective practice as the means to make the concepts clear, Teaching English in Middle and Secondary Schools, The fifth edition is filled with actual sample lessons plus classroom ideas and instructional strategies that give readers opportunities to explore what they are learning and see how theory and research relate to practice.

You can purchase this book here

The Teacher's Big Book of Graphic Organizers: 100 Reproducible Organizers that Help Kids with Reading, Writing, and the Content Areas

The Teacher's Big Book of Graphic Organizers: 100 Reproducible Organizers that Help Kids with Reading, Writing, and the Content Areas

Tap into the power of graphic organizers for classroom success Veteran educator and NCTE trainer Katherine McKnight shows how students can use graphic organizers as an important tool to organize new information. Providing a visual representation that uses symbols to express ideas, concepts, and convey meaning, graphic organizers help to depict relationships between facts, terms, and ideas. The author demonstrates how graphic organizers have proven to be a powerful teaching and learning strategy. Includes 100 graphic organizers-more than any comparable book Included graphic organizers can be used before-, during-, and after-learning activities across the content areas Contains easy-to-follow instructions for teachers on how to use and adapt the book's graphic organizers Offers strategies for teachers to create their own graphic organizers for different grade levels The author Katherine McKnight is a noted literacy educator.

You can purchase this book here

The English Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-To-Use Techniques and Materials for Grades 7-12

The English Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-To-Use Techniques and Materials for Grades 7-12

Problem-solving techniques for all aspects of the English teacher's job This unique time-saving book is packed with tested techniques and materials to assist new and experienced English teachers with virtually every phase of their job from lesson planning to effective discipline techniques. The book includes 175 easy-to-understand strategies, lessons, checklists, and forms for effective classroom management and over 50 reproducible samples teachers can adopt immediately for planning, evaluation, or assignments. It is filled with creative and functional ideas for reading response activities, writing assignments, group and individual projects, and speeches. Offers instructions for creating and implementing an effective classroom-wide behavior management program Shows how to practice the art of teaching English effectively and reduce time on labor intensive tasks Reveals how to work effectively with parents, colleagues, substitute teachers, administrators, and community resources The second edition includes coverage of technology in the classroom, advice for working with reluctant readers, a wealth of sample teaching units and more.

You can purchase this book here

The Elementary Teacher's Big Book of Graphic Organizers, K-5

The Elementary Teacher's Big Book of Graphic Organizers, K-5

Graphic organizers are a powerful metacognitive teaching and learning tool and this book features 100 graphic organizers for teachers in grades K-5-double the number of any other book on the market. These graphic organizers can be used as before learning, during learning, or after learning activities, and support students' learning in the major content areas: English language arts, science, social studies, and mathematics. Teachers can use each graphic organizer as-is or customize for their own classroom's unique needs. Tips for classroom implementation and information on how the tool supports learning A Difficulty Dial that indicates the complexity of each graphic organizer Two Student Samples demonstrating how the organizer may be used with younger and older students This book gives teachers in grades K-5 a powerful way to help students understand relationships between facts, terms, and ideas.

You can purchase this book here

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