2017 Annual Conference

Beth Ruff, Ed.D. LPC
LaShawn Thomas, M.Ed.

Elementary

Counselors are uniquely qualified to help students overcome barriers that are negatively impacting their academic achievement. Come learn how two school counselors turned their love of Dr. Seuss into an innovative strategy to build confidence, motivation, and interest in reading. Put on your striped hat and come play with "Oobleck," while we discuss how this cross-grade level peer mentoring program fosters positive relationships, good character, and confidence in reading. 

Professional School Counselors will identify their unique qualifications to help close the gap in reading achievement data.

Professional School Counselors will be able to discuss underlying negative attitudes and beliefs that could be influencing  student performance in reading.

Professional School Counselors will be able to identify data sources and utilize surveys to assess reading achievement gaps in their school. 

Professional School Counselors will participate in creative interventions to encourage positive relationships and confidence in reading.

Professional school Counselors will gain valuable resources and interventions on building confidence in disinterested and /or unmotivated readers through a cross grade level peer mentoring program. 

Professional School Counselors will be able to identify data sources and utilize surveys to measure the impact of their counseling program. 

Outline 

1) Ice Breaker - Fox in Socks - find your peer mentor (Audience Participation)

2) Dr. Seuss Quotes  about Reading

3) Why do some students hate to read and what can we do about it

4) How to identify "Bubble" students to impact school achievement data

5) Striped Hat Readers- Specific examples of the intervention and lessons 

• Specific Dr. Seuss books to foster confidence, motivation, and responsibility

6) Dr. Seuss on the Loose- Examples of activities to extend lesson and reading comprehension  (Audience Participation) Green Eggs snack and play with Oobleck (Handouts - Oobleck recipe and chart with breakdown for Dr. Seuss Books) 

• Book Title	Character Lesson	Activity
  The Cat in the Hat	Choices and Consequences	Paper striped hats
  Horton Hatches the Egg	Responsibility-Trustworthy	Decorating plastic eggs
  Green Eggs & Ham	Perseverance	Green Eggs & Ham snack
  How the Grinch stole Christmas	Appreciation-Positive attitude in the face of adversity	Grinch ornaments
  Oh The Places you’ll Go	Goal Setting	Goal setting craft
  Bartholomew and the Oobleck	Taking responsibility for your actions	Make Oobleck
  Happy Birthday to You	Positive Self-esteem	Birthday cupcakes

7) Analyzing your Data - Post-test,  Benchmark scores, and teacher feedback (Handout -Post-test examples) 

8) Questions and Give aways