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Sessions, Speakers, and Guidebook

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Confirmed Conference Speakers

 

Dr. Kate Kinsella

Kate Kinsella, Headshot
 Kate Kinsella, Ed.D. is an emeritus teacher educator at San Francisco State University and a highly sought after speaker and consultant for school districts throughout the U.S. Her 30-year career focus has been equipping youths from diverse backgrounds with the academic communication, reading, and writing skills to be truly college and career ready. A K-12 teacher’s teacher, Dr. Kinsella maintains classroom involvement by writing curriculum, co-teaching lessons, and coaching teachers and administrators. She is the author of multiple programs to support English learners and striving readers, including READ 180, English 3D, and the Academic Vocabulary Toolkit. Dr. Kinsella has served as the lead scholar on three successful U.S. Department of Education funded research initiatives to improve academic speaking and writing skills for K-12 English learners.

 

Heidi Koski

Headshot photo of Heidi Koski
 Heidi Koski is a nationally recognized expert on language-based ELD instruction. She has recently used her expertise to develop C.S.I. (Comprehension Skill Investigation), which is are how-to procedures for complex texts during “close read” segments that target parsing out essential syntax structures with academic text to ensure content knowledge and the development of summarization. In addition, she also provides trainings on the interrelatedness of reading texts to academic writing tasks for all classroom teachers as well as how to propel academic classroom discourse.
For the past 25 years, Heidi has worked with thousands of teachers and administrators across the country to implement high-engagement methods during targeted language instruction as well as develop discrete English language skills for academic results. You might recognize her from IDEAL, a portal used in the past by OELAS, where you could find 30-hour video-based ELD methods training curriculum for the state of Arizona featuring various ELD methods. Heidi also has a legion of ELD coaches across the country with whom she has worked to prepare them for leadership roles in their respective schools, districts, county offices, and state-level education agencies.

 

 

Breakout sessions will be tailored to elementary and secondary levels as well as the following topics:

  • Compensatory Instruction for ELs and Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (RFEP) Students
  • Continued Support for RFEP Students
  • Dual-labeled ELs: How to Best Provide Both Services
  • Effective English Language Development (ELD) Programs, beyond compliance
  • Effective Integrated Instruction for ELs
  • Effective Targeted ELD Instruction
  • Effective Use of the English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS)
  • Formative Assessment Practices (Principle 4 of the LDA)
  • Intentional Language Scaffolds and Linguistic Supports for ELs (Supports for reading, listening, speaking, and/or writing)
  • Parent, Family, and Community Engagement, specific to ELs
  • Using and Analyzing EL Data to Inform Programs and/or Instruction

 

Conference Schedule 

 

 

 2025 OELAS CONFERENCE RESOURCES ARE STILL AVAILABLE:

HOW TO ACCESS THE GUIDEBOOK FOR THE FIRST TIME:

  • From your device’s app store, locate and download the free Guidebook app.
  • Once downloaded, open the app.
  • Create a free account** (click on the circle in the upper right-hand corner of your device).
    **If creating a new account, you may consider using the email address you used for your conference registration.

HOW TO ACCESS OUR GUIDE:

  • Open the Guidebook app on your device.
  • Sign in to your Guidebook account.
  • SEARCH for "2025-2026 OELAS Conference" or "OELAS 2025-2026" (you may have to scroll down a short list)
    • Search under the "This Space" section.

  • Please note: While you have the ability to build your personal schedule in the app, please be aware that “adding the session to your schedule” does NOT reserve a seat in the session. This feature is simply an opportunity save the sessions you would like to attend. All session attendance will be on a first come, first serve basis. We have plenty of seats across eight session choices to accommodate everyone attending. 

    QR code to quickly download Guidebook and access the conference guide:

     

    2025 OELAS Conference - Guidebook Access

    If using Guidebook web (the web-based version), click this link (https://builder.guidebook.com/g/oelas2025-2026/) to access Guidebook web for the conference guide online***. Once there, create or log in to your account to personalize your schedule and interact with conference attendees.

    ***Please note that not all options or capabilities are available in the web-based version. 

 

For questions regarding the OELAS Conference, please reach out via email at [email protected].

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