Gather in Community: Welcome and Keynote Session with Dr. Anita Archer

Day 1 Opening Session 8:30 AM - 9:00 AMGather in Community: Welcome & IntroJoin us for a warm welcome to kick off Day 1 of the conference. We’ll begin by recognizing outstanding authors with the Gwen Frostic Educator Awards, honoring those who have made a lasting impact in the field of education. 9:00 AM - 10:00 AMKeynote General Session: Dr. Anita Archer - Polishing Your Practices in 2026We are excited to welcome Dr. Anita Archer as our keynote speaker for Day 1. In her session, "Polishing Your Practices in 2026," Dr. Archer will share her expertise developed over years of serving as an educational consultant to state departments and school districts on explicit instruction and literacy. An award-winning consultant, Dr. Archer has served on the faculties of three universities, including University of Washington, University of Oregon, and San Diego State University. She has co-authored numerous curriculum materials, including Phonics for Reading (Curriculum Associates), a three-level intervention program, REWARDS (Voyager/Sopris), a five-component literacy intervention program, and a best-selling textbook titled Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching (Guilford Publications). Dr. Archer offers a unique opportunity to explore effective, evidence-based instruction. Let’s come together, celebrate educators, and learn from this transformative journey in literacy education! Polishing your Practices in 2026 A great deal of attention is being paid to the content of reading programs to ensure alignment with the Science of Reading research. However, to optimize students’ learning gains, the Science of Reading must be wedded to the Science of Instruction.  Only with effective instruction will we have strong outcomes. In this session, Dr. Archer will review the essential elements of effective, efficient explicit instruction and how they apply across a variety of literacy content.