Literacy through Indigenous Joy and Student Ownership

Facilitator: Kat Page

Participants will explore how to create elective classes, clubs, or school-wide initiatives that engage students with a broader definition of literacy and have students seek to answer the Essential Question for themselves. People become lifelong readers and writers once they have the choice and ownership over what they are reading, and writing/creating. This session looks at how to engage students in creating their own literary journal, book club, and literacy nights that speak to their interests and their community interests.

SESSION 2

10:15 AM

Lumpkins Ballroom North

SESSION 4

1:00 PM

Lumpkins Ballroom North

6-12

“Storying” of the Land through Zine Pedagogy

Facilitator: Joshua Frank Cardenas

The goal of this workshop is to help relatives respond to the ancient, contemporary, and future needs of the community to carry, nurture, and create stories on the land. Students must have experiences on the land in order to honorably find, nurture, and create stories. Students must work with surviving and relevant materials and resources in a creative way. Students must tap into and develop their gifts, strengths, abilities, interests, community, languages, cultures, experiences & traditions. Zines as a creative format and methodology are introduced as a way to reinforce key literacy concepts such as the Reading and Writing Rope, as well as provide an uncensored medium for critical thinking, creative expression, and storying.

SESSION 2

10:15 AM

Sitha Room

SESSION 4

1:00 PM

Sitha Room

6-12

Language and Cultural Integration

Facilitators: Celeste Naranjo, Stacey Coonsis, Kolette Medicine

In this session, participants will discover dynamic strategies to help Native Language and elective educators seamlessly integrate language and culture into their Native Lit unit texts. Presenters bringing Pueblo, Lakota, and Diné perspectives will model engaging approaches using a Native Lit text and share multidisciplinary strategies aligned with the world-readiness standards for learning languages, specifically the 5 C’s: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities.

SESSION 3

9:15 AM

New Mexico Room

K-5

Native Lit in Action: Incorporating UDL Strategies that Invite Students into Native Literature

Facilitator: Sarah Caldwell

In this session, participants will engage in multimodal instructional techniques that encourage students' active and imaginative engagement. We will unpack Grade 5 Unit 1, focusing on The Birbark House, considering how to align unit resources with techniques and materials that invite students into the text and decrease cognitive load. Participants will experience lesson activities that engage all learners in clarifying vocabulary and language structures, build in opportunities for joy and play through theater games, and build community around a shared text.

SESSION 3

9:15 AM

Santa Fe Room

3-5

Document Based Questions (DBQs) to Build Student Fluency with Colonization and Reconnection & Healing

Facilitator: Diane Willie

Participants will be privy to understanding that the DBQ procedure is a writing process that will enlighten students on a historical subject, like Indian Boarding School, and provide in-depth critique about the evolution of removal and reconnection/healing of contemporary Indigenous peoples.

SESSION 3

9:15 AM

Lumpkins Ballroom South (Back)

SESSION 4

1:00 PM

Lumpkins Ballroom South (Back)

6-12

Indigenous Genius Hour to Support Students Becoming “Good Relatives” through Literacy and Land

Facilitator: Morgan Barraza

This session is for all those who seek to learn empowering strategies to make their classrooms student and community-centered. With current NACA Native Literature students, participants will learn first hand the successes and challenges of implementing a year long Indigenized Genius Hour Capstone Project implemented with a middle and high school classroom that centers Indigenous Joy, Collective Healing, Land Literacy, and Community Engagement.

SESSION 3

9:15 AM

Lumpkins Ballroom North

SESSION 4

1:00 PM

Lumpkins Ballroom North

6-12

Expansive Student Literacies Grounded in Critical Hope and Revolutionary Love

Facilitator: Kirin Rajagopalan (FREEdom School)

Many students come to school with an affinity for alternative literacies–poetry, art, tagging, music, etc—but struggle to identify themselves as readers and storytellers. We will explore strategies grounded in ethnic studies methodologies to re-engage students in embracing and expanding their literacy to support their growth as healers, hustlers, scholars, warriors and caretakers in their communities. This approach necessarily takes an interdisciplinary approach to literature, supporting students in developing reading, writing, and critical thinking skills to support developing a positive sense of identity alongside cultivating a sense of responsibility to the people and places they belong to.

BREAKOUT (6/18)

11:00 AM

Sitha Room

6-12

NACA Elementary 5th Grade Capstone, Native LIt Circle

Facilitators: Stacey Coonsis, Mr. Bellamy

In this session, participants will immerse themselves in the excitement of NACA Elementary’s inaugural 5th Grade Capstone: Native Lit Circles. Six incredible NACA 5th graders will lead discussions on self-selected Native Lit texts, showcasing their knowledge and critical thinking. This is a unique opportunity to witness the power of student-led learning in action, and participants will be expected to actively engage in the Lit Circle experience. Join us in celebrating this milestone as young scholars bring Native literature to life through rich dialogue and cultural connections!

BREAKOUT (6/18)

11:00 AM

New Mexico Room

Native Illustrators Panel Discussion

Join a dynamic conversation with Native illustrators whose work brings Indigenous stories, cultures, and characters to life through visual art. This panel explores the power of illustration in storytelling, representation, and cultural preservation. Panelists will share their creative journeys, discuss the importance of Native perspectives in visual media, and reflect on how their identities shape their art. Whether working in children's books, graphic novels, digital media, or community-based projects, these artists illuminate what it means to draw from tradition while imagining the future.

Moderator: Tara Gatewood

Sponsored by Bookworks

BREAKOUT (6/18)

11:00 AM

Santa Fe Room

Weaving Native Lit into your School’s ELA Instructional Framework: Lessons Learned from NACA

Facilitator: Stacey Coonsis

In this session, participants will dive into the transformative journey of NACA Elementary’s six Literacy Framework universals—shaped by the Mission-Driven Learning Team’s dedication to making ELA instruction more academically relevant and culturally meaningful. By aligning curriculum with these universals, NACA deepened its commitment to culturally responsive learning, ultimately inspiring the creation of the 5th-grade Capstone Project: Native Lit Circles, where students engage in powerful, identity-affirming literary experiences.

SESSION 4

1:00 PM

Ballon Ballroom

K-12, Admin

Native Lit in Action: Growing Native Scholars through Classroom Engagement Strategies

Facilitators: Kolette Medicine, Celeste Naranjo, Diane Kazenmeyer- Delgado

In this session, participants will be engaged in reading and engaging in text-based discussions and activities using Native Lit texts from the K-5 curriculum units. Participants will have the opportunity to participate in several learning activities that can be adapted and localized for classroom use in their communities. Strategies will include a focus on close reading, vocabulary and word meaning, text analysis and discussions, and student choice extensions that allow students to explore cross-content, cultural, and personal connections while demonstrating the qualities of a Native Scholar.

SESSION 4

1:00 PM

New Mexico Room

K-5

IGBD Unit and Lesson Planning

Facilitators: Sarah Caldwell, Josh Krause

In this session, participants will delve into the Indigenous Genius by Design (IGBD) framework to understand the ways in which the Community-led Design (CLD) process can facilitate the creation of relevant, localized Native Lit units. Facilitators will provide an overview of these frameworks, clarify the purpose and connection of CLD and IGBD Unit components, and provide practical guidance on how to engage in this intensive planning process. During the session, participants will also walk through a seventh-grade unit as the designer unpacks the instructional decisions made at each stage of the unit, leading up to the capstone project. Participants, please bring your own planning and ideas because this session will include time to share your work and receive feedback.

SESSION 4

1:00 PM

Santa Fe Room

K-5