Call for Proposals

We look forward to welcoming the Literacies for All Summer Institute to Normal, Illinois, during Summer 2020! Our theme for the conference reflects our organization’s ongoing rejuvenation and serves as an invitation for educators who believe that ALL children deserve personally meaningful learning contexts, children (not programs) are the primary informants of literacy curriculum, and teachers are experts in their classrooms to become active in the organization by sharing their visions and voices about the future of holistic literacy education.

Each of these ideas has particular relevance to the past and future of our organization and to the current state of literacy education.

• Personally meaningful learning contexts are contexts in which children’s languages and cultures are valued and recognized as assets for learning and where educators engage children in using multiple literacies to explore issues of equity in their local and global communities.
• Curriculum is developed alongside children as they engage in authentic literacy events and kidwatching is the foundation of this process. Instructional practices are selected with intention and implemented to support children’s developing language and literacy skills and literate identities.
• Teachers as experts explore current research, cultivate an inquiry stance, and engage in collaborative action research as a continuous cycle of professional growth.

The Summer Institute affords educators the opportunity to come together to learn and explore these beliefs through a variety of forums including individual presentations, workshops, symposia, panels, conversations, and poster sessions. We invite proposals that focus on:

• Collaborations between learners, teachers, parents, and community members, including community study, service learning, critical pedagogy, and social action
• Collaborative projects that cross boundaries within and across communities, states, and countries
• The use of technology, digital, visual, and critical literacies to bring us together across time and space, across political, social, economic, and geographic boundaries
• How literacy and access to it positions us socially, economically, and politically
• What it means to be literate in varied languages and cultures
• How the meaning of literacy has changed and continues to evolve
• Including and nurturing diverse languages and literacies in bilingual, multilingual, and monolingual English settings
• Reading literature that reflects the lives of our students and broadens our scope to lived experiences other than our own
• How meaningful teaching and authentic learning engagements support individuals’ social and emotional well-being

In addition to other sessions, the NCTE Early Childhood Education Assembly sponsors an early childhood strand pertaining to the education of children from birth to age eight, their families, and teachers. Early literacy sessions also address diversities in early childhood and highlight practices and processes that are situated in social, historical, and cultural contexts.

The LLA (Languages and Literacies for All) Summer Institute also offers a Preconference Workshop, a five-hour, co-sponsored, intensive workshop taking place the afternoon before the opening session of the Summer Institute and focusing on the complex political and critical issues that surround whole language philosophy and teaching. With goals of teacher support and professional development, advocacy, and political action, participants actively engage in dialogue and small and whole group interactions. A separate Preconference Proposal form should be submitted by the dates indicated on the proposal form.

The Literacies for All Summer Institute is a peer reviewed conference. All proposals addressing whole language beliefs will be considered. Look for more information about the conference on the Facebook page and follow us on Twitter, #LLA20.

Important Notes:  Because LLA is a not-for-profit organization, the financial viability of its Annual Convention depends upon the support of everyone who attends. Invited participants are required to register for the conference when they accept their invitation. NCTE/LLA is unable to reimburse program participants for travel or living expenses.  Session proposers should advise all involved in their proposal that submission of a proposal does not constitute an invitation to appear on the program. Invitations will be sent in April following the Program Planning Committee’s peer-review and selection process.

Submit Your Proposal

Preconference Workshop, Registration, and Hotel

The 2020 preconference workshop will take place on Thursday, July 9; details will be announced later this year.

Registration and hotel information will also be available later this year.