Courses
2026 Wisconsin Literacy Research Symposium
Writing Instruction in a Changing Landscape
Date: June 23, 2026
Cost: $60 professionals; $30 students
Course Location: On-Campus
Time: 9:30-2:30 p.m.
The 2026 Wisconsin Literacy Research Symposium, Writing Instruction in a Changing Landscape brings together three research presentations that explore the evolving nature of writing teaching and learning. Topics include the role of artificial intelligence in writing instruction and multilingual early childhood writing and translingual practices. Together, these sessions invite educators and researchers to consider how writing instruction can remain responsive, inclusive, and meaningful amid changing technologies, languages, and literacy demands.
Meet the Presenters
Anna Smith, Ph.D.
Anna Smith (PhD, NYU) is the 2025-2026 Provost Fellow, Associate Professor, and founding member of the Education Now Lab at Illinois State University. Her research examines literacies and emerging technologies—with a special focus on how teachers navigate the ethical terrain of generative AI for writing instruction, equity, and humanizing pedagogy. Smith is co-author of Developing Writers: Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age and co-editor of the Handbook of Writing, Literacies, and Education in Digital Cultures. She also serves as a lead co-editor of the Literacy Research Association journal Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice.
Andy Stoiber
Andy Stoiber is a PhD candidate in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at UW-Madison. Andy researches and designs playful, art-based, and AI-infused learning environments, assessments, tools, and curriculum which center learners’ interests and assets as a foundation to build their literacies as readers and writers, their confidence and agency as creators, and their technological fluency with AI–to equip them with the tools and knowledge to navigate and flourish in the 21st century.
Emily Machado, Ph.D.
Emily Machado is an associate professor of early childhood education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also serves as Director of the Elementary Teacher Education Program. She is a former public school teacher who taught kindergarteners through third graders in Washington DC in both general education and English as a New Language settings. Her research is focused on the teaching and learning of literacy in multilingual early childhood classrooms, and her scholarship and teaching have been recognized with honors such as the Literacy Research Association’s Early Career Achievement Award and UW-Madison’s Chancellor’s Inclusive Excellence in Teaching Award. She holds a BS in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University, an MAT in ESOL from American University, and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Schedule
9:30-9:50 Registration
9:50-10:00 Opening
10:00-11:00 Dr. Anna Smith
11:00-12:00 Lunch Provided
12:00-1:00 Andy Stroiber
1:00-1:15 Break
1:15-2:15 Dr. Emily Machado
2:15-2:30 Closing
Anna Smith, Ph.D.
Session 1: “What Ought to Be”: Teachers’ Transformative Resistance to AI-Automatized Writing Instruction
As schools rapidly adopt generative AI products, writing instruction risks becoming more scripted, standardized, and dehumanized. In this session, I share findings from teachers’ critical platform walkthroughs that trace how teachers question, tweak, and subvert AI lesson outputs to protect writing instruction as relational, inclusive, and developmentally responsive. We’ll discuss critical junctures in deciding how to use emerging technologies in our teaching to support our advocacy for what we believe “ought to be” in writing instruction today.
Andy Stoiber
Session 2: Scaffolding creative writing with Whoopenbot: Designing asset-based AI to support writers rather than replace them
This research-grounded session seeks to disrupt the polarizing and ongoing discourse surrounding AI by investigating a practical promise the technology portends: how do we design generative AI that strengthens learners’ own writing and creative voice? Drawing on dissertation research and years of ethical AI curriculum design, the presentation situates AI as a sociotechnical system, traces its place in the long history of writing technologies, and surfaces the ethical tensions most relevant to writing instruction. It then introduces the principles of asset-based AI design — tools built to help writers generate and develop their own ideas rather than supply the substance of the work — illustrated through Whoopenbot, a free chatbot based on the arts-based Whoopensocker pedagogy. A live demonstration, examples of student stories, and a closing discussion of your burning questions (e.g., what AI cannot replace!) round out the session.
Emily Machado, Ph.D.
Session 3: The Power of Critical Translingual Writing in Early Childhood
Although writing has long been explored as a vehicle for changemaking, young children—and particularly those who are multilingual— are rarely offered opportunities to write in ways that reshape their worlds. Drawing on findings from two qualitative studies of young multilingual writers, this session explores the power of critical translingual writing pedagogies in supporting such work. In one project, multilingual second graders composed and shared translingual poetry about their names in ways that reshaped their classroom’s power dynamics. In another, young children in a virtual art/writing workshop composed playful stories that took action on the COVID-19 pandemic and intersecting crises. Together, these projects highlight the power and potential of translingual writing to reshape and reimagine the world, including for the youngest writers among us.
Retirement Planning Fundamentals
Dates: Coming this fall
Prepare for a confident and comfortable retirement with this three‑part educational course. You’ll learn practical strategies for managing everyday finances, reducing taxes, and making informed investment decisions. The workshop also helps you evaluate your current financial situation and build a personalized retirement plan.
The course is taught by experienced CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, Certified Retirement Counselor®, and Accredited Asset Management Specialist℠ professionals. They present real‑world examples in a clear, engaging format, with plenty of opportunities for questions and discussion.
Cost: $119
Course Format: Zoom
Time: 6:00 – 8:30 pm
Meet Your Instructors
Sulay R. Ringwala, CFP®, CDFA®
Financial Advisor
Private Wealth Management
Sulay is a financial advisor and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL
PLANNER™ at Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated,
having joined the firm in 2014. He has been teaching
adult education courses on retirement planning and
personal finance since 2015. Sulay enjoys helping his
clients through critical life stages by focusing on financial
planning and building customized portfolios that work
in conjunction with those plans. Sulay is a Wisconsin
native and grew up in Oshkosh. He is a graduate of the
University of Wisconsin-Madison and is an avid fan of
Wisconsin sports and the Green Bay Packers.
Alexandra Spangler, CFP®, CDFA®
Financial Advisor
Private Wealth Management
Alexandra is a financial advisor and a CERTIFIED
FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and CERTIFIED DIVORCE
FINANCIAL ANALYST® at Robert W. Baird & Co.
Incorporated. She has been teaching retirement planning
classes since 2021. She believes in a holistic approach
to financial planning and customizes portfolios to each
clients’ specific needs and goals that are constantly
evolving. In her free time, she enjoys a plethora of
outdoor activities and traveling.
Roger Klumb, CFP®
Financial Advisor
Private Wealth Management
Roger is a financial advisor and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL
PLANNER™ at Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated. He
has been teaching retirement planning classes since
2016. Prior to his career at Baird, which began in 2008,
Roger worked as a financial analyst at GE Healthcare. He
is a Wisconsin native and an avid Badgers fan. He lives
in Pewaukee with his wife and their three sons. Roger
enjoys the outdoors, reading, golfing and a variety of
other sports.
Who Should Attend?
This course is ideal for anyone:
- Nearing retirement
- Already retired
- Beginning to plan for the future
You’ll gain strategies to navigate investment choices, insurance needs, healthcare costs, tax‑reduction methods, and estate considerations. The material is relevant for all ages, occupations, and income levels.
Additional Courses Coming Soon…