Part 1
Strong reading comprehension skills are critical to achieving the status of “reading to learn,” which is a pivotal point in reading skill development noted in older elementary age students. The pathway to robust reading comprehension skills includes developing a sound foundation in spoken language skills, most notably listening comprehension, and accompanying higher order thinking skills, like inference generation and comprehension monitoring. Using evidence based methodology, this session will highlight underpinnings of reading comprehension as well as considerations for reading comprehension assessment and intervention.
Part 2
Learn to use accessible, low-cost phonics assessments to analyze students’ strengths and challenges, and to plan targeted phonics intervention. This presentation demonstrated how to use two freely-available, informal, criterion-based phonics surveys to measure how secure students are in their knowledge of discrete phonics skills, and how to design structured, systematic intervention based on assessment data. Topics  included analyzing assessment results to discover gaps in students’ phoneme-level proficiency and phonics skills; using a phonics scope-and-sequence to plan instruction; referencing state standards for ELA foundational skills as part of setting goals for phonics instruction; appropriately incorporating controlled-decodable texts fit into phonics instruction.
Part 3
This part of the course discusses aspects involved in skilled reading for emergent readers. It will outline emergent reader profiles, describe the limitations of the “sight word approach”, list the terminology of common phonics terms, discuss instructional practices relevant for readers with intellectual impairments, as well as explain the importance of systematic phonics for emergent readers. Additional topics will include phonics goal formation, strategies for blending sounds, the benefits of decodable readers as well as free resources educators can use in order to implement synthetic phonics approach effectively with emergent readers.
Part 4
A Reading Program is NOT Enough: A Deep Dive into the Dyslexia Diagnosis. This webinar will discuss the importance appropriate language and literacy testing plays in the remediation of reading-based disabilities. It will review current controversies with respect to the dyslexia diagnosis, as well as describe the role of language as a contributing factor to reading and writing deficits. The limitations of popularly recommended reading approaches/programs (e.g., Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, Lindamood-Bell, Barton, etc.) will be discussed with respect to the exclusivity of use. Finally, the process leading up to the appropriate treatment goal recommendations will be outlined.
Part5
Which Came First: The Sound or the Letter? While it seems like the answer should be obvious, reading instruction may not always reflect this knowledge. Without an understanding that written language is meant to represent speech, children often struggle to learn to read. In fact, because of advances in science and the ability to study the brain while it is reading there is a clear understanding that we use what we’ve already developed through speech to form the networks necessary for reading. As Mark Seidenberg so eloquently states in his book Language at the Speed of Sight, “we may read with our eyes, the starting point for reading is speech (Seidenberg, 2017)”.  Therefore, reading instruction should begin well before the first letter is introduced by ensuring appropriate development and instruction in the sounds of language also known as phonological awareness. This two hour presentation will share information regarding the evidence-base for phonological awareness and the laws that require systematic and explicit instruction in phonological awareness, discuss strategies for instruction, explore assessment of phonological awareness, explain the direct connection between phonological awareness and reading instruction as well as explain why children with speech sound disorders are especially at risk.