Participants will be introduced to sound and scientific research as it promotes literacy across all content areas to help students build foundational skills across reading, writing, speaking and listening. Teachers will learn how to scaffold student learning through the application of research-based reading instruction to include and integrate the six components of reading: oral language, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Participants will learn the scaffolds behind each approach that aid students in the important transition process across all content areas. Intentional, consistent, and rigorous teaching of reading and writing strategy that improves student achievement will engage the 90/90/90 principled approach to consistently streamline curriculum, curriculum resources, and assessment. Participants completing this course will embed field-tested implementation tools to into planning, preparation, and implementation.
Course Outcomes:
- Acquire and use the skills needed to effectively teach reading comprehension in primary grades with an understanding of the oral and written language that facilitates it through phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics as they relate to comprehending print.
- Understand the importance and function of research-based receptive and expressive vocabulary instruction to include semantics, domain specific vocabulary (academic vocabulary), and morphology as it relates to vocabulary development.
- Understand, and apply to planning and instruction, the research behind vocabulary instruction, and its role in students’ overall understanding of word meanings, repeated practice, and comprehension of print through the use of context clues, explicit teaching, and the use of assessment data to make ongoing decisions directed to individual student needs.
- Scaffold research-based strategy as it builds student reading muscle through writing practice, teacher modeling, and guided practice using applied principles of research-based reading strategy, particularly for text readability, complexity, coherence, structure, and overall comprehension for native speakers of English as well as English language learners.
- Understand and plan for the impact that linguistic and cultural background has on English language learners’ comprehension, along with importance and role of home languages through sound principles of research-based methods that scaffold work into student achievement.
This course is 20 hours
Participants will learn and understand how to select and administer appropriate assessments using data from multiple sources to include informal reading inventories, running records, writing samples, and performance tasks among others, to inform their planning of reading instruction to meet the needs of all students. Systemic problem solving will involve the use of a tiered instructional framework model for instructional assessment and ongoing student support to include screening, diagnosis, and progress monitoring. Participants will learn how to deliver sound, research-based instruction focused on identified student challenges. Through high quality, differentiated and research-based instructional approaches, participants scaffold learning strategy carefully with increased intensity to meet students at their identified level of performance and rate of progress as leveraged with SLOs, IEP goals, objectives and learning targets. Increased achievement and closing learning gaps are intervention priorities that will be used to intervene with strategy for Tiers II and III.
Course Outcomes:
- Understand and practice with tiered instructional models to close achievement gaps among Tiers II and III students.
- Understand the purposes of multiple informal assessment types to include reading inventories, informal assessments, and analyzing writing samples.
- Match readers to text and use data to scaffold strategy for text complexity.
- Understand and apply various measurement concepts to the characteristics of reading assessments to include test reliability, validity, standard of error of measurement, and derived scores from standardized tests.
- Apply ongoing progress monitoring effectively in order to deliver effective and timely interventions for MTSS students using effective assessment procedures.
This course is 20 hours
Participants will understand and apply knowledge of the socio-cultural, socio-political, and psychological variables that constitute differentiated reading instruction for all students through all content areas. The factors that impede student reading, characteristics of language and cognitive development, and overall language proficiencies will be effectively differentiated using age and grade appropriate methods. Participants will select and use developmentally appropriate tools, materials, and resources to address sociocultural and linguistic differences as they import to planning and instruction. Participants will embed increased use of complex print and digital text sources into assessments, scaffolding techniques, and re-teaching opportunities for individual and small group instruction. Participants will be taught how to apply student progress monitoring and use of data to design, plan, and implement a differentiated curriculum that includes research-based approaches for comprehension, oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, higher order thinking to further critical reading among students.
Course Outcomes:
- Create differentiated lessons and apply differentiated strategy through design and strategy reflective of an understanding and application of knowledge of socio-cultural, socio-political, and psychological variables to differentiation.
- Use design strategy for grouping and classroom environment.
- Use online and print tools for differentiation such as learning profiles, interest surveys and tiered questioning.
- Use research-based strategy to differentiate for writing development and to reinforce text comprehension.
- Plan for and implement allowable and appropriate instructional accommodations as specified in students’ IEP or 504 Plans.
This course is 20 hours
The building blocks to effective reading comprehension begin in the primary grades with explicit instruction, modeling, and practice. Fluency, word recognition, vocabulary, oral and receptive language, the role of phonics and phonological awareness will include strategic instruction with multiple opportunities for planning and practice. Reading as an ongoing strategic process will be taught through knowledge and practice with fluency approaches, teacher modeling, guided practice, writing, listening, and speaking activities. Under this umbrella, participants will learn to design, teach, scaffold, and differentiate reading lessons and activities effectively using applied strategy that builds student capacity up through grade 5. Story structure, graphic representation, reciprocal questioning, oral retelling, summarizing activities, writing strategies, vocabulary strategies, balanced literacy and critical literacy are just some of the approaches under study. Problem solving strategies geared toward building student reading stamina, coupled with ongoing formative assessment approaches, will serve as catalyst to instructional planning and decision-making. Participants will receive a treasure trove of field-tested tools and resources for effective implementation with multiple opportunities for classroom implementation throughout the course.
Course Outcomes:
- Acquire and use new skills needed to effectively teach reading comprehension in primary grades with an understanding of the oral and written language that facilitates it through phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics as they relate to comprehending print.
- Summarize and articulate the importance and function of receptive and expressive vocabulary instruction, semantics, domain specific vocabulary (academic vocabulary), and morphology as it relates to vocabulary development.
- Apply strategy that builds student capacity through teacher modeling, guided practice, particularly as it impacts text readability, complexity, coherence, structure, and overall comprehension by understanding the interdependence among reading components and their effect on the reading process for native speakers of English as well as English language learners.
- Plan and prepare to teach using scaffolded strategy to move their students along a continuum of reading success as it builds comprehension.
This course is 20 hours
Critical literacy isn't about reading critically. It is a process by which students read through and beyond text to analyze, integrate and become transformational. Participants in this e-course will learn the strategies that teach effective questioning as prior knowledge leverages with new information through written and spoken responses to literature. Participants will learn new strategies for teaching and facilitating critical literacies through reading, writing, questioning and researching with a new lens.
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Restate and analyze the theory behind critical literacy, and its relevance to student learning.
- Generate new strategies for teaching and facilitating critical literacy in classrooms.
- Prepare and implement instructional strategies with critical literacy as a background objective.
This course is 20 hours