Reading Difficulties in Older Students - Erin Alexander

Many students continue to experience reading difficulties beyond elementary school. This can affect their ability to learn content presented in a variety of courses. We will examine the skills needed to be a good reader and discuss characteristics of older students who have challenges in learning to read. You will learn about different types of reading difficulties that may be experienced by students.

Break

Using Data to Determine Instructional Needs - Erin Alexander

Screening data can tell us which students may need reading intervention. However, educators often need more information to determine why a student is having difficulty with grade level reading skills. In this session, we will discuss different types of assessment tools and their purpose. We will examine tools that help us know which reading skills to target with intervention. The goal is to match instruction to the needs of each student.

Intervention Planning  - Erin Alexander

We will use case studies to model the process of using data to determine a student’s instructional needs. The data will be used to plan a student’s reading intervention.

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Teaching a Consistent Strategy for Reading Complex Words - Melinda Hirschmann

In this session, you will learn an explicit step-by-step method to help students read multi-syllable words. This strategy simultaneously integrates and reinforces basic reading skills. It will be demonstrated using authentic middle and high school texts. Students also need lots of practice opportunities to apply the strategy independently. We'll explore different ways to help your students get the practice they need. When your students’ word level reading becomes automatic, they can focus on text comprehension.

Lunch (on your own)

Planning Repeated Reading Practice with Purpose - Melinda Hirschmann

Timed repeated readings can give students the incorrect idea that speed is the goal of fluency practice. The goal of fluency instruction is to strengthen your students’ comprehension. You will learn how to plan purposeful repeated reading activities. We’ll also share strategies to improve your students’ prosody. We’ll examine the variety of text types needed to provide lots of reading practice to build these skills.

Break

Improving Reading Comprehension - Melinda Hirschmann

Independent reading comprehension relies on the successful integration of many complex literacy skills. We want to set our students up for success to understand complex texts. In this session, routines that build students’ topic knowledge and vocabulary, prior to reading complex text, will be shared and modeled. Strategies for independently figuring out word meanings, such as using context clues and applying knowledge of affixes and roots, will also be included.

Closure / Housekeeping - Karen Kehoe