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Professional Development
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Customized Reading Seminars
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Student reading achievement is dependent on knowledgeable, skilled teachers and
principals. Literacy First's research-based seminars provide teachers with
effective,
easily-implemented
instructional strategies in reading. Each seminar is customized to meet the needs of your
teachers.
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Phonological Awareness
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Phonemic awareness is an essential prerequisite for learning the process of
decoding. Without phonemic awareness (and related phonological skills), many
children experience significant reading problems (Adams, 1990, 1998).
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Content of this professional development seminar includes:
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Explanation of the roles of phonemic awareness and phonological awareness and
their importance to the reading process
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Emphasis of the importance of phonological awareness with English language
learners and students with learning disabilities
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Criterion-referenced performance standards for phonological awareness
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Assessment procedures to diagnose students and provide the correct level of
instruction for each of them in phonological awareness
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Systematic and explicit instructional strategies to enable students to hear and
manipulate phonemes
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Resource materials that provide teaching strategies to actively engage students
in all aspects of phonological awareness
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Phonics & Word Study
(Including Spelling and Advanced
Decoding)
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Phonics and word study skills are necessary for students to comprehend text.
These skills must be taught in an explicit and systematic manner for students
to gain automaticity with print (Chall and Popp, 1996).
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Content of this professional development seminar includes:
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Assessment procedures to diagnose students and provide the correct level of
instruction for each of them in phonics, spelling and advanced decoding
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Criterion-referenced performance standards for phonics and advanced decoding,
plus benchmarks for spelling stages
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Systematic and explicit instructional strategies to enable students to decode
with automaticity
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Advanced decoding strategies including the six syllable types, syllabication,
and base words/affixes
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Resource materials filled with instructional activities to actively engage
students in learning to apply phonics skills to the reading process
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Fluency
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Fluent readers are characterized by the ability to read orally with speed,
accuracy, and proper expression. (National Reading Panel, 2000).
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Content of this professional development seminar includes:
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Assessment tools to diagnose students' fluency
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Normed-referenced performance standards for fluency
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Criterion-referenced performance standards for prosody (reading with
expression)
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Effective strategies to improve student reading rate and accuracy
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Explicit strategies to develop students' ability to read with expression
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Multiple strategies for teachers to provide students with wide reading practice
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Resource materials filled with instructional strategies to actively engage
students in the process of becoming fluent readers
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Vocabulary Development
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Vocabulary knowledge is critical for student success in comprehending text.
Students enter kindergarten with a vocabulary of 1,000 to 5,000 words. To
graduate from high school, a student needs a minimum vocabulary of 65,000
words.
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Content of this professional development seminar includes:
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Strategies to cause students to learn over 2000 words per year
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The importance of monitored independent reading practice to increase vocabulary
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Effective use of teacher read-alouds to develop students' vocabulary
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Strategies to develop word-conscious classrooms to increase students'
vocabulary
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Systematic and explicit strategies for teaching vocabulary in all subjects
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Resource materials filled with instructional activities to actively engage
students in vocabulary development
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Comprehension Skills
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Comprehension is the process of constructing meaning from text (Rand, 2002).
Explicit instruction in comprehension skills is necessary for students to
become independent readers (National Reading Panel 2000).
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Content of this professional development seminar includes:
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Systematic, explicit instruction in essential comprehension skills such as
retelling, summarizing, main idea, predicting, clarifying, questioning, and
using basic signal words (who, what, when, where, why, and how)
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Systematic, explicit instruction in advanced comprehension skills such as
advanced signal words, and text structures (compare/contrast, cause/effect,
problem/solution, and time order/sequence)
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The importance of teaching students how to use multiple strategies to
comprehend text
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Strategies to develop word-conscious classrooms to increase students'
vocabulary
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The critical relationship between vocabulary and comprehension
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Resource materials filled with instructional activities to actively engage
students in learning the complex processes necessary to comprehend text
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Strategic Reading/Thinking Tools & Metacognitive Processes
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The process of comprehending text is very complex (Pressley 2000). Explicit
instruction in strategic reading tools and metacognitive processes is essential
if students are to comprehend grade level text (National Reading Panel, 2000).
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Content of this professional development seminar includes:
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How strategic reading/thinking tools and metacognitive processes increase
comprehension
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Strategies to develop metacognitive processes in all your students
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Systematic, explicit instruction in strategic reading tools, such as:
activating prior knowledge, self-monitoring, Question-Answer Relationships,
Visual Reading Guide, graphic organizers, visualizing, and fix-up strategies
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Resource materials filled with instructional activities to actively engage
students in how to use strategic reading/thinking tools and metacognitive
processes to effectively comprehend text
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Flexible Skill Groups & Literacy Centers
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Students learn most effectively in small flexible groups (National Reading
Panel 2000). Flexible skill groups provide the opportunity to teach or
reinforce any reading skill or process. Marzano (2001) states a student needs
at least 24 successful practice sessions to gain mastery of a skill. Literacy
centers are designed to provide this much-needed practice.
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Content of this professional development seminar includes:
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How to use assessment results to place students in the correct flexible skill
group for-phonemic awareness, phonics/word study, fluency, vocabulary, and
comprehension
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Teacher resource materials that provide hundreds of activities for small
flexible group lessons
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How to develop and set up literacy centers in your classrooms
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How to hold students accountable for the work they do in literacy centers
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Resource materials that describe literacy center activities, rotation
schedules, organization, and management
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Systematic & Explicit Reading Instruction
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Systematic, explicit reading instruction is essential for students to develop
the skills and processes to become fluent comprehenders of text (National
Reading Panel, 2000).
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Content of this professional development seminar includes:
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What systematic, explicit instruction looks like during a reading lesson
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How to create the maximum Academic Learning Time during each reading lesson
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How to use Anatomy of a Lesson when planning a reading lesson to ensure
Academic Learning Time
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Lesson progressions to guide teacher lessons for phonological awareness,
phonics/word study, comprehension skills
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Questioning and discussion strategies that engage and hold ALL students
accountable during large and small group reading lessons
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