Word Recognition Strand

Teachers are often puzzled by their students who can orally segment and blend phonemes, know letter names and sounds, yet continue to read many words by first sounding out each letter, then blending the sounds into a word. Most of these students are in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grades, with a few in 4th grade or higher. The core problem with most of these students is that they have not mastered complete phonemic awareness, which David Kilpatrick explains so well in his book, Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties. Participants will (1) learn why these students don’t progress to whole word reading, (2) learn steps to help these students move to whole word reading, (3) practice activities to help students progress, and (4) receive some materials they can use with these students.

Learn how to teach students to easily and accurately read and spell long words. The secret is to focus on vowels, not on rules. Participants will learn to use multi-sensory techniques to teach students to break words into syllables for reading and spelling. This method is explicit, systematic, and multi-sensory. It is also easy! This session is appropriate for students of all ages. The techniques can be used in kindergarten to help students read words such as batman, sunset, and picnic, and in upper grades to help students read citadel, tranquilize, and Madagascar.

Session 1 – Linda will briefly discuss how the idea for the videos evolved, how the students were selected, and the taping process. The main purpose of this session is for Linda to introduce participants to the videos available, what they contain, and to suggest some ways to use them. There isn’t time to watch all the videos during this session, but participants will view parts of most of the videos. This will provide a good overview of what is available from this important new resource. Participants will receive a list of all the videos with a summary of their content.

Session 2 – Linda will model how to use one video for professional development. Participants will be given a study guide to use for watching the video. The study guide will include the assessments that were given to the student so that Linda could determine the student’s needs. It will also have questions to guide participants as they watch and discuss the video. The first-time participants watch the video, they will look for positive aspects of the teaching, and discussion will follow. The second time watching the video, participants will look for ways the teaching could be improved, with discussion following. The discussion will end with ideas for incorporating lessons from the video into small group or classroom instruction. The goal of this session is for participants to experience professional development using the videos, which are available for free at ReadingRockets.org, and to be able to take the professional development back to their schools.

This presentation explains the features of Structured Literacy (SL) interventions, how these features differ from other, commonly used approaches to literacy instruction, and why SL is especially valuable for students with reading difficulties. Features of SL approaches that are contrasted with non-SL approaches include the type of phonics instruction that is provided, the approach to teaching spelling, types of texts used for children’s reading, and teaching of higher-level literacy skills such as syntax. Then, working in small groups in Zoom breakout rooms, participants apply what they have learned about planning more in-depth SL intervention, using two case examples from the morning session on reading profiles. For participants interested in this session on Structured Literacy, attendance at the morning session on reading profiles would be very helpful but is not essential.

In a busy practice like ours, where pre-, interim- and post-testing is a constant occurrence, we get to see vast amounts of spelling and reading errors. Over time, these can be examined to reveal trends that directly reflect what is happening in schools. It is even possible sometimes to correctly predict the actual reading program a child is having at school based on their error patterns alone.

In this session, Lyn Stone shows multiple examples of the mistakes children make when taught using balanced literacy. She also contrasts them with errors by children who have had higher quality instruction and shows the difference that intervention and advocacy can make for all children.

The language you use when you're talking about language is vitally important, yet inaccuracies and variations in education are widespread. Some examples: digraphs, diphthongs, blending, sight words, irregular words, phonics, systematic, synthetic - varied definitions abound throughout education. It’s not enough to have them properly defined in glossaries here and there. We need to keep acceptable and accepted usage at the forefront of dialogue with teachers, administrators, policy makers, and students.

The purpose of this session is to describe how to use instructional routines to enhance the delivery of your core reading instruction in a multi-tiered system of Tier 1 and Tier 2 support. Systematic strategies and teaching routines designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of reading instruction in kindergarten, first, and second grade will be described and will be directly relevant to practitioners implementing multi-tiered systems and response to intervention models. By the end of this session, participants will understand how (a) using teaching routines can enhance current core reading instruction, and (b) how aligning Tier 1 and Tier 2 reading instruction can lead to higher student reading outcomes.

Children need to learn to read and spell and they need to be physically active; bringing movement into code-based instruction and practice is a win-win! Referring to her internationally acclaimed Ladder of Reading, Nancy will briefly explain why we need to connect these two research silos. She’ll then show ways to weave movement into reading and spelling instruction and practice, presenting examples of code-based movements that can be used in the classroom and in the home. Attendees will discover how easy, effective, and FUN it can be to weave skill-based movements into lessons and practice. Addressed will be the learning needs of children with exceptionalities, including dyslexia, gifted, ADHD and DCD.

Disclosure: Some of the examples presented will be from Nancy’s book Secret Code Actions™.

Orthographic mapping processes and phonics knowledge are essential to efficient word learning. Dr. Stollar will discuss patterns in Acadience Reading K-6 (formerly called DIBELS Next) data that indicate a student may need support in these essential skills. Dr. Hall will then present and demonstrate evidence-based approaches to activating orthographic mapping and teaching decoding, with an emphasis on reaching the level of automatic word recognition that facilitates reading comprehension. Learn how to get the most out of your universal screening data and maximize the effectiveness of your intervention.

Designing and facilitating meaningful classroom talk is essential for secondary English learners to develop more extended and sophisticated language use, while simultaneously learning subject matter. This session will address the components of the Scarborough Rope and connect them to the role of social interaction in language and literacy development, while exploring student interactions focusing on quality learning opportunities.

We know that phonemic awareness is necessary for reading. We know that students learn more when they are engaged. What if we combined that kind of learning into 3D instruction? Add a new level to any phonemic awareness or Structured Literacy lesson by teaching in three dimensions. Phonemic objects aren’t just for teaching initial consonant sounds anymore. Learn how to teach blending, segmenting, manipulating, and substituting--phonemic proficiency needed for success in orthographic mapping.

In the summer of 2019, McDonald Elementary School, a diverse school in the Centennial School District (Warminster, PA), began having conversations about the science of reading and embarked on a journey to align their instructional and assessment practices with the evidence base. Participants will hear how McDonald altered pedagogical practices, reframed structures, and aligned processes to improve literacy instruction for all boys in girls in K-2.