The following is a list of the regional trainings that we currently offer.

Literacy

What is Dyslexia is a comprehensive and engaging learning opportunity designed to provide pre-K to 12th-grade educators, special educators, administrators, and paraprofessionals with a deeper understanding of dyslexia, a specific learning disability that affects reading, writing, and spelling skills. This session aims to equip participants with valuable knowledge, strategies, and tools to create an inclusive and supportive learning environment for all students, especially those with dyslexia.

What is Dyslexia?

Elevate your school and district administrators' expertise with our comprehensive professional development workshop on understanding dyslexia. In this session, participants will gain a deep understanding of the neurological underpinnings of dyslexia, learn practical early identification and prevention strategies, explore methods to foster inclusive classrooms, master collaboration techniques with educators and parents, and discover avenues for continuous professional growth. Equip your leadership team with the knowledge and insights needed to drive informed decision-making, create an inclusive school culture and improve student outcomes. Ideal for superintendents, principals, curriculum coordinators, and special education administrators, this workshop offers a flexible duration to suit your needs and promises to empower administrators in championing equitable and accessible education for all students.

What is Dyslexia? Administrator's Edition

This professional learning session is designed to equip educators and administrators with the knowledge and tools necessary to effectively identify students at risk for dyslexia and reading difficulties. Dyslexia demands early detection and appropriate prevention and intervention to pave the way for reading success. This session will focus on the assessment protocols necessary to identify students at risk for reading failure.

Screening for Dyslexia and Word Reading Difficulties

Delve into the world of dyslexia intervention and discover the keys to empowering students with dyslexia on their journey to mastering foundational literacy skills. This session is designed for participants seeking a comprehensive understanding of dyslexia, providing practical insights into analyzing assessment data to pinpoint precise student deficits and kickstart tailored instruction. Explore evidence-based practices that are essential for facilitating reading success.

Empowering Reading Success: Evidence-Based & Targeted Interventions for Dyslexia

Delve into the world of dyslexia intervention and discover the keys to empowering students with dyslexia on their journey to mastering foundational literacy skills. In this session, participants will gain an in-depth understanding of dyslexia and explore the evidence-based practices that are essential for facilitating reading success.

Dyslexia Knows No Age - Empowering Older Students' Reading Journey

Understanding and implementing evidence-based practices is crucial to fostering successful reading development among students. This professional development session offers an immersive introduction to the concept and methods of structured literacy. This session is tailored for K-5 General Education and Special Education teachers, as well as administrators and curriculum coordinators who are new to the principles of structured literacy and seek to enhance their understanding of effective literacy instruction for all students.

Exploring the Science of Reading: Elementary

Exploring the Science of Reading: Secondary

Participants will learn about the science of reading and how to integrate practical literacy strategies into subject-specific instruction to meet the diverse needs of adolescent learners. This session is tailored specifically for content area educators (both general and special educators) in grades 6-12.

Math

Characteristics of students with dyscalculia of all grade levels will be discussed. The content in the presentation will center on assisting students who have not mastered foundational math skills. Brain science behind the research will be explored and explained. Best practices for students struggling in math will be highlighted.

What is Dyscalculia? Supporting Students with Math Difficulties

Participants will learn how to teach attack strategies that work for word problems. The session will include specific problems from the IAR digital item library and give insight into best practices for students to access and excel with the content. The session will address the unique needs of students that have not yet mastered foundational math skills.

Word Problem Strategies for Students with Dyscalculia

Manipulatives and representational drawings will be discussed in depth. The session will include which tools and drawing approaches specifically benefit students with dyscalculia; in particular, participants will learn about manipulatives that best enhance learning for students who have not yet mastered foundational math skills. Cuisenaire rods, cluster cards, and fractional money pieces will be highlighted.

Concrete and Representational Approaches for Students with Math Difficulties

Learn the best techniques to aid students in mastering addition and multiplication facts through hands on learning materials and representational tactics. The session will highlight ways to help students that have not yet mastered foundational math concepts. Participants will learn how to create flashcards with meaning that depict math in representational ways.

Fact Fluency for Students with Dyscalculia

Writing

This session will cover ways to integrate AI in the educational setting with a specific focus on writing. AI will be used to demonstrate every stage of the writing process including lesson planning and scaffolding. Alternative assessment approaches will be explored and topics surrounding the ethical use of AI will be discussed.

AI in Writing

The What Works Clearinghouse reviewed the research so that you don’t have to! Recommendations for teaching effective writing from their meta-study of evidence-based research will be presented and broken down with specific examples and strategies you can use in the classroom tomorrow.

What Works? Effective Instructional Strategies to Build Elementary Writers

The What Works Clearinghouse screened over 3,500 studies on writing instruction and developed instructional recommendations based on the studies that met their rigorous criteria for research. These evidence-based recommendations will be presented and broken down with specific examples and strategies you can use in the classroom tomorrow.

Effective Writing Instructional Strategies for secondary students: Recommendations from the What Works Clearinghouse

This session will provide a foundational understanding of dysgraphia, a learning disability that impacts a child's writing ability. Participants will gain insights into the various types and symptoms of dysgraphia, allowing for better recognition and differentiation from other learning challenges. The core focus will be on evidence-based strategies and interventions for educators to support individuals with dysgraphia. Attendees will have a comprehensive overview of dysgraphia, enabling them to foster a more inclusive and supportive learning environment for those affected by this learning disability.

Dysgraphia 101: Introduction and Strategies for Understanding Writing Difficulties

IEPs

Participants will learn how to lead or participate in more focused and efficient IEP meetings while remaining child-focused and meeting legal requirements for IEP meetings. Participants will also gain strategies to increase team member participation, build consensus and reduce conflict.

Efficient & Engaging IEP Meetings

Participants will learn how to develop IEP goals based on data gathered in their classroom. Methods and tools needed to successfully implement and progress monitor these written goals will be presented in order to provide an accurate assessment of student progress and effectiveness of instruction and interventions within the classroom.

Creating Data-Driven IEP Goals and Tools for Successful Progress Monitoring

Co-Teaching

Join us for a dynamic and engaging workshop designed to equip educators with the essential knowledge and skills needed to excel in co-teaching partnerships. Whether you're a novice or an experienced educator, this workshop provides a comprehensive overview of co-teaching methods and best practices that will empower you to create inclusive and effective learning environments for students with specific learning disabilities in the co-taught classroom.

Co-Teaching Foundations: Building Success Together

This professional development session takes our Co-Teaching Foundations Course and tailors it to the essential knowledge and skills administrators need to know to develop and sustain co-teaching partnerships in their schools. This comprehensive overview of co-teaching methods and best practices aims to equip administrators to create inclusive and rigorous learning environments for students with specific learning disabilities in the co-taught classroom. Administrators will gain the necessary tools to support and guide their teachers in implementing successful co-teaching strategies, fostering collaboration, and maximizing student outcomes.

Co-Teaching Foundations for Administrators: Building Success Together

Instructional Strategies and Practices

Presenters will define formative assessment and detail multiple ways in which formative assessment can help guide instruction. Participants will learn about various types of formative assessment such as: pretests, exit slips, informal assessment, oral interviews, and more. Presenters will show specific protocols for what the assessments should be helping to determine. Participants will learn best practices for when to use the different types (daily, weekly, monthly) and how to best seamlessly implement the assessment within lessons. Participants will receive template(s) on how to analyze the formative assessments being given.

Formative Assessment Protocols that Improve Learning and Drive Instructional Decisions

Specially Designed Instruction

In this in-person session, an SLD Support Project Specialist will lead participants through the Anne Beninghof webinar titled How to Create and Deliver Specially Designed Instruction for the Inclusive Classroom. This guided facilitation allows for discussion and problem solving among educators in providing specially designed instruction for students with specific learning disabilities across settings.

Specially Designed Instruction: Guided Discussion

This presentation will provide participants with an understanding of the key components of explicit instruction. Explicit Instruction will be defined, research supporting its effectiveness will be provided, and key principles including application into lesson planning and instructional delivery will be outlined. Concrete examples of explicit instruction and its application will be provided along with a discussion of assessment's role in decision-making and generalization planning. Participants will leave with a practical instructional toolbox to enhance their teaching skills and foster inclusive learning environments.

Unlocking Learning Potential: The Art and Science of Explicit Instruction

This presentation will focus primarily on strategies to increase students’ “Opportunities to Respond” during explicit instruction. From interactive discussions and collaborative activities to technology-integrated approaches, this session equips educators with practical tools to create a dynamic and inclusive educational experience. In addition, strategies for independent practice will be shared along with the research behind them.

Empowering Engagement: Strategies for Enhancing Explicit Instruction

Navigating support for students with specific learning disabilities can be daunting at times. In this session, our goal is to provide a clear roadmap of strategies tailored for assisting these students within a general education classroom. We'll delve into crucial elements of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), shed light on the roles and duties of general education teachers in relation to students with IEPs, and introduce evidence-based practices proven to be highly effective in aiding students identified with specific learning disabilities.

Evidence Based Strategies to support students with specific learning disabilities in the general education classroom

The session will explore research in cognitive psychology and related disciplines, focusing on effective learning methods for lifelong learning and skill mastery. Participants will be provided with practical examples of these methods to utilize in their classrooms.

Coming Feb 2024
Unpacking the Science of Learning - Utilizing Retrieval Practices in the Classroom

This professional learning session is designed to equip educators with the knowledge and skills to utilize the Chromebook accessibility features. Participants will learn how to navigate settings on the device as well as in the Chrome browser to ensure they are equipped with the tools necessary to assist students with disabilities. Accessibility menus within the basic Google Apps for Education as well as various web extensions will be explored.

Assistive Technology with Chrome, Chromebooks, and Google Apps for Education

This professional learning session is designed to equip educators with the knowledge and skills to discover innovative ways to integrate AI tools into their teaching practices. Participants will learn how to provide targeted support for students facing learning challenges by using various chatbots and web extensions.

AI to Assist Educators and Support Learners

Data-Based Decision Making

Participants will learn about the DBI process and determine similarities and differences within their school, analyze data to make educational decisions for students to determine level of risk for learning disabilities, review diagnostic information from assessments for students at-risk for learning disabilities, and practice pairing assessment data to individualized interventions for general and special education students.

Coming Feb 2024
Data-Based Individualization

This session is designed to equip educational leaders with the knowledge and strategies necessary to foster successful reading outcomes for all students, including those with specific learning disabilities and dyslexia. This engaging session will delve into the critical roles of leadership decisions in driving literacy transformation within schools and districts. Leadership Wins and Woes, will discuss the significance of data-driven decision making in literacy instruction. Participants will explore how effective leaders utilize assessment data to identify struggling readers, implement target interventions, and monitor progress. Strategies for fostering collaboration among teachers, specialists and parents will also be shared. A distinguished Blue-Ribbon school will share their invaluable experiences on successfully closing the achievement gap for their students.

COMING March 2024:
Leadership Wins and Woes in Literacy Transformation. Practical Strategies for Closing the Achievement Gap for Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

Specific Learning Disabilities

This session will equip educators with an understanding of SLD, its characteristics, and effective ways to facilitate learning for those with learning differences. The session begins by defining specific learning disabilities, providing a clear and concise definition to lay the foundation. Building on the definition, the characteristics of learning disabilities are explored. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of how SLD can manifest in different individuals. Next, common accommodations to support the learning needs of students with SLD are discussed. The majority of the session focuses on high-leverage instructional practices that have proven to be highly effective in supporting students with SLD. Five HLPs are discussed and participants learn specific strategies they can incorporate into their classroom routines to support the academic needs of students with SLD. By the end of this session, participants will leave with a toolkit of practical strategies and a deeper understanding of SLD.

Introduction to Specific Learning Disabilities

This session will equip educators with an understanding of SLD, its characteristics, and effective ways to facilitate learning for those with learning differences. The session begins by defining specific learning disabilities, providing a clear and concise definition to lay the foundation. Building on the definition, the characteristics of learning disabilities are explored. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of how SLD can manifest in different individuals. Next, common accommodations to support the learning needs of students with SLD are discussed. The majority of the session focuses on high-leverage instructional practices that have proven to be highly effective in supporting students with SLD. Five HLPs are discussed and participants learn specific strategies they can incorporate into their classroom routines to support the academic needs of students with SLD. By the end of this session, participants will leave with a toolkit of practical strategies and a deeper understanding of SLD.

The 3 D’s Simulation: Understanding and Supporting Learners with Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, and Dysgraphia

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regional specialist today!

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