Powerful Strategies to Help Your Struggling Readers Achieve the Rigorous Common Core State Standards in Reading

(Grades K-5)

Presented by Dr. Mary Howard
Author of Good to Great Teaching: Focusing on the Literacy Work that Matters (Heinemann, 2012)

Specifically Designed for Grades K-5 Classroom Teachers, Reading Specialists, Literacy Coaches, Special Education Staff, Instructional Assistants, Interventionists, and Administrators

Proven instructional and intervention strategies to elevate instruction in ways that will support strugging readers in achieving the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for reading
Innovative instructional approaches you can use tomorrow that will accelerate progress for your struggling readers
Dozens of practical ideas and suggestions to target the specific learning needs of struggling readers using a wide range of flexible instruction support options
A variety of powerful, open-ended activities and forms you can use with any text in any setting across any content area to teach the standards to your struggling readers
Receive an extensive resource handbook to assist in both planning and implementing the CCSS for struggling readers

Practical Ideas and Strategies

As schools across the country work diligently to initiate the Common Core State Standards for English/language arts, teachers recognize the many challenges they face in addressing the unique needs of our struggling readers. One key challenge that has generated much confusion and concern is the role of text complexity and how this central CCSS goal impacts text selection and instructional decision-making for struggling learners. This outstanding seminar tackles this challenge and more to address the needs of struggling readers based on the current research on best practice. You will learn dozens of highly practical practices to raise instructional rigor without ignoring the unique needs of struggling readers.

Mary Howard will share guidelines to effectively select a wide range of texts for below grade-level readers as you pull from a rich instructional toolbox that will support all readers, no matter what they bring to the literacy table. You will learn to cautiously analyze and select texts and identify powerful instructional goals according to text demands and student needs. Learn how to offer rigorous instruction within varied experiences to achieve the standards’ goals while accommodating for specific needs of struggling readers. Actively engage students in flexible opportunities using the gradual release of responsibility model as you gain new insight for instructional options designed to meet the common core literacy standards with struggling learners in mind.

You will leave this seminar with a renewed sense of purpose and an enriched understanding of how to select the most effective texts, tasks and instructional activities to address varying learning needs of your struggling readers within and beyond the CCSS.

Ten Key Benefits of Attending

Optimize Literacy Instruction for Your Struggling Readers
Learn dozens of engaging strategies that dramatically increase the quality of instruction that will help your struggling readers achieve greater success with the ELA literacy standards
Identify the Myths and Misconceptions of Text Complexity and More in the CCSS
Strengthen literacy design by identifying what the CCSS does and does not say and how this impacts instructional decision-making for struggling readers
Effectively Differentiate for Specific Learning Needs of Your Struggling Readers
Broaden the learning possibilities for your struggling readers by responsively addressing the standards’ goals through varied instructional settings
Understand How to Achieve the Required Balance of Fiction and Nonfiction in the CCSS
Gain new insight for identifying how and when to select and use varied text types with powerful activities to elevate the standards’ goals for your struggling learners
Initiate a Broader Range of Dynamic Instructional Learning Experiences
Understand how to expertly blend whole class, small group, peer-supported, and side-by-side experiences to flexibly address the CCSSgoals for your struggling readers
Elevate the Quality of Student Dialogue to Achieve More Robust Instruction
Use peer collaboration to generate more thoughtful comprehension conversations using a variety of texts within open-ended instructional learning experiences
Build a Solid Foundation with Teacher-Supported Instructional Opportunities
Establish daily learning routines that will gradually relinquish responsibility to your struggling readers through a cautious blend of modeling, support and independent application
Increase the Volume of Meaningful Reading for Your Struggling Readers for Maximum Gains
Make reading, writing and talking the foundation of learning for struggling readers using a wide range of texts and tasks
Use “Close Reading” to Accelerate Progress for Struggling Readers in Varied Settings
Increase your instructional power for struggling readers by using “close reading” to leave visible tracks on student thinking as you build on and support more challenging texts
Learn How to Adjust the Learning Environment to Accommodate Struggling Readers
Understand how to create a thoughtful classroom environment with varied learning options to ensure robust instruction while addressing the unique needs of struggling readers

Outstanding Strategies You Can Use Immediately

Help your struggling readers meet the rigorous common core reading standards
Identify the key tenets of text selection by blending best practice and the CCSS goals
Use “close reading” as a powerful tool to accelerate progress for struggling readers
Meet specific learning needs by using a gradual release of responsibility model to achieve the CCSS goals
Build strategic knowledge as you promote independent problem solving
Critically evaluate your instructional practices to elevate instruction
Use responsive differentiation to achieve the standards for struggling students
Engage struggling readers in robust instruction using a gradient of text difficulty
Identify myths and misconceptions of text complexity in the CCSS
Understand how to maximize the interrelationship between RTI and the CCSS
Generate more interactive anchor charts to leave tracks on student thinking
Identify what robust instruction looks like, feels like and sounds like
Use flexible grouping to intensify the standards’ instruction for struggling readers
Identify practical ways to increase the effectiveness of informational texts
Use formative assessment within meaningful contexts to enhance learning
Maximize meaning-making with easy-to-implement instructional rituals
Fine-tune your literacy program so it functions at a maximum level all day
Initiate daily quick takes to briefly address the needs of struggling readers
Use research to guide instructional decision making and text selection
Initiate targeted reading instruction to address students at their level
Learn how to more effectively and flexibly match readers and texts
Increase meaningful literacy engagement for every learning experience
Raise your instructional intensity using a wide variety of support options
Ensure the success of every student by using a more flexible instructional lens
Design intensive interventions to accelerate progress for struggling learners
Accelerate learning gains to achieve the CCSS by working smarter, rather than harder
Enrich your CCSS design to build a learning community inclusive of struggling readers
Implement on-the-spot instructional activities throughout the learning day
Alleviate ineffective literacy practices and reaffirm what you are doing right to achieve the standards’ goals and support your struggling readers
Learn how to make every moment count to empower your instructional choices

A Message From Your Seminar Leader

Dear Colleague:

Dedicated educators across the country are rising to the challenge as they incorporate the Common Core State Standards into their instructional programs. As we contemplate how to raise instructional rigor in literacy, a key component of the CCSS, we must consider what this means for struggling readers. The issue of text complexity and how to offer the highest quality instructional opportunities using varied text experiences requires a flexible perspective that takes the unique needs of struggling readers into account. This means we must ground our discussions on the research on best practice in literacy to help struggling readers meet and exceed those standards.

With over forty years of experience working with struggling readers, I recognize the central role teachers play in offering examplary literacy instruction that is crucial for our struggling learners. We must initiate respectful conversations that critically analyze key issues that have been raised in the CCSS such as text selection and instructional decision-making. Is raising instructional rigor an achievable goal? Absolutely! Can we accomplish this while keeping unique learning needs at the forefront of those discussions? Of course! But this means that we must broaden our CCSS dialogue by exploring how to create more flexible learning experiences that will embrace every student in our care.

In this seminar, I will use specific classroom examples to demonstrate how teachers are achieving an instructional balance to meet the CCSS goals by increasing instructional rigor without a return to the one-size-fits-all perspective that rarely takes struggling readers into account. I will share dozens of practices to raise instructional rigor and flexibly address increasingly complex texts through responsive differentiation. You will leave this seminar with a rich toolbox of strategies filled to brimming and a clear view of the research that can guide us in achieving the goals of the CCSS. You will leave with a broader understanding of the CCSS, inspired by a new perspective of your role in meeting the needs of your struggling readers based on the tenets of best practice. We know what we need to do to ensure the success of every child, but YOU are the key ingredient to meet the challenges that have been afforded by the CCSS and make this a reality in your classroom. I look forward to opening new doors to the CCSS for all students, particularly your struggling readers who depend on you!

Sincerely,
Mary Howard

P.S. You will receive an extensive reading instruction resource handbook filled with numerous ideas and valuable, practical strategies all aligned with the CCSS that you can use immediately to assist you in increasing the reading achievement of your struggling readers.

Who Should Attend

Grades K-5 Classroom Teachers, Reading Specialists, Literacy Coaches, Special Education Staff, Instructional Assistants, Interventionists, and Administrators.

Special Benefits of Attending

Extensive Resource Handbook
Each participant will receive an instructional resource handbook to help you immediately implement the strategies you learn from the seminar into your literacy program. The handbook includes:

Specific tips, tools and procedures to help struggling readers meet the Common Core State Standards for reading
Open-ended activities and forms for any text or task across the curriculum
Specific, high-impact instructional strategies to provide more intensive learning experiences in order to close the gap for struggling readers in less time
Tips, tools and ideas to ensure a flexible instructional perspective with a range of opportunities, settings and experiences more inclusive of your struggling learners

Meet and Share
This seminar provides a great opportunity for participants to meet and share ideas with other educators who are also interested in practical ways to improve reading achievement of struggling readers in grades K-5.

Consultation Available
Mary Howard will be available at the seminar for consultation regarding your questions about the unique needs of your own reading program for struggling readers.

On-Site Training Guarantee

BER is not a booking agency that just finds a presenter who presents on the topic you requested. Rather, we only recommend highly experienced BER presenters who have consistently received outstanding evaluations from educators attending their trainings.

Consequently, we provide a strong program guarantee.

We guarantee you'll be fully satisfied or you'll owe us nothing after your on-site training event.