DYSLEXIA: Help Children Who Struggle to Successfully Read, Write and Spell (Grades K-6)

Presented by Mark Weakland
Outstanding Teacher, Author and National Presenter

Specifically Designed for Educators Serving Students in Grades K-6: Classroom Teachers, Reading Specialists, Literacy Coaches, Title I Staff, Special Education Staff, Instructional Assistants, Interventionists, and Administrators

Practical classroom activities and interventions to strengthen and accelerate the reading, writing and spelling achievement of students who have or may have dyslexia
Powerful instructional strategies that build foundational skills and support literacy success for students with dyslexia and other reading difficulties
Best, most current information on dyslexia and practical implications and suggestions for your spelling, reading and writing instruction
Receive an extensive digital resource handbook to assist you in helping your students with dyslexia to successfully read, write and spell

Practical Ideas and Strategies

Are you searching for ways to help students who have or may have dyslexia to be more successful readers, writers and spellers? In this seminar, you will receive powerful instructional techniques, research-based strategies and many classroom activities all designed to support the success of students with dyslexia. The focus will be on best practices for strengthening the literacy skills of students with dyslexia. Gain a wealth of practical strategies for boosting reading, writing and spelling achievement, and increasing students’ confidence. Drawing on cutting-edge research and fMRI brain studies, literacy expert MARK WEAKLAND will explore how and why dyslexia develops, and present a wealth of practical strategies, techniques and activities you can use to help activate and strengthen specific reading, spelling and language circuits in the brain. Enhance your instruction and help your students who have or may have dyslexia experience success in reading, writing and spelling.

Ten Key Benefits of Attending

Optimize Literacy Instruction for Students Who Have or May Have Dyslexia
Learn dozens of strategies and activities that dramatically increase the quality of instruction to help your students who have or may have dyslexia achieve greater success in reading, writing and spelling
Help Your Students with Dyslexia Build Foundational Literacy Skills
Explore the connections between decoding and encoding, and important implications for your instruction … Gain a wealth of strategies for building foundational literacy skills and success in students with dyslexia
Boost Reading and Writing Achievement
Discover highly effective ways to strengthen and accelerate the reading, writing and spelling skills of all your students – especially students with dyslexia
Foster and Support Strong Fluency Growth
Discover instructional techniques, materials and activities that help students who struggle with decoding to make more rapid progress in word recognition and fluency
Strengthen Brain Pathways to Help Students with Dyslexia Succeed
Activating and strengthening specific brain pathways benefits all students, and is especially helpful to children with dyslexia … Learn the best instructional practices for strengthening key brain pathways
Help Students Avoid Reading Difficulty: Explicit Teaching Techniques
Learn direct and explicit teaching techniques you can use immediately to help students with dyslexia … Gain preventative, preemptive strategies for helping students avoid reading difficulty
Address and Prevent Low Word Recognition
Gain research-based instructional techniques that help students with reading impairments to better learn sound-letter associations, word patterns and word recognition … Learn what you can do to address and help prevent low word recognition
Enhance Phonemic Awareness Skills to Strengthen Reading and Spelling Skills for All Students
Learn why phonemic awareness is integral to successful reading for all and critical for students with dyslexia … Maximize your teaching time by focusing on the most critical phonemic awareness skills
Help Students Who Have Fallen Behind to Close the Gap
Teach your students helpful strategies they can independently use to overcome their own reading, writing and spelling roadblocks … Accelerate the progress of students with dyslexia with these powerful teaching and learning strategies
Receive a Comprehensive Dyslexia Digital Resource Handbook
Return to your school with an extensive digital resource handbook filled with ideas, strategies and step-by-step instructions designed to help you support the reading, writing and spelling success of your students with dyslexia

Outstanding Strategies You Can Use Immediately

Dozens of strategies to help students who have or may have dyslexia successfully read, write and spell
Activities and strategies that strengthen the phonological (sound) processing system – a brain area that is often weak in children with dyslexia
How to strengthen four major literacy areas that are typically weak in children with dyslexia
Spelling strategies that help students with dyslexia read, as well as write and spell
Understand how to better assess students for characteristics of dyslexia
Classroom activities and the latest information for strengthening the brain pathways critical to reading, writing and spelling success … Implications for our work with students with dyslexia and other reading challenges
Instructional techniques that help all students learn, but are especially supportive for students with dyslexia and reading impairments
How to help struggling readers move from “pretend reading” or “word calling” to a laser-sharp focus on words and the letters and patterns that form them
Outstanding research-based teaching techniques and tools for reinforcing and strengthening your students’ reading, writing and spelling proficiency in grades K-6
Current assessments, including screeners, that help teams notice the traits of dyslexia
Practical and impactful strategies you can easily incorporate into your existing literacy instruction and program – you need not re-invent the wheel!
Ways you can craft effective, practical solutions to the challenges students with dyslexia experience while reading, writing and spelling

A Message From Your Seminar Leader

Dear Colleague:

Helping students who struggle can seem especially daunting. Fortunately, research exploring the connections between cognition, brain structure and learning clearly shows us how reading works in the brain, why some children develop reading impairments and dyslexia, and most importantly, what we can do to support and accelerate the learning of students who have dyslexia.

I have designed this dynamic day to equip you with practical tips and ideas that focus and enhance the instructional techniques, learning strategies and classroom activities you use in your literacy program to support students who have or may have dyslexia. All the strategies I will share not only help these students to build better functioning neural pathways, but can help all of your readers to excel and achieve.

The knowledge, strategies, activities, and assessments you gather in this seminar will help you teach and empower students with dyslexia to be more successful readers, writers and spellers. And because I know firsthand that teachers are some of the busiest people in the world, everything I present is practical and time efficient.

I look forward to spending the day with you, exploring how to maximize your instruction so it supports children with dyslexia, while strengthening the learning of your typically developing students. Now, more than ever, science has shown us how to help children with reading impairments. New understandings about how the brain works have given us an opportunity to reexamine literacy and its component parts. How fortunate we are to have this opportunity. I look forward to meeting you at my seminar!

Sincerely,
Mark Weakland

P.S. The job you do is so very important. Investing a day with me will give you knowledge, strategies and activities that can make a real difference in the reading, writing and spelling lives of your students with dyslexia.

Who Should Attend

Classroom Teachers, Reading Specialists, Literacy Coaches, Title I Staff, Special Education Staff, Instructional Assistants, Interventionists, and Administrators

Special Benefits of Attending

Extensive Resource Handbook
You will receive an extensive digital resource handbook giving you access to countless strategies. The handbook includes:

Practical, research-based teaching techniques and classroom activities for supporting students who have or may have dyslexia
Strategies that help build important pathways in the brain, needed for literacy success
Effective ways to positively impact literacy achievement for students who struggle with dyslexia
Important information on what dyslexia is, what it isn’t and how to better identify children at risk for reading difficulties
Practical classroom interventions and student progress monitoring ideas
Tips and ideas for making your literacy instruction more supportive for students with dyslexia

For in-person seminars, registrants will also receive a printed copy of the resource handbook as long as their registration is received in the BER office at least 15 calendar days before the event.

Consultation Available
Mark Weakland will be available to answer your specific questions and the unique needs of your own program.

Semester Credit Option
UMASS Logo Up to four graduate level professional development credits are available with an additional fee and completion of follow-up practicum activities. Details for direct enrollment with University of Massachusetts Global, a nonprofit affiliate, will be available at this program.

Meet Inservice Requirements
Participants of both the Live Online Seminar and those completing the Recorded Version online can receive a certificate of participation that may be used to verify five continuing education hours. State CEUs are available for both versions of the course. For specific details, visit www.ber.org/ceus.

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