Educator Workshops

Championing Dyslexia: Tools for Specialist Teachers

Specialist educators play an important role in nurturing the unique strengths of all students, including those with dyslexia. This workshop explored how specialist teachers can become champions for dyslexic learners—whether or not reading is central to the classroom.

When Students Struggle with Reading: How to Understand, Assess, and Support Struggling and Dyslexic Readers 

This workshop was designed specifically for elementary educators and literacy specialists who work with struggling readers. Participants received:

• A comprehensive overview of dyslexia and its impact on early reading skills

• Detailed information about the five essential pillars of reading instruction (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension)

• A review of key assessments to identify students' literacy strengths and weaknesses 

• Evidence-based strategies to personalize instruction and implement practical techniques for building reading confidence and skills in the classroom

Presented by Dr. Julie A. Washington, this in-person, interactive workshop focused on our current understanding of the potential impact of language variation on reading and assessment outcomes – particularly for African American children growing up in poverty.

• How is literacy learning impacted when the language of instruction differs from the language of the home? 
• What is translanguaging and how does it impact teaching and learning in the classroom? 
• How can we honor and affirm language variation while also moving children toward proficiency in the language of text? 
• How can we build strong reading foundations that will lead to later reading proficiency?

Fluent readers know how to incorporate skills beyond phonics, including tracking, vocabulary, and grammar, while reading. Readers with dyslexia may find that these skills don’t come as naturally. This workshop demonstrated strategies for teaching these skills with all levels of phonics instructions.

Presented by Jennifer Hasser, M. Ed.: Ms. Hasser is a nationally recognized advocate, author, and trainer in the field of reading. As Founder and Executive Director of Syllables Learning Center and Kendore Learning, Jennifer has trained more than a thousand teachers and has helped thousands of students acquire language skills. She was President of the International Dyslexia Association’s Georgia Branch.

Many parents and teachers wonder “what’s wrong” with a student who struggles with learning and behavior challenges. While this quest for answers may lead to a diagnosis, it does not always translate into a solution. Dr. Eric Tridas shared strategies and solutions that can help parents and educators address these challenges.

Participants learned innovative, researched-based methods for teaching about numbers and learning math skills. Topics included: The role of language skills, visual processing skills, executive functioning, and motor planning in acquiring math competency; Instructional methods using minimum language demands and whole-to-part, multi-modal strategies to help students efficiently store, retrieve, and express information; Strategies for students who have difficulty learning, sequencing, and executing multi-step procedures; Adapting materials to provide structure and scaffolding and to promote independence; Strategies to help students activate their prior knowledge, process text-based problems, and develop self-checking skills.

Executive Function Specialist, Sucheta Kamath, provided strategies to support student success in planning and goal management; attention regulatory skills; memory and retention; organizational skills; time management; metacognitive skills; social-pragmatic skills.

An introduction into the basic research and methodology behind multi-sensory instruction; Strategies for teaching basic numeracy and place value; Demonstrations of the use of manipulatives to model multiplication/division, fractions, geometry, and basic concepts in algebra.