Webinar Series
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Upcoming Webinar
Closing the Fluency Gap Series – Part 2: Building the Foundations for Fluency and for Deep Reading
Thursday, April 25, 2024 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
Presented by Maryanne Wolf, Director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies; Carolyn Brown, Ph.D., Chief Academic Officer and Co-Founder, Foundations in Learning; and Jerry Zimmermann, Ph.D., J.D., VP of Research and Co-Founder, Foundations in Learning
Moderated by Tim Odegard, Murfree Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies and Professor of Psychology, Middle Tennessee State University
Sponsored by WordFlight, a Foundations in Learning Solution
In this edLeader Panel, noted literacy scholars Maryanne Wolf, author of Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, and Tim Odegard, a leading dyslexia expert, along with reading researchers Carolyn Brown, Ph.D. and Jerry Zimmermann, Ph.D., J.D., will discuss the conditions that support not only fluency, but also deep reading. The development of the complex and interactive neural networks necessary for deep reading will be framed by Maryanne’s multi-componential approach for building fluency.
Join us as they:
- Unlock how fluent readers automatically integrate multiple components of word knowledge: phonology, orthography, morphology, semantics, and syntax
- Present models of learning and practice that support automatic word recognition and fluency
- Consider the role of technology in developing fluency
This edLeader Panel will be of interest to elementary and middle school teachers, reading coaches, literacy coaches, and school and district leaders. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.
Previous Webinars
Webinar #7
Closing the Fluency Gap Series – Part 1: What the Science of Learning Says
Moderated by Allison Zimmermann, President and CEO, Foundations in Learning
Sponsored by WordFlight, a Foundations in Learning Solution
It’s estimated that two-thirds of students in the U.S. are struggling with fluency as a result of insufficient foundational skills. Typically, fluency has been addressed by defining, assessing, and intervening on decoding accuracy, automatic word recognition, and reading text with expression. However, to solve the fluency gap, we must go beyond this approach to better understand the learning processes that enable students to learn, retain, and connect these components.
This edWebinar will examine fluency from the perspective of the learning process. Learning science provides decades of research on fluency development from many domains. These findings provide critical insights that can be applied to reading, providing a more effective way to help struggling readers develop the knowledge and skills required for reading fluency.
In this edWebinar, you’ll learn how to support the emergence of fluency, link the components of fluency, and learn how automatic word recognition develops and why it is so important to fluency.
Webinar #6
Why 4th graders are struggling with reading – and what we can do
Current fourth grade reading test scores show the lowest reading proficiency rates for decades. The cause is unique to their generation.
The pandemic closed schools in the middle of their kindergarten year – a critical time for learning to read. Educators hurriedly switched to remote learning, but it was nearly impossible to recreate their in-person practice.
Today’s fourth graders who struggle with reading need interventions that address the specific shortfalls caused by emergency remote learning.
Heather Williams, LaSalle Elementary School Principal, joins Dr. Carolyn Brown, reading researcher, to discuss the science AND practice needed to help today’s struggling readers.
You will learn:
- What the research says about these struggling readers
- What assessment data can tell us about students’ foundational reading skills
- The types of instruction and interventions that support students lacking foundational reading skills
- The professional learning educators need to support students with this type of reading challenge
Webinar #5
The Science of Reading fluently:
What comes after systematic phonics instruction?
Systematic phonics instruction is a key component to an effective literacy program, but not the only component necessary to help students read with fluency and comprehension. Teachers and administrators often observe that many of their students are not reaching fluency and ask “what do we do next”? Evidence shows that a different form of structured practice that builds automatic word recognition is the next step in preparing students to read fluently for comprehension. Join Dr. Carolyn Brown to discuss the research from cognitive science about how students become skilled readers.
Webinar #4
Make the Science of Reading Stick: Leverage the Science of Learning
Findings from the science of reading have clearly demonstrated that learning phonics through explicit and systematic instruction is an essential starting point for early readers. However, many students continue to struggle with reading fluency and comprehension because they don’t have the skills and experiences necessary to transition their knowledge to flexible, automatic and fluent use.
Just as beginning readers need systematic and explicit phonics instruction supported by the Science of Reading, many students also require systematic practice to “make learning stick” and to prepare them for the increasing complexity they encounter on the learning journey that takes them to fluency and comprehension. By leveraging well-established learning principles, students learn to discern, derive, and internalize the regularities and irregularities of the grapho-phonemic and orthographic systems resulting in flexible and automatic word recognition.
What you will learn?
- The specific roles of explicit and implicit learning strategies to support reading development;
- The principles of learning that drive retention, retrieval and use;
- How to apply these principles to the development of automatic word recognition; and
- Evaluate whether current reading instruction promotes automatic skill development necessary to reach fluency and comprehension.
Webinar #3
Target the “missing link” to prepare students for fluency – a discussion with administrators about student success with WordFlight
Carolyn Brown and administrators Janie Eischen and Dr. Robert Davis share how to integrate WordFlight into your reading instruction to help your students become fluent readers.
WordFlight is an evidence-based program built on a decade of research and development that helps diverse learners fill in the missing link between phonics and fluency.
What you will learn?
- Determine if your students have the foundational reading skills that are essential to fluency,
- Utilize WordFlight’s patented assessment to make students’ strengths and weaknesses visible,
- Evaluate the capacity of instructional tools to develop automatic word recognition – the missing link between phonics and fluency, and
- Use a new learning approach that helps students acquire, use and generalize their decoding knowledge—critical to becoming a fluent reader.
Webinar #2
Making your current reading curriculum more accessible and effective
Dr. Carolyn Brown and guest panelist educators Jennifer Abramson and Lisa Phillips share how to use this new evidence-based online reading tool with all reading programs.
Decades of research in cognitive science and learning offer proven approaches to building the automatic, expert skills required for proficient reading. WordFlight activates these foundational skills and ensures that students get the most out of their current reading programs and tools. This assessment and instruction system supports any reading program by preparing your students to reach reading fluency.
What you will learn?
- Identify the missing links that prevent students from progressing
- Conceptualize the development of foundational skills in a way that leads students to generalize and transfer skills to new contexts
- Use a new learning framework to personalize lessons to each student’s needs.
Webinar #1
Discovering the missing link between phonics and fluency
Noted researcher, Dr. Carolyn Brown, will show you how to prepare your students to become fluent readers by targeting the missing link that bridges phonics to fluency.
Research shows that many students continue to struggle with basic reading skills despite concerted efforts by educators to teach reading. WordFlight is an online literacy solution that identifies and addresses gaps in foundational knowledge and skills by directly targeting development of automatic word recognition required for fluency.
What you will learn?
- Determine the essential components that bridge phonics and fluency
- Identify students at risk for lack of foundational reading skills
- Unpack automatic word recognition and how it develops
- Use a new learning framework that helps students use and generalize their knowledge—the key to fluent reading.
