Adolescent Literacy Solutions
This two-part workshop series equips educators with the knowledge of the science of reading and the instructional skills necessary to accelerate underperforming students.
What Is Adolescent Literacy Solutions?
Without a firm foundation in the basic skills of reading, many middle and high schools will struggle to meet the rigorous expectations of their state standards.
This two-part workshop series is aimed towards administrators, academic content-area teachers, Multilingual Learner teachers, special education teachers, reading specialists, and coaches for grades 6-12.
Each day may be taken separately, but we recommend that participants attend the two-day series.
Combine the Decoding and Fluency workshops for an intensive intervention-focused solution for your teachers of struggling adolescent readers.
Alternatively, combine the Adolescent Vocabulary and Comprehension workshops to address the needs of all learners.
Part 1: Intensive Intervention Series — Decoding Instruction for Adolescents and Fluency Development
Many middle and high school teachers have not had the preparation needed to teach struggling adolescent readers.
These two days will provide a starting point and foundational information on the Science of Reading for teachers to begin to make informed instructional decisions and address the needs of adolescent struggling readers.
Teachers will also gain a basic understanding of decoding instruction and fluency development.
The topics covered in this session include basic linguistics, basic phonics, high-frequency words, and multisyllabic word instruction.
Participant Outcomes:
- Understand the concept of phonemic awareness as the underpinning for learning to decode.
- Learn specific ways to teach phonics and why phonics instruction is vital for struggling readers.
- Learn strategies for teaching high-frequency words.
- Practice ways to teach students to recognize multisyllabic words.
This session focuses on instructional methods for teaching students to become fluent readers and spotlights the relationship between fluency and comprehension.
Highlights include specific techniques to increase time on text and promote rereading: Readers Theatre, active learning and repeat reading.
Participant Outcomes:
- Understand the concept of fluency and its importance to reading achievement.
- Learn methods and tools for fluency assessment.
- Learn high-leverage strategies for building reading fluency.
Part 2: Academic Literacy Series for All — Vocabulary, Comprehension Strategies and Text Structures
These two days focus on enhancing vocabulary knowledge for all middle and high-school students and on improving content understanding through comprehension strategies that work for both literary and informational text.
These two sessions are appropriate for intervention, English learner, and all content educators, especially when implementing instruction aligned to high-leverage practices and rigorous standards.
Participants learn and practice evidence-based methods to teach important content vocabulary, teach students to figure out unknown words using contextual analysis and morphemic analysis skills, and engage in fun and stimulating activities that foster “word consciousness.”
Participants will receive more than 30 sample lesson models with easy application to classroom text in any academic content area.
Participant Outcomes:
- Know the current research on vocabulary development.
- Know high-leverage techniques for teaching specific words.
- Know high-leverage strategies for teaching students to figure out unfamiliar words while reading.
- Have a repertoire of active strategies for promoting “word consciousness.”
- Be prepared to apply the techniques and strategies to classroom text.
- Leave with lessons developed to connect to existing materials.
Participants learn about current, validated research in comprehension instruction and receive an overview of the factors known to positively impact comprehension.
Participants receive in-depth instruction in selected instructional techniques that have broad application in both narrative and informational text at all grade levels, including content classes. These techniques encompass the following:
- Teacher interaction with students with an emphasis on question techniques
- Instruction in recognizing informational text structures
- Specific strategies for helping students understand Internet sources
- Identifying the main idea, summarizing and making inferences
Participant Outcomes:
- Understand seminal research on text comprehension.
- Apply a set of strategies to your own text.
- Understand different text structures and their signal words.
- Understand high-leverage ways to improve instruction in content-area texts.
Get in touch
Contact CORE to learn more about how Adolescent Literacy Solutions can help you improve adolescent literacy teaching outcomes.
Meet Our Literacy Experts
Dr. Fineé E. Taylor has been an educational consultant for over 15 years and taught a range of elementary grades, served as an instructional coach, worked as an associate reading professor, and served as a Pre-K and Elementary Curriculum Supervisor.
Cris Goldy is a Senior Educational Services Manager with CORE. Cris provides services to schools, districts and agencies to support effective program implementation, multi-tiered systems of support, special education and special programs support, strategic improvement plans, instructional leadership, teacher development, training and coaching. Her specialties are administrative leadership, K-2 literacy, interventions and special education.
Dale Webster is CORE’s Vice President of Language & Literacy. He leads the Educational Services division and is responsible for the day-to-day operations, training, and quality control of CORE’s educational consulting and management staff. Dale brings 20 years of experience in teaching, professional development/technical assistance, research, state-level policy work and administration, and curriculum development to schools and districts across the country.
Garla Jalloh is an Educational Services Manager who specializes in secondary literacy. She finds great joy and fulfillment in supporting and building capacity in middle and high school educators so that they are equipped to provide equitable learning environments for their students, with a focus on literacy.
Dr. Carrie Thomas Beck is CORE’s Director of Literacy. She comes to CORE after working four years as the Dyslexia Specialist for the Oregon Department of Education (ODE). Carrie has led the development of a reading endorsement program at the university and spent five years at the university co-directing the Oregon Reading First Center, a federally funded center that partnered with ODE to provide technical support in the area of early literacy to fifty elementary schools throughout the state of Oregon.
Kristina Arcuri is an Educational Services Manager with CORE Learning. She is a former superintendent with 24 years of experience in the education sector, focused on driving growth and improving test scores by recruiting and maintaining high-quality staff. She is a decisive leader and analytical problem-solver with a solid track record of success.
Erica Hidalgo is a Senior Educational Services Manager with CORE. She was a classroom teacher in both Texas and New Mexico before serving as an elementary school principal and curriculum director. Prior to working with CORE, Erica served as a curriculum director where she planned and coordinated ongoing, job-embedded professional learning opportunities for administrators and teachers in both large urban and mid-sized rural school districts.
Thomas Acampora has over 15 years of experience working in and with schools to improve outcomes for students. He has led teams of educational professionals that worked with middle and high schools to improve graduation rates by creating powerful and nimble systems of student support, including small learning communities, early warning systems, positive behavior supports and restorative practices. He has managed and oversaw successful transformation plans that include a wide variety of partners and efforts at multiple schools across the country, ensuring coherent, effective, and sustained school improvement in the ABCs (Attendance, Behavior, Course Performance).
