Motivating the Disengaged Student

Support teachers who provide intervention instruction with this two-day seminar. Created in consultation with Dr. Michael Opitz, this seminar is designed to empower teachers working with striving learners to differentiate instruction to individual leaning needs. The “Formula for Success” lesson framework will help interventionists adapt instruction to maximize daily success for accelerated student progress. Strategies learned can support implementation of Rigby’s Intervention by Design, Focus Forward, and other intervention instructional resources.

Length:
One day

Objectives:

• Understand the essential elements of an RTI framework
• Establish classroom elements critical to engage and activate striving learners
• Analyze assessments to identify specific learning needs
• Utilize intervention strategies addressing all areas of literacy development including oral language, comprehension, vocabulary, phonemic awareness and phonics, fluency, and writing
• Use the “Formula for Success” lesson framework to plan lessons
• Utilize new intervention strategies in the classroom
• Apply management strategies for record keeping, planning for differentiation, and communication between classroom and intervention professionals

College Credit Pending

The Reaching Struggling Adolescent Readers course is designed for middle and high school teachers who work with students who are reading below grade level. In this workshop, participants will experience first-hand a variety of strategies and activities that will help students become more motivated, active readers. Participants will learn how to build on skills students already have, but don’t use when reading, and experience a variety of reading strategies and activities that will engage adolescent readers. Teachers will participate in strategies and activities for:

• Before Reading — Motivation, Building Background, Vocabulary
• During Reading — Making Connections, Fluency, Strategic Questioning
• After Reading — Summarizing, Synthesizing
• Testing — Academic Vocabulary, Test Structure

Whether adolescent students struggle because they read below grade level, are English language learners, or lack motivation, teachers will leave the workshop with practical ways to support students’ learning.

Length:
One day

Objectives

• Know the needs of struggling adolescent readers
• Use research based strategies that support struggling adolescent readers
• Apply reading strategies for struggling readers in the classroom
• Deliver instruction to transfer research based strategies to test-taking situations

College Credit Pending

This course will introduce participants to a variety of instructional strategies to be used with all students that will enhance development of the higher-order thinking skills necessary to be able to function effectively in the world. Participants will learn how to use technology to help students develop small-group cooperative learning skills to help them learn from each other and raise student motivation. Focus is on maximizing student involvement in challenging, long-term projects that stress composition, comprehension, and application of skills in the context of working on authentic tasks.

Length:
One day

Participants must have access to a computer and the Internet.

• Identify a wide variety of technology and online resources that can be used with students
• Facilitate the ways students obtain, organize, manipulate, and display information
• Simulate real-world environments and create actual situations for experimentation
• Improve student communication skills and develop positive cooperative learning relationships
• Enhance student engagement, productivity, and move students toward self-reliance
• Explore online resources that support at-risk students
• Learn time/classroom management strategies that maximize learning for every student
• Understand how to design projects that integrate a variety of disciplines
• Foster parental involvement and support

College Credit Pending