The National Institute for Direct Instruction and Stephanie Stollar are partnering on a course designed for university and college professors who want to learn more about how to develop high-quality literacy courses based on evidence from the Science of Reading (SoR). The course will focus on the Direct Instruction (DI) approach, using Direct Instruction Reading (Carnine et al., 2017) as the primary text. Further, the course will address how to develop literacy courses according to  the International Dyslexia Association Knowledge and Practice Standards. Additional reading will be assigned and/or recommended for use with new teachers and as background for participants. 

The course will be taught in two parts. The focus of Part I will be on beginning reading instruction (grades K-2) and reading interventions while the focus of Part II will be on intermediate reading instruction (grades 3-5) and content area literacy. 

Participants will be guided in developing their own literacy courses in concert with designing field experiences coordinated with those courses to provide practice for their students in teaching, assessing student progress and designing interventions for struggling students. Additionally, participants will be given the opportunity to discuss the possibility of linking their reading methods courses with required assessment courses. Notably, the course will address instruction for all students including those who struggle with learning to read and those with diverse needs.

Content covered in Part I will include beginning reading instruction along with instruction on the critical language skills that provide the foundation for reading comprehension. In addition, the relationship between beginning reading and the need for interventions will be highlighted.

This course will include strategies for:

• teaching critical information about all 5 components of effective reading instruction (i.e., phonemic awareness, beginning phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension) appropriate for students in grades K-2.
• designing practice activities to assist future teachers in applying their knowledge to teaching and assessing their student's progress with the 5 components.
• designing interventions for older, struggling readers who typically make due to their poor initial reading instruction.
• reading and critically analyzing the current research underlying SoR that participants might use in their own coursework.
• assessing student progress using valid and reliable tools.
• determining methods for carefully evaluating beginning reading curricula in order to identify high quality beginning reading programs.

Meetings are scheduled from 1:00 to 4:00 pm Pacific Time on the following dates:

• May 15, 22, 29 

• June  5, 12, 19, 26

• July 3, 10      

The sessions will be facilitated by Dr. Marcy Stein and Dr. Diane Kinder who are both experienced teacher educators and experts in Direct Instruction. For more information on DI, visit www.nifdi.org

Cost: $699 

The course is now full. Contact Stephanie Stollar at [email protected] to be added to a list for the fall session.