LDAA offers five webinars that provide concrete strategies for improving students’ reading comprehension and writing skills. These webinars are independent of each other and can be taken in any order. Dive into these webinars to enhance your knowledge and learn new information and strategies, all presented by top experts in the field.
Part 1: Reading Comprehension Revealed – Models & Skills to Support Every Learner
Presenter: Jodi DeVries; Experienced educator, University of Alberta course instructor and Doctoral student in Special Education
Date: February 1, 2024, from 4:00 – 5:30 pm
In this session we will explore the models of reading comprehension that guide our knowledge in this field. We will consider research-backed approaches to supporting students in whole-class and intervention contexts. Participants will gain ready-to-implement ideas, as well as a contextualized understanding of the models that guide these practices.
Part 2: Reading and Writing with Intention
Presenters: Calgary Academy Teachers: Karri Johnson – Literacy Lead for Writing & Tienneke Calder – Literacy Lead Reading
Date: February 27, 2024. From 4:00 – 5:30 pm
This webinar emphasizes the need for integrated literacy instruction whereby foundational reading and writing skills are taught together, creating a more holistic learning experience. The research suggests that integrated instruction of reading and writing can help students develop phonics and decoding skills more effectively. In addition, explicitly teaching reading and writing together will enhance comprehension and strengthen writing fluency. This webinar will suggest an instructional approach and provide lesson samples that align with the K to 6 ELA curriculum.
Part 3: Linking Reading Comprehension & Executive Function
Presenter: Andria Slipp; Head of Literacy and Admissions at Rundle Academy
Date: April 10, 2024, from 4:00 – 5:30 pm
This presentation examines the interplay between executive function and reading comprehension and explores how reading comprehension instruction might integrate executive function support for students with ADHD and Specific Learning Disorder in Reading.
Part 4: Syntax & Reading Comprehension – What Does a Sentence Have to Do with It?
Presenter: Lisa Kohel; Registered Speech Language Pathologist, University of Alberta course instructor Doctoral Candidate
Date: May 9, 2024, from 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Sentence-level comprehension, a key ingredient to understanding text, is often overlooked when reading comprehension problems are identified. In this session participants will: connect oral language–specifically, syntactic proficiency to later reading comprehension outcomes, will become aware of syntactic properties of sentences that make them difficult to understand, and gain insight into evidence and methods for addressing sentence complexity in instruction.
Part 5: Practical Tools for Enhancing Morphology Instruction
Presenter: Kristy Dunn, doctoral candidate in Special Education and Principal Instructor in the Faculty of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta
Date: May 22, 2024, from 4:00 – 5:30 pm
As early as Grade 1, teaching morphology can help improve reading, spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension. Importantly, we know that teaching morphology benefits students with Dyslexia. This session expands on advanced phonics instruction to include morphology. It shows how word study can build an understanding of the spelling-meaning connection in words and strengthen word consciousness. Teachers will be provided with practical examples of instructional strategies, including organizational tools (e.g., word bags, word sums, and word matrices). Ready-to-go resources will be shared that can be used across content areas and grade levels.
