st 21 Annual Region 4 Conference

Keynote‐ Tim Shanahan In 2000, the National Panel issued its landmark report on The : 20 Years Later what research has to say about the teaching of reading. This presentation will explore what led up to that report, how the panel did its work, what its major findings were, how the response 8:30‐10:15 to the report was, and what we have learned since its issuance. Timothy Shanahan was a member of the panel and often served as its public spokesperson.

Teaching Reading with Complex Elementary For more than 70 years, teachers have been told to teach reading Text at students’ “instructional levels.” Accordingly, most programs Timothy Shanahan organize reading instruction in this fashion. However, research Distinguished Professor Emeritus, indicates that students would reach higher levels of reading Ph.D. achievement if instruction focused on more challenging texts – University of Illinois at Chicago texts that in the past we would have labeled as “frustration level.” This presentation will explore that research and how teachers can successfully teach reading with complex text.

The Synergy of Dyslexia , General Most of us know that technology can help dyslexic individuals but Technology, and Universal Design we don’t always know how to fully take advantage of it. The UDL for Learning (UDL) Special principles offer us a framework that can help us modify any lesson Amir Bar, M.S. Education plan to include more technology and better accessibility and 10:30‐11:30 higher engagement. In this session Amir will introduce the three Breakout 1 principles of UDL and will share tangible examples on how they can be implemented in the classroom and other learning settings to improve learning outcomes. Antidotes for Anxiety: How to General Dr. Beard will describe basic underpinnings of anxiety, help you Help Children and Teens Cope differentiate between common childhood fears and anxiety, and with Worry discuss strategies to manage stress and worry. Dr. Michelle Beard Licensed Psychologist, LSSP

Keep Your Students Engaged in General Are you finding it difficult to keep your students’ attention during the Digital Age...Without virtual lessons? Do you feel like you have entered the attention Becoming Enraged! competition with other factors in your students’ home Colleen Mangold, Dyslexia environments? Do you wish your virtual lessons were more Interventionist and engaging? Learn simple, sustainable ideas that can be used in Beth Soontiraratn, M.Ed. small groups with your Zoomies and Roomies. See how these two Reading Specialist, CyFair ISD virtual novices are venturing into the realm of online teaching and crushing it (most days)!

Essential Compensatory Skills for Secondary The abrupt transition to virtual learning last school year was Learning Differences difficult for schools, educators, parents, and students alike. Evan Weinberger, ADHD Workloads were lightened, grades were inflated, comprehensive President and CEO, Staying Ahead exams were canceled, and many students felt like summer started of the Game!, LLC two months early. The prospect of a repeat this year was frightening so say the least, especially for students with learning differences.

This new educational paradigm calls upon students to flex their executive functioning skills now more than ever. For students with learning differences, these skills are absolutely essential for them to find success Supporting ELs with Dyslexia: General Participants will receive an overview of best practices in Building through Oracy identifying and serving ELs with dyslexia. Presentation will include Katharine Muller, M.Ed. Bilingual/EL strategies to support development as a complement to Education Specialists, Special dyslexia intervention. Education, Region 4 ESC Building a Foundation to Literacy Early Mastering skills on the continuum is with Phonological Awareness Childhood essential to learning how to read and write. In this presentation, Jane Ann Brown, M.Ed. participants will learn about each area of the continuum with Early Childhood Specialist activities that can be implemented immediately in the classroom. Region 4 ESC Informal assessment ideas will also be shared. Building a foundation to literacy starts with phonological awareness. Let’s make that foundation as strong as possible.

Beyond Dyslexia: How Multi‐ General Join us as we explore a hands‐on learning environment and its Sensory Learning and Hands‐On (Vendor) positive impact on students with learning challenges. We know tools Empower Students to dyslexia affects the areas of the brain that process language. Succeed Because of this, students facing Dyslexia are processing things Kristin Gauldin differently, they are interpreting information differently, and they Hand2Mind are often struggling with recalling and retaining. This is where hands‐on learning comes in. Did you know that hands‐on learning stimulates every part of the brain, which builds stronger connections? Did you know when students are in an active, hands‐ on environment that they retain more than 75% of the information? Hands‐on learning is IT! Join Kristin Gauldin as she shares how to deliver engaging, hands‐on instruction using tools that will enable students to not only build deeper connections but also build confidence! 11:30‐12:00 Lunch Keynote‐Rick Wagner Explore current research on dyslexia and the implications for 12:00‐1:20 What We are Learning about Dyslexia that has improving the approach to this disability. Implications for Rethinking Practice Disciplinary Literacy for All Secondary Each discipline creates, communicates, and critiques knowledge in Timothy Shanahan unique or highly specialized ways. Because of this historians, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, literary critics, mathematicians, and scientists create different Ph.D. kinds of texts and read in different ways. This presentation will University of Illinois at Chicago explain the disciplinary literacy concept, distinguish it from the more widely known “content area literacy,” and will make the case for including disciplinary literacy in secondary school curricula. Prediction and Identification of General Prediction and identification of individuals with dyslexia is not as Dyslexia accurate as we would like. The main reasons for inaccuracy of Richard K. Wagner, Ph. D. prediction and identification will be discussed. A solution to the Florida State University problem is to consider multiple sources of information and to Florida Center for Reading improve one’s clinical judgment by learning to think like a Research Bayesian. Updates to STAAR Accessibility K‐12 Attend this session to receive the latest updates regarding state 1:30‐2:30 Features and Designated Supports assessment for students with disabilities. Review the current Breakout 2 Policies Special guidelines on accommodations policies including accessibility Ashley Jackson and Natalie Hudson Education features and designated supports. Education Specialists, Special Evaluation Education, Region 4 ESC

Scientific : The 5 Rules that General Have you ever been curious about why we sometimes double, Apply to the English Language drop or change a letter when spelling? Come on in to find out Catherine Scott, M.Ed., CALT, Vice about the five rules that govern the way we spell so you can be a President of Curriculum confident speller and share the gift of scientific spelling with your Development and Instruction students! Neuhaus Education Center

Tools for Distance Learning and General This past year has been unlike any other. As special educators we Dyslexia have had to drastically pivot our mode of teaching to Emma LeComte accommodate our students with learning differences. This session Director of Distance Learning, is intended to showcase a variety of tools and methods that we Briarwood School have found successful since last March. The Importance of Phonological General This session identifies how instruction in Phonological and Awareness Instruction for All (Vendor) Reading Skills helps nonreaders and Beginning & Struggling Readers struggling readers build the groundwork for success. An interactive Julie Joynt, BAE, M.Ed. demonstration of instructional tools and teaching strategies School Specialty utilizing multisensory techniques will illustrate how students can improve reading proficiency. Utilizing Structured Word Inquiry General English isn’t complicated; it’s connected! In this session, explore to Cultivate Curiosity and Expand word meaning and structure relationships using Structured Word Students’ and Spelling Inquiry. SWI is a fun, simple, student‐centered learning approach Skills encompassing and etymology that cultivates Danielle Solis, M.Ed. students’ curiosity about words, deepens thinking, expands Elementary Education Specialist , and supports spelling. Region 4 ESC Assessing Reading‐Related General Impaired phonological processing is believed to be the most Phonological Processes common cause of dyslexia. What are reading‐related phonological Richard K. Wagner, Ph. D. processes and how can they best be assessed? Examples of Florida State University assessing reading‐related phonological processes with the CTOPP‐ 2 will be presented Give Up "Good Job" and General We've all heard these words. We probably all say these words "Awesome" and Offer Explicit (Vendor) each day as a way to offer encouragement and motivation for Feedback That Enhances Reading students with dyslexia. However, what do these words mean, and Progress more importantly, are these words doing anything to advance Terrie Noland decoding and reading progress? The answer is no. This session will Learning Ally dive into understanding why phrases like "good job" and 2:40‐3:40 "awesome" need to be replaced with more explicit and direct Breakout 3 feedback that can advance growth and improvement in reading outcomes. “The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback.” ~John Hattie Learning objectives will include: ∙ Understanding the research on feedback and how direct, explicit feedback improves outcomes ∙ Exploring ways to bolster the way you give feedback during reading instruction ∙ Building up student capacity to self‐reflect and give feedback on their reading progression This session's beauty is that the way to offer explicit and direct feedback can be applied in any situation. Administrators can use this practice in growing and leading their teams. Teachers can use this knowledge with all students, and if you are a parent, you can apply these practices with your children.

Syntax Matters: How Sentence‐Level Secondary Participants in this engaging, interactive workshop learn about the Instruction Builds Better Readers & importance of sentence‐level instruction both for developing Writers skills and improving . First, they William Van Cleave establish a framework for understanding best practices in W.V.C.ED. sentence work. They then examine parts of speech as a method of understanding the way words interact with each other and sentence parts as building blocks for creating different kinds of sentences. You will leave this webinar with a lesson plan framework and hands‐on strategies they can implement the very next day with their students. Let's Do the Mash ‐ The Elementary Virtual phonics instruction can be challenging. Discover how to Mash turn your phonics instruction into an interactive virtual Tracy Dennis, M.Ed. playground. Learn how to create a routine to teach the phonetic Director of Instruction alphabet that students will love through remote learning or virtual Flour Bluff ISD homework. All web‐based resources are free to use. Can a Sound Wall Benefit My General Phonological difficulties are the deficit core of dyslexia and Dyslexic Students? (Vendor) understanding the phonetics of language is overlooked when Mary Dahlgren, Ed.D. teaching phonemic awareness skills. We are going to explore how National LETRS Trainer to build a sound wall in your classroom along with daily activities Tools 4 Reading for making the student connection from speech to print. Voyager Sopris Six Syllable Types to Strengthen General Teachers will become familiar with the six syllable types. Then use Decoding and Encoding the syllable types to strengthen decoding and encoding of multi‐ Kay Willgrubs syllable words. The activities can be applied for all learners from Roan Reading LLC. second grade through high school. Digital Differentiation: Meeting General In this session, participants will be introduced to several digital the Needs of Diverse Learners tools and resources that lend themselves to personalized and Sherri Powell differentiated learning and providing 1:1 support in a remote Education Specialist learning environment. Accessibility features and resources will Digital Learning Publishing and also be discussed in this session. Digital Learning Solutions Region 4 Orthographic Processing ‐ What is K‐12 This session will explore orthographic processing as a cognitive it and how is it evaluated? process. A multimethod, multisource approach to evaluation of Kara Zwolinski, M.Ed. Special this cognitive process will be reviewed. The impact on reading and Child Find, Evaluation, and ARD Education writing for students who struggle with orthographic processing Supports Network Lead Evaluation will be discussed. Special Education, Region 4 ESC Dyslexia, Bilingualism, and General The intersection between language difference and a language‐ Learning a Second Language based disability is not always clear. Second language learners with Susie Abanobi, M.Ed. Bilingual/EL dyslexia face additional challenges encountered by all second Bilingual/ESL Education Specialist language learners—limited vocabulary and grammatical Region 4 ESC competence and lack of familiarity with the cultural or social context of the text. Attend this session to gain a greater understanding of language development in English Learners, and understand the instructional and intervention strategies that are appropriate for ELs. College Transition: Correcting the Secondary Myths and misunderstandings about college disability services and Myths and Misunderstandings to accommodations can leave students without the critical Help Students Be Successful in the knowledge they need. Thinking that colleges don’t offer Post‐Secondary Environment accommodations may discourage students from attending college, Elizabeth Hamblet, and believing that they provide every service that students had in Learning Disabilities Consultant high school might not properly prepare students for the transition. Laws and expectations at the college level are different, but with the proper preparation and understanding, students can be successful! Learn what really happens at college. Live Sessions

Recorded Sessions