Spring Reading First Academies

Plans for spring Reading First Academies are currently being finalized. Sites are Newport News, Roanoke, and Charlottesville. All academies will be held on Saturdays, February 10 and 24 and March 10 and 24. More informationlater regarding places and times. The website will be open for enrollment in early 2007.

Workshop on Comprehension and Vocabulary Instruction

Enrollment for the Comprehension Workshop in October has reached capacity. Although we do not have a waiting list, please be assured that enrollment numbers DO change due to participant cancellations. It is strongly suggested that you periodically check the website for openings in the event. Thank you.
Returning for the first of four workshops this year, Dr. Kevin Flanigan will be in Abingdon on October 11 to offer his workshop on strategies for increasing students’ comprehension and vocabulary learning. Please click here to read specifics about the workshop. Enrollment is through this website...you must have already attended a Reading First teacher reading academy in order to enroll.

Future workshops on comprehension/vocabulary featuring Dr. Flanigan:
November 11, 2006 Richmond Hilton Garden Inn, 4050 Cox Road Glen Allen, Virginia (Click here for a downloadable flyer.)

Date: July 13, 2006, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., lunch provided. Place: Zehmer Conference Center, Charlottesville.

This workshop is designed for 2nd and 3rd grade teachers who are ready to work on ways to bring instruction alive with interactive strategies that they will practice in the workshop. The instructor for this workshop is CRISS trainer Dr. Kevin Flanigan. Prerequisite for this workshop: attendance at a Reading First academy.

Enrollment through this website begins May 29.

Download the pdf flyer for accommodations.

Date: July 13, 2006, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., lunch provided. Zehmer Conference Center, Charlottesville.

This workshop is designed for 1st and 2nd grade teachers who want to further define their knowledge about phonics and the study of how words work.
Teachers will analyze spelling assessments to determine activities and interactive work centers for their classrooms. Prerequisite for this workshop: attendance at a Reading First academy.

Enrollment through this website begins May 29.

Download the pdf flyer for accommodations.

Download the pdf flyer for this Workshop

Dr. Maria Elena Arguelles’ talk in April was so successful that we are asking her to return in July for a six-hour (full day) version of her conference on best practices instruction for English Language Learners.
The title of her presentation is “Components of Effective Reading Instruction for English Language Learners”. The date of the conference is July 14th,
9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lunch is provided. The venue is Zehmer Hall Conference Center, Charlottesville.
This ELL conference will be open for all teachers in the state.
Enrollment will be available through the website beginning May 29.

Download the pdf flyer for this conference.

Download the pdf flyer for accommodations.

Dr. Maria Elena Arguelles will return to Virginia in April to address Reading First teachers on the topic of best practices instruction for English Language Learners. The half-day conference will be held in Richmond at the Virginia Crossings Resort, Glen Allen, from 9 a.m. until noon on Friday, April 7, 2006.
The title of her presentation is “Components of Effective Reading Instruction for English Language Learners”
This conference is now open for all teachers in the state. Enrollment continues until April 6.

We are very pleased to announce a lecture by Dr. Claude Goldenberg (his URL: http://www.csulb.edu/~cgolden/), California State University, Long Beach on Saturday, March 25th, 2006, at the Marriott Hotel, Tyson’s Corner, Vienna, VA. 9 a.m. to noon.

The topic of his talk will be: “What do we know about helping English learners succeed in our schools? Progress and predicaments.”

Goldenberg is Executive Director of the Center for Language Minority Education and Research and Associate Dean of the College of Education at California State University, Long Beach. He will talking with Virginia educators about the educational opportunities and challenges presented by the growing language minority (especially Spanish-speaking) population in the United States. He will also discuss highlights from two recently completed reviews of the research on promoting academic achievement among English language learners.

Registration for this Reading First workshop is free for all Virginia teachers and open to the first 150 registrants.

The registration link through this website will be open on February 27.

Please click here for a downloadable flyer(Pdf)

We have invited Dr. Claude Goldenberg (http://www.csulb.edu/~cgolden/) California State University, Long Beach to address Virginia teachers on Saturday, March 25th, 2006. He will reprise his much-acclaimed 2005 International Reading Association presentation focusing on his research on second language learners at the Marriott Hotel, Tysons Corner, McLean, Virginia. Dr. Goldenberg was featured in an interview segment in the August Reading Today magazine.

You are invited to attend; registration is free and open to the first 150 registrants. The lecture is designed to open lines of discussion on this very important topic.

More specific information including registration information coming in January 2006

On January 7th, a follow-up workshop for kindergarten Reading First teachers will be held in Charlottesville. The title of the workshop is: Phonological Awareness Literacy Work Stations. All Kindergarten teachers from Reading First schools who have already attended a summer academy are invited to attend this free day-long offering. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of phonological awareness development and classroom activities to support that development. Registration is limited to 100.
Snow date is January 14th.
Accommodations: Click here to see the list of nearby recommended hotels.
For further information, please contact our office.

On October 17, 2005, Dr. Maria Elena Arguelles, professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Miami, spoke to Reading First coaches on the components of effective reading instruction for English Language Learners. Dr. Arguelles reported that immigrant children are the fastest growing sector of the U.S. population with 1 in 5 children being born to immigrant parents, and by 2040, 1 in 3 children will be born to immigrant parents. Dr. Arguelles successfully shared research findings and classroom applications that addressed phonemic awareness, phonics/word study, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. She emphasized the importance of explicit instruction, modeling, think alouds, visual examples, oral language, student engagement, and valuing students’ native language. Dr. Arguelles’s presentation was so well received by coaches that the VDOE and the University of Virginia will be bringing her back in the spring. Check back frequently for more information

Dr. Elfrieda Hiebert’s lecture

On March 12, 2003, the inaugural Reading First lecture was held at theUniversity of Virginia. Co-sponsored by the Virginia Department of Education and the University of Virginia, the lecture featured Dr. Elfrieda Hiebert from the University of Michigan who talked to teachers in the Commonwealth about the role of fluency practice as children learn to read.
The lecture also focused on the true meaning of instructional and independent reading levels and what leveled text with decodable words and few new words would look like.
Over two hundred teachers and administrators came to Charlottesville for this event, which was also sponsored by Pearson Learning Corporation. Pearson provided every teacher with a packet of teacher materials on fluency, called QuickRead, written by Dr. Hiebert. The question and answer period was most interesting, as school districts began to ‘think out loud’ about ways to incorporate fluency practice into their day and why it was so important in the learning-to-read process.
Reading First will sponsor future lectures like this one related to the purpose of Reading First...to disseminate information on scientifically-based reading practices to teachers in our state.