Rx for Discovery Reading – Fundamentals Workshop

The Rx for Discovery Reading – Fundamentals training is a didactic and practicum workshop. The professional learning provides pre-school through third-grade educators with foundational understandings from brain research on how reading develops from a biological and cognitive developmental perspective and the instructional implications. Specific topics include the neurobiological basis for literacy development, literacy foundations for multilingual learners, and developing higher-level language skills to build reading comprehension. Educators will explore how reading impacts thinking and learning and examine the link between reading, spelling, and writing. Mediated learning is the overarching instructional approach used to facilitate the norms, learning tasks, and discourse in the educational context. The training focuses on broadening educators’ conceptions of structured literacy instructional practices that support reading success for all learners. Key literacy instruction covered includes phonology, syllable instruction, fluency, morphology, reading comprehension, and cognition. Successful completion of this workshop will enable educators to use evidence-informed strategies to teach students basic reading skills.

1. Evidenced-based: Based on meta-analyses research from the Institute of Education Sciences (Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through 3^rd Grade (2016); Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3^rd Grade (2010); Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Learners in the Elementary Grades (2007); What Works Clearing House (Practice Guides)
2. Philosophy: Multi-modal, structured literacy approach (Carreker & Birsh, 2018) based on Scarborough’s Reading Rope (2001) and the Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) within a mediated learning instructional framework (Feuerstein, 1996)
3. Instruction: Didactic and practicum learning experiences with hands-on, role-playing activities and lesson plan development
4. Assessment: Participants will practice implementing a reading lesson plan with a small group and receive feedback on their demonstrations. Proficiency with designing and implementing multi-modal lesson plans that include the 6+1 writing traits will be assessed as well as the use of mediated learning instructional framework