Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Strategies for Success: Reaching All Students

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS: REACHING ALL STUDENTS

Want to know what do to with your hardest to reach students?

Find out what is getting in the way of reading success!

Improve your assessment strategies!

Know how to target your instruction and add to your tools to reach your struggling students!

Webinar Workshops: Tuesdays 4 - 7 PM PST $180
You will need computer with internet access!
May 20: Performance Clues: Identifying Learning Differences
May 27: Reading/Writing I: Reading Components—Build Fluency
June 3: Reading/Writing II: Building Grammar for Comprehension


Nine OESD Clock Hours Pending for webinar format
Please note with registration if required!

School PO VISA Checks accepted
Register early — Class size limited!

$180 for Nine Hours of Course and Materials:
Fees include workshop materials
Upon receipt of payment packet of materials is mailed to you!
Register early to allow for mailing time.

In this interactive 9-hour training you will:
  • Identify markers of ADHD, dyslexia & motor and visual spatial planning problems
  • Increase understanding of the neurological processes of learning
  • Increase understanding of how learning differences affect classroom performance
  • Use “learning layers” model to assess student areas of challenges & strengths
  • Rehearse multi-sensory instructional methods that build fluency & comprehension
  • Rehearse strategies to increase reading, writing, spelling, and memory performance
  • Combine effective, fun instructional strategies to meet needs of different learners
  • Reach more students by creating successful learning environments
  • Integrate research based strategies into instruction—at home and school!
May 20 Tuesday 4-7 pm PST
Performance Clues: Identifying Learning Differences

Experience learning differences in this interactive, informative workshop.
Learn how dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia are related. Find out how motor or visual spatial delays affect learning and written performance. Parents: Understand how to observe and to support your child’s learning efforts. Teachers: Learn to recognize affected learning layers from student performance so you can differentiate instruction effectively. Choose
instructional routes based on assessment observation so your student moves from success to
success! Rehearse picture notes to build memory for tests, vocabulary & comprehension.

May 27
Tuesday 4-7 pm PST
Reading/Writing I: Reading Components—Build Fluency
The second evening adds to the first. Learn to spot the five necessary components
of reading from your student performance. Match instructional strategies to build reading
components. Learn to make letters stay on the page with no reversals. Have fun practicing hand's-on multi-sensory methods that dramatically improve spelling and reading fluency!

June
Tuesday 4-7 pm PST
Reading/Writing II: Building Grammar for Comprehension
The third evening builds on information and your questions from previous two sessions. Practice atypical teaching strategies that are keys to improving reading comprehension and written composition. Rehearse questioning strategies that build cognition across the curriculum. Match learning layers to various instructional needs and plug in your new strategies for your students!

For more information reach Melinda at 360-379-1223

Strategies for Success—Participant Responses:

Strengths of this workshop—
  • “Tools presented/knowledge of instructor –”
  • “Melinda’s knowledge & experience with real people”
  • “Melinda is strongly devoted to all learners succeeding and her strategies are specific, practical, effective.”
  • “Melinda’s enthusiasm and examples of success – “
  • “I’m very excited to try the things that we have learned.”
  • “Engaging, interesting, flexible, relevant information.” “Range of applicability”
  • “Insight to how people learn —examples of ways to help.”
  • “Found that we got right into issues related to the students and tools to use.
  • * Excellent! In such a short time I was hoping to come away with activities to try...Definitely met my expectations.”
  • “Great strategies to use immediately”
  • “Lots of refreshing and useful info we don’t get in
  • “Great material—moved fast—kept interesting —interaction—questions—group participation.”
  • “Really helped me to understand student’s difficulties in regard to their learning.”
  • “ Very helpful…”
MAY 2008 Online Webinar Workshops
Register Early! Materials will be mailed to you upon receipt of payment

For more information reach Melinda at 360-379-1223
  • Make registration checks payable to SISIUTL
    Mail registration fee to:
    SISIUTL Center for Learning
    230 Taylor Street Suite C
    Port Townsend, WA 98368

  • Credit Cards Accepted - Call 360.379.1223 or email mpongrey@gmail.com
  • Please note if you require OESD Clock Hours for class
  • Include your e-mail address: class packets e-mailed before each class.
  • Include your correct street mailing address - packet of materials will be mailed upon receipt of payment









Thursday, September 07, 2006

WHAT IS LEARNING ANYWAY?

Why do physical activities affect reading, writing or attention?

The June 2003 Volume 24, Number 6 issue of Discover magazine includes an interesting article outlining neuroscientist Paul Back-y-Rita’s current research into the plasticity of our senses. His thesis is that our brain is so adaptable that any of the five senses can be rewired. By placing a copper electrode on a subject’s tongue, and sending electrical information in place of visual information, blindfolded subjects can catch balls or pick up objects 9 out of 10 times! Sensory information on the tongue is used by the brain to “see.”

Young children explore the world by manipulating objects and taste-testing them. But if you pick up a piece of paper and put it in your mouth, you can’t get much sensory information from the print. Dyslexics tend to have difficulty translating 3-D objects to 2-D representations or visa-versa. By making tactile memories from feeling 3-D alphabet letters, dyslexic learners create more accurate visual memories for letters and words! Reading and writing fatigue decrease, decoding and fluency increase!

Sandy Roberts teaches kids to juggle, beginning with scarves, using lots of bilateral movements to increase eye-hand coordination. Fifth-grade teacher, Sara Murto, asked for her help when she found she had a classroom full of kinesthetic learners. Sandy helped Sara for a year, integrating juggling activities into the weekly classroom routine. The students presented a culminating performance with all sorts of juggling and the teachers presented data that showed an above-average improvement in reading and writing scores for the year. Typically, students who began the year behind grade level, ended the year above grade level.

Because we use the same neurons to throw and catch balls that we use to write letters, all sorts of directed physical activities enhance learning processes! Dr. Frank Belgau set out to find activities that produce the most benefits for learning processes. Through careful observation, he developed the Belgau Balance Board and the Learning Breakthrough Program, which take advantage of the integration and fine-tuning of the vestibular or balance system.

The Learning Breakthrough Activity program that Dr. Belgau developed over many years is used successfully in schools and private programs. The program can significantly increase the test scores in any school and does not only improve scores of children with difficulties, but also improves the scores of normal and gifted students. The program’s greatest value is that it develops intelligence and improves lives. Many years of careful observations made it possible to select the most productive and powerful activities and materials for the Learning Breakthrough Activity program.

“Dr. Frank Belgau’s Learning Breakthrough Program was an integral part of a most successful three year education pilot study in Seattle. The results of the program demonstrate its value.

  • Student IQ scores increased an average of 24 points
  • Academic scores increased an average of four grade levels in spelling and reading
  • Behaviors negative to learning were almost totally eliminated
  • All children in the study knew that now they had the skills to learn and were eager to do their school tasks.”

---Dr. Jerald C. Winger, Cognitive Rehabilitation Specialist, Seattle School District