6 Traits–Building a Foundation for Writing Grades (K-2)

This course focuses on implementing the 6 Traits Writing Model within the writing curriculum to guide instruction so that all students can successfully meet their writing goals.

Teachers will learn how to:

• Develop and apply a common vocabulary for writing.
• Use scoring guides to assess student writing and determine instructional needs.
• Teach trait-based lessons within the writing process.

Developing Foundations for Early Childhood Success (Pre-K)

This course focuses on developing teachers' knowledge of children’s development: social-behavioral and emotional, communication and language, as well as early literacy, and early mathematics.

Teachers will learn how to:

• Respond to teachable moments and lead activities to support development.
• Increase children's global and world knowledge, and their ability to learn from print-rich environments.
• Prepare children to be school ready.

Putting Reading First in Your Classroom (K–2)

This foundational course provides best practice teaching strategies in all five key areas of early reading development: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.

Teachers will learn how to:

• Apply research-based techniques for teaching alphabet recognition, phonemic awareness, and phonics.
• Assess and build oral reading fluency.
• Use effective vocabulary strategies to build oral language and increase comprehension.

Building Fluency (K–2)

This course introduces practical, effective ways to help children with alphabetic recognition, automaticity with sound and word recognition, phonics, and getting meaning from text.

Teachers will learn how to:

• Assess students’ basic fluency skills.
• Administer and interpret an oral fluency assessment.
• Apply research-based techniques for explicit, direct teaching of fluency, phonics, and vocabulary.

Building Vocabulary for Reading Success (K–3)

This course focuses on strengthening students’ vocabulary knowledge through effective instruction—and includes topics that address differentiated vocabulary instruction for first- and second-language learners.

Teachers will learn how to:

• Use research-based instructional methods to build students’ vocabularies and word-learning strategies.
• Deliver explicit, differentiated instruction.
• Develop classroom-based assessments for content-area vocabulary.

Reading Success for English Language Learners (K-3)

This course, for all K–3 teachers, focuses on strategies and instructional practices for promoting language proficiency, literacy, and content knowledge to help every English language learner become a successful reader.

Teachers will learn how to:

• Apply research-based techniques for teaching alphabet recognition, phonemic awareness, and phonics.
• Develop students’ oral language skills and vocabulary; provide content-area instruction.
• Monitor students’ progress through formal and informal assessments.

Guided Reading: Making It Work in Your Classroom (K–6)

This course focuses on using guided reading to support students as they practice and expand key reading skills and strategies—including phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.

• Integrate guided reading into a research-based reading program.
• Use leveled books within flexible groups to develop students’ reading skills.
• Assess students’ mastery of targeted strategies.

Building Foundational Skills: Phonics, Word Study, and Comprehension (3–12)

This course focuses on deepening knowledge of effective decoding instruction and the benefits of using an intervention program to accelerate reading success for older students.

• Teach foundational reading skills, including phonemic awareness, breaking words into syllables, and identifying morphemes, while emphasizing word meaning.
• Implement an effective intervention program that meets the individual needs of older readers.

Exploring the Lexile^® Framework for Reading (3–12)

This course focuses on using Lexiles^® to match students with leveled texts for increased reading comprehension and growth to meet literacy demands in class, on standardized texts, and beyond high school.

• Use Lexiles^® to assess students' reading levels, identify growth, set goals, and monitor progress.
• Teach reading skills and strategies using leveled literary texts.
• Make content accessible to all students and enhance textbook curriculum

6 Traits: Assessing and Teaching Writing (3–8)

This course focuses on implementing the 6 Traits Writing Model within the writing curriculum to guide instruction so that all students can successfully meet their writing goals.

• Develop and apply a common vocabulary for writing.
• Use scoring guides to assess student writing and determine instructional needs.
• Teach trait-based lessons within the writing process.

Improving Reading Comprehension (3–5)

This course focuses on implementing strategies and instructional practices that help improve students’ comprehension of nonfiction and fiction. It includes differentiated skill instruction for English language learners and students with special learning needs.

• Provide explicit reading and writing instruction for students who struggle with comprehension.
• Teach strategies that build background knowledge, vocabulary, and fluency.
• Select and use a variety of assessments to monitor student progress.

Building Decoding Skills and Strategies (3–5)

This course emphasizes the characteristics of effective decoding instruction—presenting both the foundational skills and the essential skills related to reading complex, multi-syllabic words.

• Use assessments to diagnose students’ decoding skills.
• Develop a systematic and explicit program for teaching students with decoding deficiencies.
• Practice and get feedback on targeted decoding activities and instructional techniques.

Improving Fluency (3–8)

This course focuses on implementing effective fluency-building techniques in intermediate and middle school classrooms—with the goal of improving reading comprehension.

• Conduct and score an oral fluency assessment.
• Provide direct instruction in building fluency and monitor student progress.
• Incorporate daily fluency-building activities and independent fluency practice into the classroom.

English: A Universal Tool (9–12)

Recognizing that mastery of English language arts is essential for all students, this course focuses on strategies teachers can use to help students improve their reading, writing, and thinking, and to develop other 21st Century skills.

• Teach strategically, using methods based on research for Socratic seminars, literature circles, journaling, and the use of technology in information literacy.
• Lead students to construct deeper meaning by actively engaging with text and to make connections to self, between texts, and to the larger world.
• Guide students to use writing as a tool for deepening understanding of what they read.

Building Foundational Skills: Phonics, Word Study, and Comprehension (3–12)

This course focuses on deepening knowledge of effective decoding instruction and the benefits of using an intervention program to accelerate reading success for older students.

• Teach foundational reading skills, including phonemic awareness, breaking words into syllables, and identifying morphemes, while emphasizing word meaning.
• Implement an effective intervention program that meets the individual needs of older readers.

Exploring the Lexile^® Framework for Reading (3–12)

This course focuses on using Lexiles^® to match students with leveled texts for increased reading comprehension and growth to meet literacy demands in class, on standardized texts, and beyond high school.

• Use Lexiles^® to assess students' reading levels, identify growth, set goals, and monitor progress.
• Teach reading skills and strategies using leveled literary texts.
• Make content accessible to all students and enhance textbook curriculum

6 Traits: Assessing and Teaching Writing (3–8)

This course focuses on implementing the 6 Traits Writing Model within the writing curriculum to guide instruction so that all students can successfully meet their writing goals.

• Develop and apply a common vocabulary for writing.
• Use scoring guides to assess student writing and determine instructional needs.
• Teach trait-based lessons within the writing process.

Strategies for Teaching Striving Readers: A Course for All Secondary Teachers
(6–12)

This course focuses on practical strategies that all secondary teachers can implement to help striving readers and all students improve their reading and master critical content across subject areas.

• Use assessments and student data to differentiate instruction.
• Implement research-based strategies to help students comprehend content-area textbooks and build academic vocabulary.
• Improve reading comprehension through explicit decoding and fluency instruction.

Supporting Secondary Teachers in Literacy Instruction: A Course for Middle and High School Literacy Coaches (6–12)

Designed to help literacy coaches, reading coaches, and other instructional leaders improve their coaching skills and knowledge, this course focuses on the coach's role in leading literacy efforts and helping content-area teachers improve classroom literacy instruction.

• Use assessments, student data, and teacher input to plan a school-wide literacy improvement program.
• Develop teachers’ understanding of effective literacy strategies.
• Monitor instruction by conducting focused observations, providing feedback, and analyzing student work.

Leading a Literacy-Focused School: A Course for Middle and High School Principals (6–12)

This course offers a practical, research-based approach to developing and implementing a school-wide literacy plan that improves teacher practices and raises student reading achievement. Leaders will gain the knowledge and skills needed to support, monitor, and evaluate literacy instruction.

• Teach students to read and think critically about fiction, nonfiction, and informational texts.
• Incorporate classroom writing techniques to help students interact with text and increase comprehension.
• Interpret and analyze texts through small-group and whole-class discussion.

Middle School Literacy: Improving Text Comprehension (6–8)

Designed for all middle school teachers, including reading specialists, language arts teachers, and content-area teachers, this course presents strategies and instructional techniques readers use before, during, and after reading to get meaning from text.

• Apply targeted reading strategies and content-area writing techniques to help students get meaning from text.
• Manage classrooms for effective whole-class, small-group, and individual instruction.
• Use multiple assessments to track reading growth and prioritize instruction.

Improving Decoding Skills and Strategies (6–8)

Designed for language arts and content-area teachers, this course focuses on strategies for helping students to master intermediate decoding skills. It emphasizes phonics instruction with respect to students’ stages of reading development and presents ways to group students for effective intervention.

• Use assessments to diagnose students’ decoding needs.
• Identify characteristics of effective phonics instruction and incorporate them into daily lessons.
• Practice and get feedback on targeted decoding activities and instructional techniques.

High School Literacy: Comprehension Through Active, Strategic Reading (9–12)

Designed for all secondary teachers, this course addresses the needs of students who are reading more challenging texts—and presents effective techniques and strategies for teaching comprehension across high school content areas.

• Teach students to read and think critically about fiction, nonfiction, and informational texts.
• Incorporate classroom writing techniques to help students interact with text and increase comprehension.
• Interpret and analyze texts through small-group and whole-class discussion.