All of our courses align closely to 'The Science of Reading'. That means they meet the criteria for BEST PRACTICE - Structured Literacy in the early years where the focus is on building Word-Recognition skills, and then building these concepts into middle and senior primary reading instruction - Structured Literacy for Comprehension and Critical Thinking.
A Structured Literacy approach means that instruction must be...
EXPLICIT - Explain, Model, Guided Practice, Independent Practice, Fluency - the most efficient approach to teaching and learning - is a cornerstone of all our courses.
SYSTEMATIC and CUMULATIVE - Our Development Progression and Scope and Sequence takes into account Cognitive Loading. We systematically train the brain to build processing capacity.
DIAGNOSTIC and RESPONSIVE - simple diagnostic tools allow for fine-grained monitoring of reading skill acquisition and then allow for the differentiation of the learning according to needs.
EVIDENCE-BASED - the development of our classroom methodology is based on current research and 20 years of action research in classrooms and teacher training organisations.
BUT in all of this, our over-riding concern is to make sure that this best practice is always MANAGEABLE for implementation in the modern classroom!
Over the last 10 years we have researched the most successful methods of delivering online courses and what you find here is what we have currently come up with.
We cater for all learning styles when communicating the new learning - text explanations for those who like to read, video explanations for those who don't, and videos of previous teacher training (recorded webinars) if you want to see how other teachers react to the theory and the practices.
Annotated video models of the classroom lessons - you can see the routines at work with real kids.
One-on-one personalised tutoring - you can schedule a Start-up Zoom Webinar to fast track you into the initial units of the course and Zoom Coaching sessions to iron out any difficulties as you progress through the training.
Course Accreditation - meet the standards we set and you get recognition for your hard work.
QUICKLINK: Click here for our 'Pay on Invoice' option if you are enrolling multiple members of your staff in any of the following courses.
PURPOSE: To learn the letter sound relationships.
This is our own contribution to Phonics instruction - a collaboration with Yolanda Soryl Literacy. Video models and resources are included to get you off to a flying start in Phonics instruction.
You need to have a robust phonics programme in place but it isn't essential that it is SharpPhonics. There are many Phonics programmes that will do the job and our SharpReading stages will dovetail easily into them.
$99 NZ + GST; $85 AU
PURPOSE: Transference of phonics skills into the reading of authentic texts to develop decoding fluency.
While phonics skills are being taught and practised (maybe using decodable texts) students also need the opportunity to transfer these skills while reading authentic texts.
The text challenge needs to be just right so that they can problem-solve one or two difficulties per page and develop their orthographic mapping (automatic word-reading).
Our guided reading routine means that students get lots of practice without lots of teacher interventions. They make rapid progress because they feel in control of their reading and experience SUCCESS!
FEATURES:
10-12 minute routine, one focus teaching point, structured processing of each page
'The 5 Bits' - 5 opportunities to experience success on every page, clear guidelines for the teacher to ensure the text is 'Just Right'.
PURPOSE: Develop the ability to quickly and accurately unpack sentences
'Reading Comprehension is the skill of simultaneously extracting ideas from a sentence and putting those ideas together to construct meaning.' (Snow 2002).
Many efficient word-readers (decoders) just skate over the surface of text, grabbing an idea here and an idea there, resulting in a very superficial level of understanding.
The starting point for effective comprehension instruction is at a sentence level, learning to activate the 5 strands of Scarborough's 'Language Comprehension' rope to process ALL the information.
Our Unpacking Sentences routine (Stage 3) slows the reader down and builds this capacity for quick, accurate mental processing WHILE reading.
This is our most comprehensive course and one that we think is absolutely vital for tackling today's literacy issues.
Please Note: Stages 1&2 is NOT a prerequisite for this training.
$195 NZ + GST; $185 AU
PURPOSE: Teach and practice the use of metacognitive 'stop and think about it' strategies to build the readers' mental processing capacity.
Having developed the skill of active reading of sentences in Stage 3 (constructing the accurate meaning the author intended), students are now ready to employ strategies to enhance and deepen their processing of language.
This is a simple add-on as we build processing capacity in the heads of our readers.
The Deep 4 - We have chosen 4 strategies that research says have the greatest impact on comprehension.
Creating Mental Images
Making Connections to Prior Knowledge
Asking Questions
Forming and Revising Hypotheses
Our Point of Difference; Students learn to use these strategies WHILE they are reading
$125 NZ + GST; $115 AU
Big picture, text level analysis and evaluation of the content
PURPOSE: Teach and practice Critical Thinking - Analysing the structure of Fiction and Non Fiction Text
In Stage 5 we move on from sentence-level comprehension to text-level or big-picture comprehension. Being able to identify the overall organisation of a text has an evidence-based impact on comprehension and prepares the reader for evaluating the writing (Stage 6).
The course is divided into two parts
Analysing Narrative or Fiction Text using a Story Structure or Story Grammar
Analysing Non Fiction or Expository Text by identifying the sentence structure the author is using (cause and effect, problem/solution, fact, opinion) and then creating Trigger Words and Headings to structure the content.
$125 NZ + GST; $115 AU
PURPOSE: To develop a SharpReading Coach skill set within your school.
If you are a SharpReading champion then use you enthusiasm and knowledge to provide in-school support for other teachers in your school.
This course provides the training and practice required to oversee the implementation of SharpReading school-wide across all stages. Coaches-in-training learn all aspects needed for the successful school-wide application of SharpReading PLD - accurate data collection, appropriate teacher support, and a plan for monitoring implementation school-wide.
$250 NZ + GST; $240 AU
PURPOSE: An Intervention for students 'stuck' on decoding
Every classroom has them, those 8-15 year olds who never got to decoding fluency and are slowly drifting further and further behind their peers.
There are two issues that need to be addressed.
Their weak understanding of the code and the impact that has on word-recognition.
Success deprivation - after 5 plus years of reading failure motivation is at a very low ebb.
This course has been designed to address these needs. With just a few hours of online study you can master our two simple routines and integrate them into your normal reading rotation or slot them into your program as a 15 minute group withdrawal.
A key component of this course is our 8-10 week intervention (SevenPlus) that will get these students over the decoding hump, and then we show you how to transition your rejuvenated readers back into a more traditional guided reading program.
Our approach is based on reader SUCCESS ... such an important ingredient for these success deprived students.
CLICK HERE to read the article 'Struggling readers years 3-8: A practical classroom intervention', for a full explanation of the research supporting our SevenPlus intervention. This was written by Chuck Marriott (co-writer /designer of SevenPlus) and published by the New Zealand Literacy Association.
$169 NZ + GST; $159 AU
All of our courses provide a PREVIEW option. Go to the appropriate course page (Learn More...) and sign up. This will take you into the actual course so that you can see the layout and the structure - how the learning units unfold and a summary of the content - and you will get access to at least the first unit - enough for you to know whether this is going to work for you or not.
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