Dr. Sarah Lupo

Target Audience: Literacy and Interventionist Educators, EST, MTSS or Leadership, Teams, Special Educators, Data Teams

Elementary teachers and reading interventionists will learn about the research behind how children in PK-grade 5 develop comprehension. In particular, teachers will learn about the role of knowledge on readers’ linguistic comprehension skills, and how they can bring knowledge building practices into the literacy block to improve readers’ text understanding and overall literacy skill. Teachers will learn how to:

• design content-infused literacy writing projects and design quad text sets,

• use high-quality curriculum materials as a base, to bolster knowledge and vocabulary.

• Lastly, teachers will learn how to analyze texts for the challenges they present to elementary readers, and how to scaffold those challenges to support text understanding.

Institute Days

Day 1: October 3, 2024

Teaching Evidence-Based Comprehension: What Elementary Teachers Need to Know to Build Readers’ Linguistic Knowledge .

Elementary teachers and reading interventionists will learn about the research behind how children in PK-grade 5 develop comprehension. In particular, teachers will learn about the role of knowledge on readers’ linguistic comprehension skills, and how they can bring knowledge building practices into the literacy block to improve readers’ text understanding and overall literacy skill. Teachers will learn how to design content-infused literacy writing projects and design quad text sets, using high quality curriculum materials as a base, to bolster knowledge and vocabulary. Lastly, teachers will learn how to analyze texts for the challenges they present to elementary readers, and how to scaffold those challenges to support text understanding.

Day 2: October 4, 2024

Teaching Evidence-Based Decoding: How Teachers Can Use Reading Stages to Better Teach Elementary Readers to Read Fluently and Accurately

In this session, elementary teachers and reading interventionists will learn about what the research says about elementary literacy intervention and how to develop word recognition and fluency skills, in particular, automaticity, for elementary-aged readers.

Participants will learn what reading stages are, in order to understand how automaticity develops across elementary school. We will explore the stages of reading. Additionally, participants will learn how to use their existing assessments to identify a readers’ stage so they can learn to differentiate instruction, texts, phonics, and feedback to best support foundational skills development. Lastly, teachers will learn best practices for interventions designed to support students’ foundational skills development.

Cohort Participation

These are monthly asynchronous 1 hr. modules followed by 45 minute live/virtual follow-up with Dr. Lupo a few weeks later. The live session will be recorded for those who need to watch it at a different time.

Follow-Up Virtual Sessions: Each live session is 2:00 – 2:45 pm

Nov. 12, 2024 Word Recognition/Phonics

Dec. 10, 2024 Small group reading/how to select texts and give feedback

Jan. 7, 2025 Fluency

Feb. 11, 2025 Disciplinary Writing (writing to learn & content-integrated writing projects

Mar. 4, 2025 Vocabulary and Morphology

Apr. 8, 2025 Comprehension and Discussion

Closing Session: May 9, 2025

Putting it All Together: A Comprehensive Look at putting it all back together, reviewing and planning for next steps, more effective intervention practices.

Institutes: October 3, 2024, October 4, 2024, May 9, 2025

Hours: 9 -3:30 pm(includes breakfast, lunch and book)

Location: Hampton Conference Center, Colchester, VT

Interventionist Cohorts: Monthly 2 – 2:45: Nov. 12, Dec. 10, Jan. 7, Feb. 11, Mar. 4, Apr. 8

Cost:

CVEDC Members: Day 1 only: $275 Institute – 3 days: $750 Institute & Cohort: $1500

Non-Members: Day 1 only: $300 Institute – 3 days: $850 Institute & Cohort: $1650

Book: Lupo, Hardigree, Thacker, Sawyer, Merritt: Teaching Disciplinary Literacy in Grades K-6” Infusing Content with Reading, Writing, and Language

Sarah Lupo is an Assistant Professor at James Madison Univ. who has extensive teaching experience as an ESL teacher, English teacher, reading specialist, and literacy coach in grades K-12 in Washington D.C., Istanbul, Turkey, Phoenix, AZ, and Charlottesville, VA. She has worked with many districts to support literacy instruction across Virginia and nationwide. Dr. Lupo has published dozens of articles and chapters in publications such as Reading Research Quarterly, Reading Teacher, Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy, and Literacy Today and recently co-authored a book on integrating content and literacy instruction. Her work strives to put theory into practice to position all learners as capable and bringing cultural and linguistic assets to the reading experience.

Evidence-Based Comprehension Instruction & Intervention in the Elementary Grades PreK- 5