Through a joint partnership with HILL for Literacy, SERC, and CSDE, we’re offering several opportunities for professional learning for the 2024-25 school year.

ELIGIBILITY: This course is open ONLY to currently employed Connecticut special educators.

COMPLETION REQUIREMENT: Satisfactory completion is defined as attendance at no less than 20 out of 25 hours of scheduled, synchronous course time, and completion of all course assignments by August 29, 2025.  We strongly recommend reviewing the application session dates below before registering.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The Adolescent Literacy Series translates findings of research in adolescent literacy to increase teacher knowledge and provide teachers with practices that can be immediately used in their daily content area classrooms in grades 6-12. Teachers will better understand the needs of adolescent learners in relation to literacy and how to support access to the core curriculum and complex text through a focus on disciplinary literacy.

This series for consists of ten 2.5-hour facilitated, synchronous modules held via Zoom and continued learning through asynchronous materials and follow up activities. These modules address questions such as:

• What happens in the brain when we read? How can this understanding inform our instruction?
• What are basic, intermediate, and disciplinary literacy? How do these levels impact reading grade level content material?
• How do we plan differentiated instruction to allow all students to access complex text?
• How do we analyze instruction to determine the presence of features of effective instruction?
• What is the importance of vocabulary acquisition? What impact does it have on comprehension?
• What role does strategy instruction play? How do high-leverage instructional routines support constructing meaning from text?
• . . . and much more!

MODULE TOPICS:
MODULE 1: Introduction to Adolescent Literacy
MODULE 2: Features of Effective Instruction
MODULE 3: Using Background Knowledge and Inferencing Skills
MODULE 4: Constructing Meaning While Reading: Get the Gist
MODULE 5: The Role of Vocabulary in Meaning Acquisition
MODULE 6: Self-monitoring and Questioning to Support Meaning Acquisition
MODULE 7: The Role of Fluency and Syntax in Meaning Acquisition
MODULE 8: Text-based Discussion
MODULE 9: The Reading-Writing Connection
MODULE 10: Pulling It All Together: Sustaining Practices

LIVE VIRTUAL SESSIONS:
MODULE 1: Tuesday, 2/18/2025, 2:30-5:00pm
MODULE 2: Tuesday, 3/11/2025, 2:30-5:00pm
MODULE 3: Tuesday, 4/1/2025, 2:30-5:00pm
MODULE 4: Tuesday, 4/22/2025, 2:30-5:00pm
MODULE 5: Tuesday, 5/13/2025, 2:30-5:00pm
MODULE 6: Tuesday, 6/3/2025, 2:30-5:00pm
MODULE 7: Tuesday, 7/8/2025, 2:30-5:00pm
MODULE 8: Tuesday, 7/22/2025, 2:30-5:00pm
MODULE 9: Tuesday, 8/5/2025, 2:30-5:00pm
MODULE 10: Tuesday, 8/19/2025, 2:30-5:00pm

If you have any questions, please email SOR@hillforliteracy.org.

This opportunity is sponsored by the Connecticut State Department of Education.

PLEASE NOTE: This online registration form is for credit card processing only. If you’d prefer to pay with a purchase order, please email a copy to info@hillforliteracy.org along with the required registration information (names, emails, job titles/role, and schools of each attendee).