NEW! Virtual Science of Reading Series! Learn More
Training & Facilitation
Bring our experts to your district
The HILL solution is expertly tailored teacher education implemented to fit a particular school’s literacy needs, not a program or a curriculum.
District & School Partnerships
Contact Us for a Free Consultation!
888.860.0190 or info@hillforliteracy.org
When we partner with a school, we organize and enrich the existing literacy elements. We provide customized training, building on the strengths and experience of the teachers and integrating the literacy efforts classroom by classroom. To make lasting change, the whole system needs to participate in designing goals, and remain involved in the improvement efforts. We systematically facilitate this effort.
Data-Driven Instruction
Having an informed, efficient system for collecting, organizing, and managing the use of student assessment data is crucial in sustaining effective practices. Data collection and analysis should permeate all aspects of school-wide literacy reform. We install routines that foster data-driven instruction to accelerate student literacy learning.
Leadership Building
The odds of improving student literacy increase dramatically when engaged and informed leaders drive and support the high-fidelity implementation of evidence-based literacy programs. We help front-line literacy leaders put research into practice within their own fast-moving and complex organizations.
Evidence-Based Practices
Our methods are based on years of scientific research and experience in the area of whole school literacy transformation. In order to stay on the cutting edge, we partner with two of the premier education research centers in the country: the University of Oregon’s Center on Teaching and Learning (CTL) and the University of Connecticut’s Center for Behavioral Education & Research (CBER).
Teacher Training & Support
We meet you where you are, working with your data, teachers, and materials. We fill-in content or literacy gaps by providing training and follow-up support to ensure educators have the necessary skills and tools to teach every child to read to their highest potential. We have also developed a library of online elearnings to make knowledge transfer more accessible and ensure sustainability.
Stand-Alone Workshops
We offer a variety of workshops to meet your literacy needs. All our workshops can be used for PDPs, and some can be used toward graduate credit for an extra fee and additional work.
NEW! THE SCIENCE OF READING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING SERIES
Our virtual Introductory Science of Reading Series teaches critical components of literacy instruction for Grades K-2, 3-5, or Administrators, integrating current research into each module and translating it into classroom application.
Now offering a summer open enrollment series! For more information on dates, topics, and to preview a session, see below.
DIBELS 8TH EDITION
About the Workshop
NEW! The virtual version of our DIBELS 8 workshop – the next best thing to in-person training. Attendees will participate in two 2.5 hour Zoom sessions, be able to the instructors to ask questions, and have access to a Google classroom with all training materials and additional resources.
This two session virtual training will overview DIBELS 8th Edition, developed by the Center on Teaching and Learning at the University of Oregon. DIBELS 8th Edition is a battery of short (one minute) fluency measures that can be used for universal screening, benchmark assessment, and progress monitoring in Kindergarten through 8th grade. DIBELS 8th Edition is more useful for more students in more grades than ever before. For title 1 schools, special education programs, students identified with dyslexia, and anyone focused on improving literacy for all students, DIBELS 8th Edition is the least invasive, and one of the most effective screening tools available. When you choose DIBELS 8th Edition as your assessment solution, you are trusting scientific evidence, research-based practices, and decades of experience in teaching and learning.
DIBELS 8th Edition discontinues a few old DIBELS subtests, revises other existing subtests, and introduces a new subtest:
- Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) now accounts for how frequently letters appear in both upper- and lower-case forms.
- Phonemic Segmentation Fluency (PSF) now accounts for both word frequency and the number of phonemes in a word.
- Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) now accounts for the frequency of spelling patterns.
- Word Reading Fluency (WRF) is now part of the DIBELS assessment system.
- Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) only requires one passage per benchmark period and passages are now written by experienced authors.
- Maze passages are now written by experienced authors and include several other improvements.
Upcoming Trainings
DIBELS Resources
Numerous DIBELS resources are available online. For more information, please visit CTL’s DIBELS Database.
Online Training
Online training is offered by the Center on Teaching & Learning at the University of Oregon.
Enhanced Core Reading Instruction
About the Workshop
Enhanced Core Reading Instruction is a multi-tiered program featuring a series of teaching routines designed to increase the effectiveness of reading instruction in grades K-2. The routines, detailed in professional development books, are used to enhance ANY core reading program. Enhanced Core Reading Instruction also offers materials that may be used with specific core reading programs including Journeys Common Core 2014, Journeys 2011, Reading Street Common Core 2013, and Reading Street 2011.
These materials are for both Tier 1 enhancement and Tier 2 intervention. Unlike many Tier 2 intervention programs, the Enhanced Core Reading Instruction materials are highly aligned with the core reading program. The Tier 2 intervention pre-teaches the content of the core reading program to increase students’ success and confidence during Tier 1 instruction. Developed by researchers at the Center on Teaching and Learning, Enhanced Core Reading Instruction has been rigorously studied in nearly 50 elementary schools with hundreds of classrooms, and thousands of students. High-quality studies have demonstrated substantive improvements in the reading achievement of at-risk first-grades. Enhanced Core Reading Instruction materials are available on the CTL Marketplace.
Our Research Partner
Read about Enhanced Core Reading Instruction at the Center on Teaching & Learning (CTL) at the University of Oregon. Enhanced Core Reading Instruction is a trademark of the University of Oregon.
Research & Articles
Our workshop comes out of our longstanding partnership with the Center on Teaching and Learning (CTL). The following is some additional information on the research behind Enhanced Core Reading Instruction conducted by CTL.
- National Center on Intensive Intervention page on Enhanced Core Reading Instruction
- Baker, S. K., Fien, H., & Baker, D. L. (2010). Robust reading instruction in the early grades: Conceptual and practical issues in the integration and evaluation of tier 1 and tier 2 instructional supports. Focus on Exceptional Children, 42, 1–20.
- Baker, S. K., Smolkowski, K., Chaparro, E. A., Fien, F., & Smith, J. (2013). Closing the gap in reading achievement: Using regression discontinuity to test the impact of a tiered system of reading instruction and intervention. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.
- Fien, H., Smith, J., Smolkowksi, K., Baker, S. K., Nelson-Walker, N. J., & Chaparro, E. (in press). An examination of the efficacy of a multi-tiered intervention on early reading outcomes for first grade students at risk for reading difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities.
- Nelson-Walker, N. J., Fien, H., Kosty, D. B., Smolkowski, K., Smith, J. L. M., & Baker, S. K. (2013).Evaluating the effects of a systemic intervention on first-grade teachers’ explicit reading instruction.Learning Disability Quarterly, 36(4) 215-230.
- Smith, J. L. M, Nelson-Walker, N. J., Fien, H., Smolkowski, K., & Baker, S. K. (2013). Efficacy of a multi-tiered reading intervention in first grade and predictors of differential response: A clustered, randomized controlled trial. Elementary School Journal.
SELF-regulated strategy development FOR writing
About the Workshop
This 2-day workshop overviews the evidence-based writing model: Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) developed by Dr. Karen Harris at Arizona State University. Participants will learn to use methods that have been extensively validated as effective in teaching struggling writers, such as formative assessment, rubrics, modeling, goal setting and graphic organizers. They will also learn to cultivate the necessary self-regulation in students that expert writers possess. The methods learned in this course will strengthen your existing writing instruction. Additionally, these methods can be taught via stand-alone units you’ll receive that address one of the Common Core’s major writing genres (opinion). SRSD has been validated for grades 2–12.
Research & Articles
Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) was developed by Drs. Karen R. Harris and Steve Graham. They are both Warner Professors in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. Dr. Harris developed the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model of strategy instruction which has been most extensively researched in the area of writing. Her research focuses on theoretically based interventions for the development of academic and self-regulation abilities among students who are at-risk and those with disabilities, as well as effective models of in-service teacher preparation for writing instruction for all students.
SRSD is endorsed by the National Institute of Health (NIH), RTI4Success, Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
Additional Resources:
- Graham, S. and D. Perin. (2007) A Meta-Analysis of Writing Instruction for Adolescent Students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(3) 445-476.
- Graham, S., McKeown, D., Kiuhara, S., & Harris, K. R. (2012). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for students in the elementary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(4), 879–896. (Summary by Dr. Jack Fletcher)
- Graham, S. & Harris, K. G. (2006). Improving the writing, knowledge, and motivation of struggling young writers: Effects of self-regulated strategy development with and without peer support. American Educational Research Journal, 43, (2), 295–340
- Harris & Graham, CTL Conference, (2010); Graham, S. (2013). It All Starts Here: Fixing our National Writing Crisis from the Foundation. Saperstein Associates.
- Harris, K. R., Graham, S., Brindle, M., & Sandmel, K. (2009). Metacognition and students’s writing. In D. Hacker, J. Dunlosky, & A. Graesser (Eds.), Handbook of metacognition in education (pp. 131–153). New York, NY.
- Erlbaum. Harris, K. R., Graham, S., & Mason, L. H. (2006). Improving the writing performance, knowledge, and motivation of struggling writers in second grade: The effects of self-regulated strategy development. American Educational Research Journal, 42, 295–340.
- Harris, K. R., Graham, S., Mason, L., & Friedlander, B. (2008). Powerful writing strategies for all students. Baltimore: Brookes.
- Harris, K. R., Graham, S. (2005). Improving the Writing Performance of Young Struggling Writers: Theoretical and Programmatic Research From the Center on Accelerating Student Learning. The Journal of Special Education, Vol 39 (1), 19-33.
- Santangelo, T., Harris, K. R., Graham, S. (2008). Using Self-Regulated Strategy Development to Support Students Who Have “Trubol Giting Thangs Into Werds.” Remedial and Special Education, Vol 29(2) 78-89, © 2008 Hammill Institute on Disabilities.
Online Training
We also offer this workshop as an online course. Click here to learn more.
CLOSE READING & cRITICAL tHINKING
About the Workshop
This workshop is an opportunity to learn strategies for helping students gather evidence, knowledge, and insight from what they read and discuss methods for gradually releasing them towards independence. During the workshop, participants will:
- Participate in an adult-level close reading experience.
- Learn to write text-dependent questions for both narrative and expository genres, and how to provide entry-points for all children through discourse, visual media, and annotation.
- Understand the disciplinary overlaps in CCSS and how elements of critical thinking are integrated throughout.
- Engage in multiple opportunities to think critically using video, social media and primary source texts.
- Explore scaffolds for integrating critical thinking into multiple classroom contexts.
- Plan to apply critical thinking models into reading and writing within your common core classroom.
Participants are encouraged to bring a text in order to develop close reading lesson strategies that they can use with their own students.
Resources
- Closing in on Close Reading, ASCD Educational Leadership Archives
- Achieve the Core, free, high-quality resources for educators to implement the Common Core State Standards
Online Training
We also offer this workshop as an online course. Click here to learn more.
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