Syntax in Elementary Classrooms

  Session Description:  

The elementary grades are charged with establishing and strengthening foundational skills.  This session explores the role of syntax at the word, phrase, clause, and sentence levels to support meaning making within and across sentences. Examples are shown utilizing decodable text and demonstrating how the explicit teaching of phonemic awareness and phonics facilitates sentence dictation, sentence reading, and passage reading.  Examples also show sentence-level work that students may engage in as a response to an interactive read aloud.  

Presenter: Amanda Nickerson

Date: February 11, 2021

Supporting Documents :

                                Slideshow with Notes & Script

                                      Supporting Documents

Session Evaluation: Please provide feedback on this session.

                              Evaluation- Under Construction

Certificate: Earn a certificate of attendance for one (1) contact hour by completing the webinar and passing this quiz.

                   Session Quiz- Under Construction

Syntax in Intermediate Classrooms

 Session Description:  

As students progress through school, they encounter greater text density.  This means that there are more ideas, or proposition, per sentence with less repetition, essentially less redundancy, than conversation. They also encounter longer and more complex sentence structures, especially in narrative text, biography, and history.  If students cannot successfully read and make sense of phrases, clauses, and sentences, they will not be able to discern the significance of an entire text---especially in dense, complex texts.  This has huge implications for intermediate students. Thus, this session explores the role of syntax at the word, phrase, clause, and sentence levels to support meaning making within and across sentences.

Presenter: Amanda Nickerson

Date: January 21, 2021

Supporting Documents :   Slideshow with Notes & Script

                                       Supporting Documents

Session Evaluation: Please provide feedback on this session.

                              Evaluation- Under Construction

Certificate: Earn a certificate of attendance for one (1) contact hour by completing the webinar and passing this quiz.

                   Session Quiz- Under Construction

Syntax in Secondary Classrooms

 Session Description:  

As students progress through school, they encounter greater text density.  This means that there are more ideas, or proposition, per sentence with less repetition, essentially less redundancy, than conversation. They also encounter longer and more complex sentence structures, especially in narrative text, biography, and history.  If students cannot successfully read and make sense of phrases, clauses, and sentences, they will not be able to discern the significance of an entire text---especially in dense, complex texts.  This has huge implications for secondary students. Thus, this session explores the role of syntax at the word, phrase, clause, and sentence levels to support meaning making within and across sentences.

Presenter: Amanda Nickerson

Date: January 14, 2021

Supporting Documents :   Slideshow with Notes & Script

                                       Supporting Documents

Session Evaluation: Please provide feedback on this session.

                              Evaluation- Under Construction

Certificate: Earn a certificate of attendance for one (1) contact hour by completing the webinar and passing this quiz.

                   Session Quiz- Under Construction

Vocabulary in Elementary Classrooms

Session Description:  

Effective instruction emphasizes the forms and uses of language along with the meanings conveyed by words. Consequently, this session explores the role of oral language, the multidimensional nature of vocabulary, evidence-based instructional strategies, an explicit vocabulary routine, and vocabulary assessment. 

Presenter: Amanda Nickerson

Date: December 17, 2020

Supporting Documents :   Slideshow with Notes & Script

                                       Supporting Documents

Session Evaluation: Please provide feedback on this session.

                              Evaluation- Under Construction

Certificate: Earn a certificate of attendance for one (1) contact hour by completing the webinar and passing this quiz.

                   Session Quiz- Under Construction

Vocabulary in Intermediate Classrooms

Session Description:  

Once students learn to read the words, it is verbal abilities that primarily determine overall reading performance. Effective instruction emphasizes the forms and uses of language along with the meanings conveyed by words. Consequently, this session explores the multidimensional nature of vocabulary, evidence-based instructional strategies, an explicit vocabulary routine that may be adapted across disciplines, the need for a school-wide disciplinary literacy approach, and vocabulary assessment. 

Presenter: Amanda Nickerson

Date: November 19, 2020

Supporting Documents :  Slideshow with Notes & Script

                                        Supporting Documents

Session Evaluation: Please provide feedback on this session.

                              Evaluation- Under Construction

Certificate: Earn a certificate of attendance for one (1) contact hour by completing the webinar and passing this quiz.

                   Session Quiz- Under Construction

Vocabulary in Secondary Classrooms

Session Description:  The research is clear. Vocabulary knowledge plays an increasingly larger role in reading comprehension as texts become more challenging.  Older students who fall behind during the early stages of vocabulary development are at a great disadvantage in the classroom, because knowledge of word meanings impacts reading comprehension more and more as students progress through the grades.  Vocabulary knowledge must be deliberately nurtured across the content areas--- not just in the ELA classroom. This session explores the multidimensional nature of vocabulary, evidence-based instructional strategies, an explicit vocabulary routine that may be adapted across disciplines, the need for a school-wide disciplinary literacy approach, and interdisciplinary vocabulary assessment.  Each discipline places different literacy demands on students, and this applies to word-level and text-level skills. The fact that morpheme frequency varies by discipline suggests that secondary teachers must share the responsibility for teaching morphemes across disciplines.  We all must own our content, the vocabulary that undergirds it, and the morphemes that are frequently used within our discipline---but not necessarily in others.  It’s one of those times when we legitimately have to ask ourselves, “If not me, then who?” 

Presenter: Amanda Nickerson

Date: November 12, 2020

Supporting Documents :  Slideshow with Notes & Script

                                         Supporting Documents

Session Evaluation: Please provide feedback on this session.

                              Evaluation- Under Construction

Certificate: Earn a certificate of attendance for one (1) contact hour by completing the webinar and passing this quiz.

                   Session Quiz- Under Construction

Fluency in Secondary Classrooms

Session Description:  Some have characterized the role of fluency as a “bridge” between early and later reading stages. In the early reading stages, students develop oral language and phonemic awareness, learn to apply the alphabetic principle to increasingly complex words, and become familiar with more and more sight words---an ever-growing bank of instantly recognized and retrievable words.  Later reading stages are categorized by increased reading skills and comprehension.  If readers do not develop adequate levels of fluency, they may become stuck in the middle of the bridge--- able to decode words but with insufficient automaticity to adequately facilitate comprehension.  These students typically become reluctant readers--- and this can lead to dire long-term consequences.  This webinar explores the multifaceted nature of fluency, instructional implications, and the role of assessment in the elementary classroom.

Presenter: Amanda Nickerson

Date: October 29, 2020

Supporting Documents :  Slideshow with Notes & Script

                                         Supporting Documents

Session Evaluation: Please provide feedback on this session.

                              Evaluation- Under Construction

Certificate: Earn a certificate of attendance for one (1) contact hour by completing the webinar and passing this quiz.

                   Session Quiz- Under Construction