Local Heroes Working Together - LD and Structured Literacy

Local Heroes Working Together - LD and Structured Literacy

*Light refreshments will be served morning only

Dr. Maryanne Wolf (virtual keynote) + Manitoba Teachers (Local Heroes in-person)
BLENDED EVENT - ONLINE OR IN-PERSON

All sessions will be recorded (including in-person and online sessions) - Recordings will be available within 1 week of the event. The sessions. content and speakers' materials are copyright to the individual or groups. The content of the recordings CANNOT be shared or distritubed to other parties except for those who have the required paid ticket.

Local Heroes Working Together - LD and Structured Literacy

• Dr. Maryann Wolf (keynote - possibly prerecorded or live synchronous online)
• Manitoba Human Rights Commission - Right to Read Project
• Manitoba Teachers - Our journey towards Effective Literacy Instruction for All (in-person)

Maryanne Wolf is a scholar, a teacher, and an advocate for children and literacy around the world. She is the Director of the newly created Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Previously she was the John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service and Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University. She is the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (2007, HarperCollins), Dyslexia, Fluency, and the Brain (Edited; York, 2001), Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century (2016, Oxford University Press), and Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (August, 2018, HarperCollins).

Dr. Wolf's Presentation: How the Reading Brain Teaches Us to Teach All our Children

In this presentation research from cognitive neuroscience will be used to provide a more expanded understanding of the Science of Reading, of fluency and foundational skills, and of deep reading processes like background knowledge, empathy, and critical thinking. Special emphases will be placed on how this knowledge teaches us to teach the heterogeneity of struggling readers, particularly in dyslexia. In addition, insights from this knowledge base will be used to describe multi-componential approaches to intervention, including the research by Wolf and her colleagues on the new RAVE-O Program.

Please note we will have follow-up after-school sessions (Dates TBD ) about Intervention Programming, Structured Literacy, and Literacy Screeners during 2025-26 school year with MTSLD Executive including Valdine Bjornson, Monica Zurrin, and Nicole Kavalench.

First Session: An inclusive approach to planning and programming for students with Dyslexia using MTSS

Monica is a French Immersion Learning Support Teacher and has worked with children from Grades 1-8 in the classroom and in small groups. She also works alongside Teachers to co-plan and provide resources and help build capacity in planning next steps for literacy intervention. Monica is certified as a Classroom Educator Member of the Orton Gillingham Society having completed the Orton Gillingham Classroom Educator Course as well as the practicum component. In January, 2025, Monica also completed the Orton Gillingham Associate Level Course through the Reading and Learning Clinic of Manitoba.

Info: Title: How the Reading Brain Teaches Us to Teach All our Children

In this presentation research from cognitive neuroscience will be used to provide a more expanded understanding of the Science of Reading, of fluency and foundational skills, and of deep reading processes like background knowledge, empathy, and critical thinking. Special emphases will be placed on how this knowledge teaches us to teach the heterogeneity of struggling readers, particularly in dyslexia. In addition, insights from this knowledge base will be used to describe multi-componential approaches to intervention, including the research by Wolf and her colleagues on the new RAVE-O Program.

Info: Manitoba Human Rights Commission will provide an update about the Right to Read project.

Info: With an extensive foundation in education, this Student Services Team brings a wealth of knowledge and passion dedicated to supporting inclusive, evidence-based practices to improve outcomes for all students. Over the past four years, our school division has undertaken a shift in literacy instruction grounded in current research, with a focus on improving outcomes for all students. By increasing teacher and administrator knowledge and moving toward research-based practices, we have seen measurable change across our schools. This presentation shares our journey, key lessons learned, and how system-wide change is possible. We hope to inspire others to lead sustainable, evidence-based literacy change within their own divisions.

Info: As educators from École South Pointe School and École Dieppe, we will share our professional learning journey from curiosity to implementation of structured literacy practices. While each of our individual paths has been unique, our collective goal has been prioritizing explicit, systematic literacy instruction that meets the needs of all students. We represent the perspectives of classroom teachers, resource teachers, and administrators, and we will share how individuals in all of those roles have worked together to support every student's literacy learning in both English and French. Ecole South Pointe School team: Grade One teachers Pamela Duncan and Allie Gourlay have played a key role in implementing Structured Literacy
École Dieppe Team:Bronwen Davies (former Principal), Kristina Ellis (Vice-Principal), Heather Dueck (SST) and Serenity Sul (SST) have intentionally and intensively shifted their school's literacy instruction

Info: Adam will present on how Landmark School (Massachusetts, USA) provides both direct instruction in all aspects of reading and written expression for a homogeneous population of students with a primary disability of SLD as well as imbedded support to generalize direct-instruction skills in content-area classes. Additionally, he will discuss how these same approaches are used in public-school settings to both provide equity for students struggling with reading challenges and neurotypical who benefit from the same approach to reach their potential. Adam is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he studied language and literacy development. While studying at Harvard, he taught at the Maria L. Baldwin School in Cambridge as a reading specialist and explored the influence of early intervention on struggling readers at the elementary level. https://www.landmarkoutreach.org/the-connection-landmark-school-and-landmark-outreach/

Info: MTSLD executive is excited to share our MTSLD Action projects for this year - Universal Screeners (plus CiiAT Art Therapy PD/group sessions + Decodable Texts). We will review some options for screeners and hope to encourage educators to explore their use, effectiveness, and purpose. Please note we will have follow-up Intervention, Structured Literacy and Screener after school sessions TBD during 2025-26 school year with MTSLD Executive. More information about our MTSLD Action Project at our website https://sites.google.com/view/mtsld2021/home

Host or Publisher We are a newly formed Manitoba Teacher’s Society Educator Group