WINOOSKI, Vt., Oct. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reading Plus, a research-backed online program that uses personalized instruction to improve students’ reading proficiency, today announced the launch of its CLOSE Reading Virtual Professional Development Sessions. The three-part webinar series, led by Dr. Beryl Irene Bailey of From Pages to Pedagogy, LLC, will take place on Oct. 21, Oct. 28, and Nov. 4, 2020. Dr. Bailey will share how her CLOSE Reading process empowers students to independently analyze text by checking vocabulary, looking for key ideas and details, observing book and text features, seeking out signal words and studying text structures, and examining the author's craft. The sessions will be moderated by Aimee Loiter, Ed.M., learning and development manager at Reading Plus.
“Reading Plus is proud to host this webinar series with the well-respected Dr. Bailey,” said Steven Guttentag, CEO at Reading Plus. “We have a shared goal of working to improve the way students read and comprehend text. Through the techniques learned in our workshops, educators and administrators will be able to not only help students with their reading comprehension, but also raise their self-confidence and motivation.”
Session #1: Tactile-Kinesthetic Learning: Taking Reading Comprehension into Our Hands
Wednesday, Oct. 21 from 3-4 p.m. ET
How is a strategic reader like a surgeon? A strategic reader uses her hands, a pencil or pen, and metatextual markers to fix comprehension when it breaks down, or bring life to text -- just like a surgeon uses her hands and tools to operate and save lives.
Dr. Bailey will help educators and administrators extend comprehension skills taught in Reading Plus using her brain-based CLOSE Reading process and metatextual markers. Educators will learn to help students utilize her kinesthetic method to develop an established routine, self-regulation, and executive functioning skills when they learn to conduct critical, analytical, and rhetorical analyses of literary and informational text.
Session #2: CLOSE Reading is FUN-but-MENTAL
Wednesday, Oct. 28 from 3-4 p.m. ET
How are complex texts like the muscular system? According to Dr. Bailey, “complex texts, just like the muscular system, are language muscles made up of a plethora of structures and layers, intertwined to give strength to the body of what the author has written.”
In this session, Dr. Bailey will model how educators and administrators can take students through a cognitive conditioning workout where they engage in exercising language muscles to comprehend complex text across the content areas.
Session #3: Using CLOSE Reading to Develop READsponsible Students
Wednesday, Nov. 4 from 3-4 p.m. ET
How do we promote health, harmony, humanity, and humility within our classrooms and still provide pedagogy aligned to the college and career ready standards?
Join Dr. Bailey as she demonstrates for pre-K-12 educators and administrators how to embed social emotional learning into literacy instruction using the college and career ready ELA and social studies content standards and multicultural literature.
To register for the CLOSE Reading Virtual Professional Development Sessions, visit https://www.readingplus.com/close-reading-webinar/.
ABOUT READING PLUS
Reading Plus is a research-proven, online program that provides personalized intervention and instruction for students in grades 3-12, improving reading proficiency between 2.0 to 2.5 grade levels in a single school year. Reading Plus develops comprehension, vocabulary, motivation and stamina, while also going beyond the offerings of other literacy programs by addressing silent reading fluency. It supports students with diverse needs, including English learners, special education, RTI/MTSS tiers 1-3, and advanced readers. Reading Plus provides educators with an easy-to-use management and reporting system, extensive resources to guide differentiated instruction, professional development and highly-rated customer support. The Reading Plus program is used in more than 5,000 schools nationally, helping over 1 million students become efficient, confident, lifelong readers. For more information visit www.readingplus.com.