Strengthening Ties Between Special Education and Reading Services

Originally published here on March 19, 2008.

I went to a week long workshop last year at the end of school. It was presented in our country by the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education and (if memory serves) we had reading specialists, kindergarten teachers, and elementary school special education teachers at the workshop. At the time it didn't occur to me that I might be watching an actual change in philosophy. But I've come to realize that the workshop was a turning point in the relationship between special education and reading...

A few months into this year I was sitting at the table where most of our teachers eat lunch. It was me, our school improvement facilitator (SIF - a math person), two reading specialists, a general education teacher, and a couple of other school staff. The reading specialists and the SIF had been to a meeting at the central office the previous day and one of them explained to me as we ate our lunches that now we were all married. In retrospect, I thought it was ironic that I wasn't invited to the meeting

I said something profound - like, "huh?"

One of the reading specialists said, "They told us yesterday that we should think of ourselves as married now to the special ed people at our school..."

"Mmmmm..." I offered. They laughed. Maybe giggled is a more accurate term. I have a very nice wife whom I'm extremely fond of. They all know her. So the metaphor had humor.

The truth is that special education and reading have worked more closely together this year than I recall in my short career. When I started teaching a few years ago, the two were in separate worlds. I realized quickly that we dealt with the same problems, but often didn't have a shared vocabulary to discuss those problems in. I've met many a reading person that doesn't have much understanding of disabilities and many a special education professional who was weak (to be polite) on reading issues. The chasm between the two has puzzled me.

So I was, well, positively tickled to hear Dr. Lynn Boyer (Executive Director, Office of Special Programs, Extended & Early Learning) express support for the Reading Research Symposium last week in Charleston. The Reading Research Symposium is searching for next year's funding (or was last week) and Dr. Boyer suggested that special education money might be used to ensure that the Symposium came off next year. I was sincerely thrilled.

My hope is that more special education people will be pulled into reading issues. And the truth is that funding the Symposium with special education funds might result in more special education people attending. Hopefully the day is not far away when reading people will be well versed in learning disability issues and special education professionals will have a much greater understanding of reading issues...

Tuesday at the Symposium (Is Anita Archer a Rock Star?)

Originally published here on March 11, 2008.

This morning I went to the workshop session on vocabulary that Dr. Anita Archer was holding. I got there early - and it was a good thing...

Dr. Archer's presentation room turned out to be too small. The 200 or so chairs were full before the 9am start of the session. Symposium organizers shuffled room arrangements and moved her to a larger room. My guess (that's all it is) is that about 500 Symposium participants came to hear Dr. Archer this morning.

Dr. Archer spoke on vocabulary and modeled explicit vocabulary instruction for the gathered crowd. I've commented in a previous post on her unique style of turning professional conference-goers into her own second or third grade class so that she can model her teaching methods.

Dr. Archer wasn't alone in her emphasis on vocabulary at this year's Symposium. The topic seemed to be a theme from Dr. Carol Tolman's opening remarks straight through to Dr. Patricia Mathes' closing remarks today in the third session.

The message, regardless of the speaker, was fairly simple. Children of poverty start school with significantly less vocabulary than children from more professional, affluent families. Good instruct can help close the gap; but in the past that has been the exception, not the rule. Vocabulary and background knowledge are intimately tied together. The weaker a student’s vocabulary and background knowledge, the lower their reading comprehension...

I enjoyed the Symposium (my first) and hope to attend again next year.

Pictures from the WV Reading Research Symposium

Originally published here on March 10, 2008.

Today was a very worthwhile day at the Symposium. But rather than comment in any detail at the moment, I thought I'd simply post a few pictures. Details on some of the sessions may get posted later this evening...

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Integrating RTI with Cognitive Neuropsychology

Originally published here on March 10, 2008.

I attended Dr. Steven Feifer's session this morning on the cognitive neuropsychology of reading. Dr. Feifer is a school psychologist who now works in Maryland and I enjoyed the session enough to buy his new book.

Dr. Feifer discussed the areas of the brain that process reading. He answered my question about whether dyslexia is genetic. He said that it is inherited, but pointed out that there are a variety of factors that influence each other and that the issue was a little more complicated than a "yes" or "no" question allowed for.

Dr. Feifer looked at the nature of reading (learning) disabilities and at the brain activity behind different reading problems. I asked him if he thought that learning disabilities could be prevented (something I've been skeptical about) and his answer was that if we catch problems early enough and apply the proper types of interventions with those problems, that good instruction can change brain chemistry - and that yes, we can actually prevent disabilities. He was convincing and I'll now have to delve more deeply into the research on that issue...

Dr. Feifer was also very practical in his suggestions as to how to decide which interventions to use with what reading problems you see in a student.

I enjoyed Dr. Feifer and I look forward now to reading his book...

Dr. Anita Archer on Reading Comprehension

Originally published here on March 10, 2008.

I attended the session this afternoon by Dr. Anita Archer on reading comprehension.

Dr. Archer was an enjoyable speaker. She has a unique approach of modeling her suggestions as she presents them. It leaves you feeling a little like you're a second grader in her class. But it also serves to make the ideas seem more logical and more memorable.

Dr. Archer examined a number of common practices and discussed their value for comprehension. She also introduced a few new possibilities to the repertoire of comprehension tools and discussed why those new ideas have merit.

I enjoyed Dr. Archer and plan (at the moment) to attend her session on vocabulary tomorrow morning.

Sixth Annual WVDE Reading Research Symposium - Opening Night

Originally published here on March 9, 2008.

The Reading Research Symposium started off well on Sunday night with Dr. Carol Tolman as the keynote speaker.

I had no problems getting to Charleston and the people at the Marriott were kind enough to let me check in a little early. Dinner was nice. There was sliced turkey and a Mexican lasagna dish. The vegetables were good: red skinned potatoes, green beans, corn. There was a variety of breads and a number of different desserts. I enjoyed dinner.

I enjoyed the company as well. My school managed to sit together at one table.

Dr. Tolman spoke in general terms about the history of reading research, especially as it had been coupled with brain research. She gave us a new model to think about and a few sources to look at on reading research. She is an engaging and enjoyable speaker.

Our welcome packet included a jump drive that we were told had all the presentations on it, so I didn't take many notes. I got back to the hotel and discovered that it had all the presentation for tomorrow and Tuesday on it, but not Dr. Tolman's from tonight. I'll have to see if I can get the notes from someone...

Tomorrow I intend to go to the presentation by Dr. Steven Feifer, Integrating RTI with Cognitive Neuropsychology: a Scientific Approach. I will probably go in the afternoon to Dr. Anita Archer's workshop on reading comprehension.

I hope to have pictures tomorrow.

Is Dyslexia Genetic...?

Originally published here on March 7, 2008.

Well, is it? That's one of the questions I hope to update my answer on at the Research Reading Symposium (although it doesn't look like there'll be much of a focus on the issue).

The NY Times wrote a piece in 2005 that seemed to imply that a genetic test for dyslexia wasn't far off.

I talked about dyslexia some in a couple of pieces on the pros and cons of Response to Intervention.

Response to Intervention plays a double role in education. On the one hand, it is a strategy for helping perfectly normal kids when they have problems with reading. On the other hand, it is a new model for the process of identifying learning disability.

If there really was a new way to say with some certainty that a child had dyslexia, that might turn the disabilities process upside down again. The problem now is diagnostic: we suspect a child has dyslexia, but knowing for sure is expensive, time consuming, and not that valuable a piece of information within the current framework.

If a medical test for dyslexia emerged, I think we'd have a new new model for identifying learning disabilities before we even got the current new model fully implemented...

Reading Research Symposium Coming Up

Originally published here on March 3, 2008.

I'm looking forward to the Reading research Symposium coming up next week in
Charleston. I've been to the reading conference at the Greenbrier before, but not the Research Symposium.

I love research. And being at something like this will hopefully give me more insight into the direction that research is taking us.

Look for an update middle of next week on how it was...