Unit 1 Objectives

  • Review the history of reading instruction.
  • Understand the importance of scientifically based reading research.
  • Review current scientifically based reading research.
  • Identify Florida initiatives and resources for teaching reading.
  • List the stages of language and reading development.
  • Identify the alterable and instructionally relevant variables that impact differentiation of reading instruction.
  • Examine research on why reading failure is unnecessary.

Unit 2 Objectives

  • Identify the guidelines, classroom elements, and student characteristics that are a basis for differentiating to improve instruction for all students.
  • Identify strategies that support a differentiated environment for all students.
  • Define the principles that can be used to differentiate instruction and make lessons more explicit for students with reading difficulties.
  • Describe the teacher delivery methods that can be used to differentiate instruction and make lessons more intense for students experiencing reading difficulties.

Unit 3 Objectives

  • Understand that meaningful differentiated instruction is based on student assessment data.
  • Review purposes, types, and models of reading assessment.
  • Describe features of Florida’s reading assessment plan for elementary.
  • Describe features of Florida’s reading assessment plan for secondary.
  • Identify the purpose of the Progress Monitoring and Reporting Network (PMRN) K-12.

Unit 4 Objectives

  • Activate background knowledge regarding phonological awareness.
  • Clarify the relationship between phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and skilled reading.
  • Review the supporting research regarding phonological awareness.
  • Discuss phonological awareness difficulties.
  • Extend and apply knowledge of systematic instructional design principles and intensive teacher delivery methods to provide differentiated and explicit instruction in phonological awareness.

Unit 5 Objectives

  • Understand the goal of phonics instruction and the important role it plays in reading instruction for students experiencing persistent difficulty in reading.
  • Review the supporting research on the teaching of phonics.
  • List the components of effective phonics instruction.
  • Define the role of decodable text in beginning reading instruction.
  • Extend your knowledge and application of differentiated instruction through the systematic instructional design principles and teacher delivery methods to increase intensity.
  • Examine core, intervention, or remedial curriculum materials according to the principles of systematic instructional design.

Unit 6 Objectives

  • Define fluency.
  • Determine the reasons why students are dysfluent.
  • Examine the connection between proficient reading and reading fluency.
  • Learn how to differentiate assessment and instruction of reading fluency for students experiencing reading difficulties.

Unit 7 Objectives

  • Understand the importance of vocabulary instruction and the role it plays in the reading process.
  • Review the research supporting vocabulary instruction.
  • Identify the levels of word knowledge.
  • Examine the continuum of vocabulary strategies and the relationship to levels of word knowledge.
  • Understand how to choose words for instruction.
  • Review how to create student-friendly definitions for instruction.
  • Identify the components of an effective vocabulary lesson.
  • Understand how to differentiate vocabulary instruction and increase explicitness by applying various instructional design principles and teacher delivery methods to vocabulary instruction.

Unit 8 Objectives

  • Identify the single most important goal of reading instruction.
  • Define reading comprehension.
  • List the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are required for good reading comprehension.
  • Determine when comprehension instruction should begin.
  • Recognize student behavior that may interfere with accurate text comprehension.
  • Discuss the relationship between other areas of reading and comprehension.
  • Model examples of differentiation through explicit comprehension instruction.
  • Clarify how to differentiate comprehension strategy instruction for students with reading difficulties.
  • Contrast reading comprehension instruction with accommodating students in content-area classes.
  • Establish the importance of assessment for differentiating comprehension instruction.