Making Meaningful Growth: Purpose, Strategies and Benefits of Using Progress Monitoring to Drive Literacy Interventions

COURSE OVERVIEW
This 15 hour/PDPs professional development course unpacks the process of progress monitoring and provides educators with practical instructional strategies for selecting appropriate progress monitoring tools, interpreting student growth, and adjusting their instruction accordingly.
COURSE STRUCTURE
The course is organized into 6 modules - 3 live workshops and 3 self-guided modules. Live workshops will take place:
August 7, 8:30 - 10:30am EST
September 19, 6 - 8pm EST
October 24, 6 - 8pm EST
COURSE OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of the course participants will be able to:
- Describe progress monitoring and the role it plays in a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) model and overall reading achievement.
- Differentiate between the types of progress monitoring tools such as summative and criterion-based measures.
- Select the tool that will best measure targeted areas of growth, including skill-building in reading accuracy, fluency and comprehension.
- Employ DIBELS 8th assessments as progress monitoring tools.
- Use benchmark data to project meaningful and attainable growth through the use of aimlines.
- Interpret students’ growth rate and adjust instruction using high leverage practices.
- Become familiar with guidance on referral to special education based on recommendations from the Massachusetts Dyslexia Guidelines.
COURSE OUTLINE (15 hours)
Module 1: An Introduction to Progress Monitoring (Live - 2 hours + Asynchronous 1.5 hours)
Module 2: How to Seamlessly Embed Assessments into Your Daily Instruction (Asynchronous - 2.5 hours)
Module 3: Measuring Students’ Ability to Generalize Their Skills Using DIBELS 8th (Asynchronous 2.5 hours)
Module 4: Purpose and Benefits of Creating Aimlines to Set Goals and Track Growth (Live 2 hours)
Module 5: Using Data to Adjust and Drive Instruction (Asynchronous 2.5 hours)
Module 6: Wrap Up and Next Steps (Live 2 hours)
COURSE MATERIALS
Course materials including handouts will be provided in the form of PDF files.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
The course is designed to support practitioners who are working with students reading below grade level or benchmark in elementary school. These faculty may be delivering instruction in Tier 2, 3, or through Special Education.
ENROLLMENT & COST
Tuition is $375 USD
Payment by P.O. can be sent to Melissa Orkin, [email protected]

COURSE INSTRUCTOR
Melissa Orkin, Ph.D