 Hi, this is Kathy Fiala, School Psychologist at ESU-8. I'm excited to share information with you about letters training that I will be facilitating at ESU-8 next year. Letters stands for Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling. It's a professional development course that bridges deep meaningful research into practical classroom success. Letters provides educators with the background, depth of knowledge, and tools to teach language and literacy skills to every student. Letters can be used regardless of the literacy program and use in your district. Letters knowledge and practices are infused into the curriculum, basically filling any holes that exist. We know that the ultimate goal is reading comprehension, but if students have any holes or deficits in word recognition or language comprehension, they will not have reading comprehension. Who is Letters for? Letters is appropriate for all reading teachers, especially intervention teachers. From a deep understanding of the science behind how we learn to read, why we spell the way we do, or how phoneme awareness and phonics lead to comprehension, teachers are left feeling ill-prepared, like riding a bike without wheels. Why do we train teachers in the science of reading? Well, research shows that teachers matter more to students' success than any other aspect of schooling. It is the teachers that teach students, not the programs. Teachers who go through letters training are more knowledgeable, more insightful, and more effective teachers of reading. They understand the why behind struggling students and also the how of planning for these students and addressing their needs. Teachers are able to prevent reading failure for students. Do you have subgroups of students who are not showing adequate progress in reading? That's another reason to train your teachers in letters. Letters has received the International Dyslexia Association's Seal of Approval as an IDE accredited program. Letters also provides teachers with the best tools to level the reading playing field, regardless of student background in having low socioeconomic status, low language, learning English as a second language, and any other factors. Letters teaches teachers the what, the why, and the how. Teachers learn what must be taught during reading and spelling lessons to obtain the best results for students. They learn why reading instruction has several key components and how they're related to one another based on current scientific research. They learn how to explain spoken and written English language structures to students, as well as how to interpret individual differences in student achievement based on valid and reliable assessments and models for differentiation. They also learn how to implement instructional routines, activities, and approaches, and differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students. What do teachers have to say? Teachers of all levels, from novice to advanced teachers, say that it changes their practice right away. Learning from the very first session can be incorporated immediately. How I felt going through this training was that I really had, like, the last statement there. I should have known this. Why didn't I know this? Why hadn't I ever learned this before? Teachers also talk about how it really helped them fix the things that they weren't doing right and enhance what they were already doing or on the right track. Letters is really blended learning at its best. It utilizes reading via textbook and then also online content to really reinforce and bridge the gap between what teachers are reading. There are interactive exercises. There's also videos of exemplary instruction so teachers can watch an example of what they're learning. And then there are extension assignments that are often completed with or about students that the teacher is actually teaching. So right away they're using the things that they're learning with students. Here are the details for our cohort next year. The registration fee is $430, which includes your letters manual, the access to the online content, and registration for four days of on-site training in Neely with lunch included. Those dates in Neely are tentatively in October, December, February, and April. Each one of those dates follows the completion of a unit of the letters training. And we'll have those dates set and teachers will know when they need to have their part done by. It also requires teachers time and attention. Approximately two hours per week completing the reading of the manual, the online content, and the bridge to practice activities. Approximately two hours give or take a little bit. Some weeks it's a little bit less and some weeks it would be a little bit more. So I hope that you'll consider joining our ESU 8 Letters cohort for the 2021 school year. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanks.