Libraries offer tremendous opportunities to provide early and struggling readers with access to tools and resources that lead to skilled reading. This webinar presents the following topics:
- The current literacy challenges, how we learn to read, and ways to support those competencies through library activities.
- The different resources that help children learn to read, what decodable books are, and how decodable books support and supplement reading instruction.
- Implementing a collection of decodable books and what that involves from a librarian perspective.
Presenters:
Marion Waldman, Founder/Executive Director, started Teach My Kid to Read in response to her struggles navigating the education system and obtaining reading services for her daughter. Marion believes in a world where librarians, parents/guardians, educators, and anyone interested in literacy education can help children learn to read using the approach to literacy proven to help most children learn to read. Libraries are where people go to read, and Marion believes that everyone who goes to a library should have access to books that they can read independently. Before Teach My Kid to Read, Marion worked for Appleton & Lange, Harper Collins, Cengage Delmar Learning, and Elsevier, Inc. Marion has undergraduate degrees in English and History from Hartwick College and an MBA from the University of Maryland.
Tracy Young is passionate about education. When her daughters started school, Tracy began volunteering in their elementary classrooms and progressed into a leadership position as President of the PTSA for the Middle School and the High School. From there, Tracy ran for the local school board where she is currently serving a third term and is President of the Board of Education. Several years ago, her youngest daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia. This revealed to her how parents experience the world of Special Education in a public school setting, and the emotional ups and downs experienced by struggling readers. She is being trained as an Orton Gillingham therapist. Tracy has a BA from Barnard College and an MBA from Boston University. She is committed to helping struggling readers through volunteering, child tutoring, parent advocacy, and educational policy changes.
Beth Bevars is Director of the Lodi Whittier Library in the beautiful Finger Lakes region. Beth holds a BA in Music from SUNY Geneseo and MA in Folk Studies from Western Kentucky University. She has worked as an arts administrator, folklorist and Suzuki violin teacher. While she has enjoyed her diverse career, her greatest work to date has been as a mother of, an advocate for, her severely dyslexic daughter. Experiences in the education of dyslexics in public school, private school, parochial school, boarding school and even her own homeschool have inspired and horrified Beth in equal measure and in 2017 she completed her Associate level training with the Orton-Gillingham Academy. Combining her administrative talents with her advocacy skills, Beth took on the role of Library Director in 2019 and is developing Lodi’s Literacy Hub which will provide dyslexia and literacy resources to students, parents, and teachers in the local community.
Laurie Puhn Feinstein, has a B.A. and law degree from Harvard University. She is an attorney, author, and human rights activist. Laurie is an Of Counsel immigration lawyer at Bikkal & Associates in White Plains, and is the author of the national bestseller “Fight Less, Love More: 5-Minute Conversations to Change Your Relationship without Blowing Up or Giving In” (Rodale, 2012) and “Instant Persuasion: How to Change Your Words to Change Your Life,” (Penguin, 2005). Laurie is a recognized speaker at Fortune 500 companies, universities, hospitals, and non-profits and has provided her relationship and conflict resolution skills and expertise on numerous TV and radio shows. She is a member of the Town of Greenburgh Human Rights Advisory Committee, and she advocates locally for greater diversity and inclusion in the schools and community. Over the last 2 years, Laurie became immersed in the world of dyslexia and literacy due to her own child’s reading difficulties, and is now finding that her expertise in law, human rights and advocacy, comes together to give her the platform to raise awareness of literacy as a human right. She resides in Westchester, NY with her husband and three children.
School Librarians must contact their home BOCES School Library System office for registration.
~~~~~~~~~
Code of Conduct
For questions, please email Eliscia Cirrone, ecirrone@lilrc.org.
Professional Development Hours: 1 (.1 CEUs)
Note: CTLE credits for School Librarians are limited to members of Eastern Suffolk BOCES School Library System, Western Suffolk BOCES Library System, and Nassau BOCES School Library System
FOR OUR PARTICIPANTS - You will need both a LILRC and a Zoom account. You will need to sign into your zoom account prior to accessing the meeting. LILRC account is for registration & your Zoom account is for access.
If you do not already have a LILRC account you will be prompted to create one (if you have forgotten your password, and need help resetting it you can email Eliscia at ecirrone@lilrc.org). Please log into your LILRC account prior to registering to ensure your information is populated correctly.
