Intensive Week Workshops 

Ever wondered what's actually happening in your students' brains when they read? This week changes everything you thought you knew about reading instruction. We're going inside the reading brain - literally watching it work through brain scans and experiencing firsthand what your struggling readers go through every day. You'll finally understand why some kids just don't 'get it' despite your best efforts, why that multilingual student processes text differently, and why anxiety literally shuts down the reading circuit. By Friday, you'll know exactly which part of each student's reading system is breaking down and what to do about it. This isn't theory - it's the neuroscience that explains every reading behavior you've ever seen.

Decoding isn't reading - it's just the entry ticket. This week tackles the comprehension crisis: why kids who can read every word still don't understand what they've read. We'll unpack the shocking research showing that teaching 'comprehension strategies' barely moves the needle, while building knowledge transforms everything. You'll learn why vocabulary isn't about definitions but networks, why background knowledge beats reading skills every time, and how the brain actually constructs meaning from text. Discover why some texts are impossible regardless of reading level and others unlock themselves. Stop teaching generic strategies and start building the knowledge and language that makes comprehension automatic.

Here's the truth: kids who can't talk well can't read well. This week reveals why oral language is the hidden foundation of reading success - and why ignoring it is like building a house on sand. We're diving into the research that shows which preschool conversations predict third-grade reading scores, why some vocabulary teaching is a waste of time, and how a child's syntax at age 5 determines their comprehension at age 10. You'll learn why read-alouds might be your most powerful teaching tool (when done right) and discover how morphology transforms both vocabulary and decoding. Stop treating oral language as separate from reading - this week shows you how they're actually the same system.

Twenty percent of your students have brains that process reading differently. Not wrong, not broken - different. This week takes you inside dyslexia and other reading disabilities with the latest neuroscience and intervention research. You'll learn to spot the student who's memorized 500 words but can't actually read, the one whose high IQ masks severe processing issues, and why that 'lazy' student is actually working ten times harder than everyone else. We'll examine which interventions actually rewire the brain (most don't) and match specific profiles to specific approaches. No more throwing strategies at the wall - by Friday, you'll know exactly what each struggling reader needs, how intensively they need it, and how to know it's working. This is the week that saves the kids who usually fall through the cracks.

What if we've been teaching reading backwards? This week flips conventional wisdom by showing how writing actually builds better readers than reading instruction alone. You'll discover why that kindergartener's invented spelling is pure gold for reading development, how encoding strengthens the exact same neural pathways as decoding (but faster), and why kids who write words remember how to read them. We'll examine actual writing samples to diagnose reading problems you'd never catch otherwise. By Friday, you'll understand why separating reading and writing instruction is like teaching swimming on dry land - possible, but why would you? Get ready to integrate writing into every reading lesson and watch both skills accelerate.

Here's what nobody tells you: MLLs don't need more vocabulary - they need different vocabulary, taught differently. This week cracks the code on academic language for multilingual learners. You'll discover why teaching 'dog' and 'cat' wastes precious time while ignoring 'analyze' and 'therefore' creates academic failure. Learn how cognates can give Spanish speakers a 10,000-word head start (if you know how to activate them), why discourse patterns from other cultures clash with American school expectations, and how to build the decontextualized language that determines academic success. We'll show you how kids can leverage their home language to accelerate English academic vocabulary - even if you don't speak their language. Stop simplifying and start strategizing.