English Language Arts
Do you have students in the middle grades who have yet to crack the code and become proficient readers? Do you have readers who just can’t seem to understand what they are reading? Are you stuck and not sure how to best help readers close the gap while teaching your subject matter?
Educators often grapple with the best ways to support students who have not yet met grade-level expectations in reading. Join us as we target readers in grades 3-8 by thinking first about how someone learns to read and then shifting our focus to FOUR critical action steps to take to start closing the gap. You will have time to reflect on current practices and programs, collaborate with colleagues, and determine your personal action steps.
Intended Audience: General education teachers, Instructional coaches, Leadership, Interventionists, and Special Education teachers
Are you fully aware of how the ILEARN Assessment will be changing for the 2024-25 school year pilot program and fully in 2025-2026 school year? Do you struggle to find all the resources required to completely understand the 2023 Indiana Academic Standards for ELA?
Join April Connelley for ELA, to get one simple, easy-to-use spreadsheet that will include all the resources you need for your specific 2023 Indiana Academic Standards and learn how they will be assessed on the new ILEARN Assessment. Learn exactly when each standard will be assessed on the ILEARN CheckPoint Assessments and which standards will be on the summative ILEARN Assessment. You will also learn how to use your classroom instruction to maximize students’ achievement on the new ILEARN CheckPoints and Summative Assessment. You will be provided with resources that show the types of questions used on the ILEARN Assessments as well as best practices that you can use to increase student performance for those questions. You will receive many valuable resources, activities, and ideas for increasing student performance, and they will be modeled for you throughout the professional development.
Intended Audience: General education teachers, Instructional coaches, Leadership, Interventionists, and Special Education teachers
Are you looking for ways to increase learning and improve student outcomes? Do you want to learn about ways to help with learning in ALL subjects for ALL students?
Increasing opportunities for students to read and write leads to stronger learning. Writing, in particular, raises the level of critical thinking and reading comprehension. During this session, educators will explore the why and then quickly move into effective strategies and routines that embed reading and writing daily. There will be time built into this session to collaborate with colleagues and share resources and ideas. Everyone should walk away with something to try the next day and ideas of what to explore on their own in the future.
Intended Audience: General education teachers, Instructional coaches, Leadership, Interventionists, and Special Education teachers
Are you looking for learning opportunities for your instructional assistants? Are you an instructional assistant and want to learn more about the best ways to help students?
Instructional assistants are a huge asset and valuable to student learning. During this session, Instructional Assistants will focus on the developmental stages of learners, instructional best practices, and small-group management. We will focus on the importance of routines and procedures, gradual release of responsibility, prompting, managing materials, working with small groups, and keeping students engaged. Participants will be active, and time will be given for collaboration and practice.
The 2 full days do not need to be back to back, and scheduling adjustments can be made to meet contract hours.
Intended Audience: Elementary Instructional Assistants
You want every student to succeed—but meeting diverse learning needs can feel overwhelming.
It’s not realistic to create 25 different lesson plans, and yet you know that one-size-fits-all instruction doesn’t work.
There’s a better way.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) empowers you to plan lessons with flexibility from the start, so all students can access meaningful, rigorous learning—without burning yourself out.
In this session, you’ll discover:
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The core principles of UDL
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How to set firm learning goals while offering flexible ways for students to reach them
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Strategies to remove learning barriers and embrace learner variability
You’ll leave with practical tools you can use immediately to make your teaching more inclusive, engaging, and effective for every student in your classroom.
When you plan for all from the start, everyone benefits.
Let us show you how.
Intended Audience: K-12 Teachers and Instructional Coaches
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April is amazing! She honors the specific needs of our group, is flexible and reactive between each of our sessions, and makes our learning important but lighthearted.
Diana Crawford
Instructional Coach
It is a great class that helps with understanding how students can hone their comprehension skills as well as building the background knowledge to help them fully understand targeted concepts.
Shelby Sego
Teacher
I really enjoyed learning valuable information in the Curriculum Mapping Train the Trainer Cadre! I appreciate all of the support that April provided us!
Cathy Walradth
Curriculum Director