April 2022
ORTIi News & Updates
sand timer
It's almost time for the Annual Conference!

We are getting so excited to bring together over 3,000 registrants for this terrific couple of days. And, we have an exciting new addition to the line-up (see below).

See you soon!

From the ORTIi team,
Lisa, Jon, Beth, Nicole, Brad, and Christie
photos of anita archer and maryanne wolf

Breaking News!

Additional Anita Archer session added!

We are thrilled to announce that you now have a third opportunity to hear from Dr. Anita Archer at the ORTIi conference at the end of the month. With the recent publication of the latest IES Guide, Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9, Dr. Archer wanted to provide another session for our conference to discuss this important guide and her life-long passion for supporting struggling readers and their teachers. (See below to find a link to the IES Guide).

Because of this wonderful addition to the schedule, we have moved a few sessions around since we last sent out the program. Click on the Digital Program link below to see the updates and plan your days. And don't worry - everything is recorded, so if you are like us and can't decide which session to attend, you can indeed have it all!

The ORTIi Annual Conference
Digital Program

If you are ready to plan your conference days, you can check out the session titles and descriptions in the digital program by clicking here. The Zoom links for the sessions will be added about a week before the conference. After the event, the YouTube links for the recorded sessions will also be available in the digital program (hopefully by the end of the first week in May). In other words, the program is your key to the whole conference, whether you attend live or in the weeks and months after!

IES Guide cover. Children sitting in a classroom
Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9
(Audience: Elementary Teachers, Secondary Reading Teachers, Literacy Leaders, Admins)

The IES/What Works Clearinghouse has just released a practice guide for reading interventions in upper grades. The guide contains 4 recommendations. There is a webinar to talk about the recommendations on April 13th. You can register and download the guide by going to the website below.
Cover of the book
Student Focused Coaching:
The Instructional Coach's Guide to Supporting Student Success Through Teacher Collaboration
by Jan Hasbrouck and Daryl Michel
(Audience: Admins, Coaches, Potential Coaches)

Creating an Instructional Coach position in your setting? Thinking of applying for an Instructional Coach position? New to coaching? Wondering how to improve your coaching? If you said "Yes" to any of these statements, this book is for you. The reflections and exercises throughout the book make this perfectly set up for a book study for current and/or incoming instructional coaches. It would also be great for a group of administrators to read together to guide a discussion on how to best implement effective coaching. There is even a chapter on how the coach can effectively support collaborative problem solving.

Screen shot of the episode logo
Season 5, Episode 03. The right assessment and the right data with Dr. Jan Hasbrouck
(Audience: ALL)

It seems like every month we share a great podcast episode with you all! This month is no exception. In this episode, Dr. Hasbrouck shares a bit about the history of the Oral Reading Fluency assessments. She also talks about the value of quick assessments to answer these questions:
  • Which students in my class might need some extra help? (Benchmark Screening)
  • What kind of help do they really need? (Diagnostic Skills Assessments)
  • Is the work working? (Progress Monitoring)
She talks about using the data in collaborative planning - if something is not working, let's try something else.
Free Phonics Materials for Teachers, Tutors, and Families
(Audience: Upper elementary and beyond)

Open Source Phonics has great materials for teaching reading using evidence-aligned materials and practices. There are 160 lessons and decodables aligned with the phonics skills that are taught. One great thing about the decodable texts is that they don't have any pictures. They are just text on a page - this makes them perfect for older students who need to practice but don't want to use text that looks like it comes from the primary grades. The materials are intended for anyone who wants to support a struggling reader who is about 3rd grade and up. Why do they provide all this for free? Check out their why:
  • Literacy is a civil right.
  • The research supporting phonics is too strong to ignore.
  • All families deserve access to high-quality phonics materials.
ORTIi's
MTSS Component Modules
(Audience: ALL)

As district teams begin to reflect on the state of MTSS after several tough years of interrupted school, the ORTIi rubrics and accompanying modules may be a good place to turn to remind your team what it looks like to have a solid system in place to recover from this crisis. The modules could also be useful for you as you bring in new staff, especially school and district leaders through the spring, summer and fall.