November 2021
ORTIi News & Updates

Greetings from Oregon Response to Instruction and Intervention
white plate with winter berries and thankful written on a card
November is the season for gratitude and giving thanks. At ORTIi, we have a lot to be thankful for right now.

Despite all the challenges this school year has brought to educators everywhere, we were still able to have a wonderful Fall Reading Symposium last week. We are grateful we were able to provide this for free to anyone who wants access. We are grateful that so many educators were able to attend live and interact with our presenters in real time. Finally, we are grateful for the technology that allowed us to record and share all these amazing sessions for those of you who could not attend on Tuesday (see the link below).
We wanted to share some of the feedback from our attendees.

Here are some quotes from your fellow educators:

“...a literacy focus with equity at the forefront”

"Hands down the best speaker I have heard at an ORTIi session. I was nodding in agreement the entire time."

“I was so excited I even had two computers going so I could see/watch/listen to two sessions at once.”

“Both of the breakout sessions I watched live were outstanding in content, delivery, audience interaction thru chat, and handling of Q&A”. 

"Best training I've been to.”

“EVERYTHING!! Yes, I am yelling! This was beyond what I could have ever hoped for.”

"This was valuable information and should be required viewing for school staff."

“The speakers are phenomenal!”

With Gratitude,

Brad, Christie, Lisa, Jon, Beth and Nicole
person with laptop and note paper
Now Available:
ORTIi Fall Virtual Reading Symposium
Recordings
(Audience: Elementary Teachers & Leaders, Secondary Reading Teachers)
Another great day of learning about effective reading instruction is in the books - well, actually on our web site. You can access the recordings from last week's outstanding keynote and the wide variety of excellent breakout sessions on the digital program. This page will also give you links to the presenters' folders of handouts and other valuable resources.

We hope that you can use these sessions for your own learning and for staff PD in your setting. We encourage you carve out some time to talk with your team about the following questions:

  • What was something that was inspiring? Surprising? Troubling? Relevant?
  • What was something that confirms what you already knew or affirms something you are already doing?
  • What was something new that you would like to try out? Can you use materials in your current core program to do this or do you need to find new resources? If so, who can help? What other support do you need to adopt this new practice?
Want to know some details about the upcoming K-12 ELA Curriculum Adoption in Oregon?
(Audience: Oregon district leaders, reading specialists, teachers)

Join ODE Specialists Aujalee Moore and Tina Roberts at a session hosted by Multnomah ESD on Tuesday, November 16th from 3:45-4:45 to learn more about:

• the importance of high-quality instructional materials
• ODE’s process and timeline for the ELA materials evaluation
• information about accessible educational materials
• where equity shows up in the evaluation criteria and evaluator training
• Q & A


The same presenters will offer another opportunity to hear from them on Wednesday, November 17th at 4:00.

boxes that say read write thing explore discover
Progress monitoring graph
Once Again...More Great Tips from
The Reading Science Academy
(Audience: District MTSS/RTI leaders, K-5/6 teachers, K-12 reading specialists, IAs)

Stephanie Stollar recently sent out a timely, concise document about all things progress monitoring. It is a quick read but very informative! Click here to read it.

To learn more about instruction grounded in what science tells us about reading, check out her whole web site here.
Want to hear more from two of our Fall Symposium Presenters? Check out
Laura Stewart's Interview with Jan Hasbrouck
The Reading League's Podcast: Teaching, Reading & Learning
(Audience: All)

The Reading League's Laura Stewart interviews all the great names in the reading world. All episodes have been interesting and informative, but this interview with Jan Hasbrouck is definitely worth even more than one time through! There are so many things to think about that really have impact on how we teach students to read.
Screen shot of a shelf of books
K-5 Bitmoji Bookshelf of Indigenous Read Alouds
(Audience: Elementary teachers and families)

Check out this great resource created by Kim Oliff, member of the Board of Trustees in the Hillsborough City School District in northern California, on the ancestral and unceded land of the Ramaytush and Ohlone People. This bookshelf will help you expand your library to include more indigenous voices. When you click on the books, a link will take you to a read aloud of that book. There are other items on the shelf that when you click on them, it takes you to an art exhibit, videos and other resources.
Photo of Afrika Afini Mills
Teaching Students to See Themselves and the World
(Audience: K-8 Teachers and Admins)

Multnohmah ESD invites you to attend a virtual session with Afrika Afeni Mills, November 9th, from 9:00 - 10:30 PT.
You will learn about:

  • the difference between asset- and deficit-based teaching
  • the significance of integrating students' schemas into instruction
  • the impact that adding more "windows and mirrors" has on students' classroom experiences
2 Great Episodes of Amplify's Science of Reading Podcast:

Empowering Multilingual Learners
Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan (S4, E8)

Linguistic Variety and Dialects: Difference, Not Error
Julie Washington (S4, E7)
(Audience: All)
You may be thinking, "Another podcast?!" Yes! These two episodes of the Amplify Podcast are perfect for a long walk to ward off the post turkey sleepiness. Both of these will give you great energy!

The episodes give you practical suggestions for supporting students who are learning English or who may speak a variation of English other than general American English and how to use these students' strengths to help them learn to read.
In case you. missed the news...
We are going virtual!
ORTIi Annual Spring Conference
Audience: All

Last month, we announced that we have decided to move to a fully virtual ORTIi Annual Spring Conference on April 28-29, 2022. We know many of you already have this event on your calendars, so we hope that you will still be able to bring teams together in your location to view the sessions and share what you have learned. If you can't watch the sessions as they happen, they will be recorded so that you can continue to build staff knowledge of MTSS and Reading.