Monday, October 21st 2024 – For Lower Primary Teachers
Decoding tips and tricks for beginning readers
Hosted by Natalie Roberts – BEN’s Literacy Consultant & Deputy Principal & Reading Teacher at St. George’s Preparatory School and Stephanie Hughes – BEN’s Summer Learning Program Teacher & English Language Arts Teacher Leader & Reading Teacher at West End Primary School.
Unlock the power of decoding with practical tips and tricks designed to support beginning readers. In this session, Natalie and Stephanie draw from their experiences and the latest findings from the Science of Reading to provide actionable strategies for teaching letter-sound relationships. Learn how to implement evidence-based practices that boost decoding skills, ensuring early reading success in the lower primary classroom.
Once upon a time: the Hidden Power of Read Alouds
Hosted by Makese Gilbert – English Language Arts Teacher Leader & Primary 1 classroom teacher at Elliott Primary
Take your use of read alouds to the next level as our experts discuss their favourite books for creating a global classroom and proven strategies to reach your goals for reading AND writing instruction. This interactive workshop will showcase how using diverse texts as read-alouds can also help to cover content topics including social studies, science and social emotional learning. Join English Language Arts teacher leader, Makese Gilbert as she reviews her process for making strategic choices for genre, topic and vocabulary goals.
Bonus! Abigail’s Dream Adventure Book Signing
With Bermudian author Karen Franks
Join author Karen Franks for her read-aloud of her smash success “Abigail’s Dream Adventures” which is now the subject of a network tv series and hear about how she wrote Abigail’s Dream Adventures with the goal of cultivating every child’s love of reading and self-belief. (Copies of Abigail’s Dream Adventures will be available for purchase at the workshop and participants can have their copy signed and dedicated by the author).
View the October 21st Presentation Here:
Saturday, November 30th 2024 – For Upper Primary Teachers
Hosted by Dr. Patricia Paugh – Professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Massachusetts Boston
This professional development session is designed to empower upper primary teachers with practical strategies for enhancing students’ literacy skills in content-rich subject areas. Participants will explore key approaches to help students navigate complex disciplinary texts, including understanding text structures, building academic vocabulary, and integrating inquiry-based learning. Join us to gain actionable tools for fostering deeper engagement and critical thinking with literature.
Saturday, January 25th 2025 – For Upper Primary Teachers
Hosted by Cynthia Armano – Reading Specialist Teacher at BCCL & Reading Clinic Tutor
Join Mrs. Armano for an informative session on Structured Word Inquiry (SWI) and how to effectively integrate it into your classroom practice. Based on the work of Dr. Peter Bowers (Bowers & Kirby, 2010), SWI is a pedagogical approach that combines explicit instruction with structured inquiry, including scientific inquiry, to help students understand the complexities of our writing system. SWI emphasizes how meaning cues from morphology and etymology can clarify grapheme-phoneme correspondences. While many words are traditionally seen as irregular spellings to be memorized, Mrs. Armano will demonstrate how SWI provides a deeper understanding of these spellings and offers a systematic approach to explaining the entire spelling system.
View the January 25th Presentation Here:
Saturday, March 1 2025: For All Educators
Preparing the whole child: Social Emotional Learning and its role in learning success
Hosted by Nichole Maries – Team & Admissions Coordinator at BCCL
Nichole Maries shares her experience as a teacher leader working with students with language-based learning differences at Bermuda Centre for Creative Learning and presents top Social and Emotional Learning strategies that are essential for creating learning success. Learn how nurturing students’ social and emotional growth enhances academic success.
Literacy and Character Development
Hosted by Dr. Mark Pacheco – Assistant Professor in the School of Teaching & Learning at the University of Florida’s College of Education
Literacy can provide us with a window to understand our world; at the same time, it can act as a mirror to help us understand ourselves. A character education approach to literacy helps students understand the moral and ethical dilemmas within texts, and as a result, similar dilemmas in their own lives. In this workshop, educators will learn how to integrate character education into discussions about texts with students.
View the March 1 Presentation Here: