Past Institutes

Best Practices in Reading Instruction
 

Between September 2018 and January 2019, Humanities Texas and UT Austin's Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk partnered to hold two series of workshops on teaching reading.

Curriculum

At the workshops, faculty presented evidence-based approaches to teaching reading in grades four and five. Each program included interactive sessions on word study and recognition, vocabulary, and reading comprehension, as well as strategies specifically developed for working with ELL students and struggling learners. The two series were cumulative—each workshop built on previous sessions and explored the material presented in greater depth. Teachers were encouraged to implement the approaches in their classrooms between sessions and seek feedback from faculty and peers.

The workshops featured close interaction with leading literacy experts and presented an innovative, comprehensive approach to evidence-based reading instruction. Content aligned with the fourth- and fifth-grade Reading and Comprehension TEKS.

Faculty

Workshop faculty included Dr. Diane Haager of California State University, Los Angeles; Dr. Jennifer Schnakenberg of The University of Texas at Austin; and educational consultant Dr. María Elena Argüelles.

Locations and Schedules

Each series consisted of three one-day sessions. The Austin workshops took place on October 17th, December 5th, and January 30th at the Byrne-Reed House. The San Antonio workshops took place on October 18th, December 6th, and January 31st at City Education Partners.

Partners and Sponsors

Humanities Texas developed these programs in collaboration with the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at UT Austin. The workshops were made possible with support from the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.