Register today for

Structured Literacy series for Tier 2/3 & Specialized instruction

Summer 2025 at our offices in Trumbull, CT
7/8, 7/10, 7/14, 7/15 & 7/17

Learn from the Literacy How experts in this 30-hour course developed by Dr. Margie Gillis, a Certified Academic Language Therapist and founder of Literacy How.

  • Developed for special educators, reading specialists and interventionists
  • Course Time: 9am- 4pm with an hour for lunch
  • Participants must attend all sessions

Course price is $995 and includes the 4 books in the series.

This is an in-person training with limited capacity and will take place in Trumbull, CT. 

Course Description

In this 30-hour course developed by Dr. Margie Gillis, a Certified Academic Language Therapist and founder of Literacy How, teachers will learn how to teach word recognition skills explicitly and systematically to students with SLD/Dyslexia. The series will also demonstrate how to combine word recognition instruction that teaches foundational skills (i.e., phonemic awareness, decoding, and encoding) with methodology in reading comprehension, vocabulary development, and written expression.

This course will empower teachers with knowledge to enhance their tiered intervention or special education specialized instruction. 

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“This is the best and most helpful PD I have had in MANY years.
The videos were great and definitely backed up the learning points as well as broke up the presentation … the visuals were helpful and will give me something I can refer to later on. Excellent presenter! Her humor and expertise kept me totally engaged.” 

-Participant, Structured Literacy Series

“I benefited from seeing some lessons in action, and lesson plan structures in order to see how all components of structured literacy can be applied in a 30-40 minute session. I plan to use these observations as I begin to structure my lesson plans the same way.”

-Participant, Structured Literacy Series

“Awesome reminder and knowledge about the importance of a systematic approach to teaching literacy. I will be using the syllable house, word ladders and many more things to help my struggling readers.”

-Participant, Structured Literacy Series

“I liked the socrative quizzes—especially how the Mentor would explain the answers immediately so I understood why I got an answer wrong. I also appreciated the way she dabbled in models of lessons along with the powerpoint presentations. It broke things up a little. I liked the books she pitched, too!”

-Participant, Structured Literacy Series

“This series has empowered our team to take a fresh look at our curriculum, to be more diagnostic, and to adjust our instruction based on our observations of student performance in each of the areas of structured literacy.

We leave each session armed with ready-to-use materials, including informal assessments, instructional activities, and research publications to sharpen our understanding. What a valuable experience this has been!”

Candice LaConti, Reading/Language Arts Specialist
K-5, Lyme-Old Lyme Public Schools

Structured Literacy II / III is offered across 5 full day sessions and customized for teachers based on their grade level

our course will include the following topics

1. Understanding and Assessing SLD/Dyslexia: The Role of Phonology in Reading

Most students with learning disabilities have difficulties with some aspect of language. Learn about dyslexia, the most prevalent and best understood language-based learning disability. Recognize the warning signs and learn about a variety of assessments – screening, diagnostic and progress monitoring – to identify, understand, and document your students’ phonological processing difficulties and learning. Understand the relationship between language and reading acquisition.

2. The Alphabetic Principle, Phonics and Orthography: Building on the Foundation of Phonemic Awareness

Most students with word recognition problems have difficulty becoming fluent readers. They may struggle with phonemic awareness, decoding, and/or spelling. Understand how to link assessment data to evidence-based word recognition (decoding, encoding, fluency) practices and learn how to engage children in key instructional strategies and activities that teach these essential skills. Participants will also learn how to integrate handwriting into foundational skill instruction.

3. Advanced Phonics and Morphology Instruction: Linking Sounds, Symbols, and Meaning

Once phoneme proficiency and basic phonics skills are mastered, students learn how to identify six syllable/vowel patterns in order to read and spell multisyllabic words including those that are comprised of more than one unit of meaning. Morphology – the study of base/root words and affixes – helps readers decode and unlock the meanings of complex words. Learn how to teach these advanced skills, including morphology, in engaging and meaningful ways.

4. Grammar and Syntax: The Building Blocks for Comprehending and Writing Sentences

Many children with comprehension problems have difficulty understanding sentences. Students must learn the function of the words in sentences and how their arrangement changes meaning. Learn engaging ways to improve students’ ability to speak, read, and comprehend different types of sentences with a variety of structures. Participants will also learn techniques to support their students’ ability to write coherent, interesting, and complex sentences.

5. Semantics: Meaning at the Word, Sentence, and Discourse Level

Semantics refers to meaning conveyed by words, sentences and paragraphs that help make sense of the world. Reading comprehension depends on knowing what written language means in context. Students with dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities often have difficulty with this important element of language. Learn how to develop your students’ deep reading brain so they understand complex text to think critically about what they read.