Participants learn about reading research, dyslexia, appropriate student identification and placement, program implementation, progress monitoring, scheduling, and creating a successful learning environment. Principles of language structure and how to teach language with direct, multisensory methods are demonstrated and practiced during the course. Participants explore the standard 10-part Wilson® Lesson Plan and practice planning and delivering a lesson while receiving modeling and feedback from a Wilson® Credentialed Trainer during the course. Online registration available here.

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

• Define dyslexia and describe common characteristics.
• Explain the process of identifying appropriate students and placing them in the Wilson Reading System®.
• Understand the principles of instruction: explicit, sequential and cumulative, engaging multiple learning modalities with multisensory techniques, repetition, and feedback.
• Create an optimal learning environment, prepare a lesson plan, and practice techniques.
• Understand the key components of instruction and presentation of lessons in three blocks
  • Block 1 – Word Study/Foundational Reading Skills: Lesson Plan Parts 1-5
    • Phonemic Awareness, Decoding, Vocabulary, High Frequency Word Reading, Single-Word Accuracy/Automaticity, Phrasing/Prosody, Fluency and Comprehension at the Sentence Level
  • Block 2 – Spelling/Foundational Writing Skills: Lesson Plan Parts 6-8
    • Phoneme Segmentation, Encoding (Spelling), English Spelling Rules, High Frequency Word Spelling, Vocabulary, Concept Mark Up, Sentence-Level Punctuation and Proofreading
  • Block 3 – Fluency/Comprehension: Lesson Plan Parts 9-10
    • Vocabulary, Listening/Silent and Oral Reading Fluency and Comprehension, Narrative and Informational Text

Prerequisite
None

Duration
3 consecutive days (16.5 hours)

Fee
$710.00

One graduate credit (optional) is available through Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, MA upon completion of course requirements. Please see Process for Graduate Credit for details.

Participants may enroll in WRS® Level I Certification or the online course WRS® Intensive Instruction for the Non-Responsive Reader (Steps 1-6) within five years of completing a WRS Introductory Course.

• PreReq for 1-6 Practicum: WRS Introductory Course within 5 years
• CoReq for 1-6 Practicum: Intensive Instruction Steps 1-6 Online Course within 3 years

Individuals who successfully meet all the requirements receive WRS Level I Certification and are able to:

• Identify the characteristics of dyslexia and related language-based learning disabilities.
• Use assessments to identify students with word-level deficits who are appropriate for an intensive intervention.
• Effectively use Structured Literacy instructional techniques, and demonstrate explicit teaching, modeling, guided practice, and consistent review in lessons.
• Understand language processes and how they impact the development of proficient readers and writers: phonological, orthographic, semantic, syntactic, and discourse.
• Successfully incorporate the following areas of reading instruction during WRS lessons: phonemic awareness, phonics, word structure, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
• Accurately teach the structure of the English language (presented in WRS Steps 1-6): consonant and vowel phonemes, syllable structure, common orthographic rules and spelling patterns, common Latin-base elements and affixes, etc.
• Identify printed words that do not follow the rules of English and incorporate Structured Literacy techniques to help students learn how to correctly read and spell these words. These words include high frequency words.
• Diagnostically plan and deliver lessons, addressing and understanding specific student weaknesses that impact the ability to learn to read and write.
• Appropriately pace students through the curriculum, developing mastery of material taught, designing lessons that focus on accuracy, automaticity of word reading, and fluency with text reading.
• Develop students’ listening and reading comprehension skills through the Wilson Comprehension S.O.S.™ process. Model and incorporate reflective awareness and visualization strategies in order for students to develop a coherent mental model of text.
• Develop students’ fluency skills by modeling and practicing a penciling technique to encourage proper phrasing and prosody.
• Administer pre- and posttesting assessments to document student growth in word attack, spelling, comprehension, reading fluency, and broad reading measures.

• Complete a comprehensive online course: WRS Intensive Instruction for the Non-Responsive Reader (Steps 1–6).
• Conduct 1:1 WRS instruction with a practicum student for a minimum of 65 lessons with a lesson plan written for each lesson. Student must meet selection criteria and be approved by the assigned Wilson^® Credentialed Trainer (W.C.T.). Instruction must be with WRS 4th Edition materials.
• Be observed five times teaching the practicum student. Each observation is scheduled with the W.C.T. and lasts approximately 60–75 minutes.
• Submit a pretesting report on the practicum student, including educational history and current test results.
• Develop a Teacher Binder and Student Portfolio and compile student’s written work in accordance with Wilson Language Training^® (WLT) program standards.
• Demonstrate mastery of the WRS Lesson Plan procedures (documented and approved by W.C.T.).
• Demonstrate an understanding of language concepts through accurate teaching with multisensory procedures.
• Demonstrate student mastery of reading, spelling, fluency, and comprehension.
• Conduct pre- and post-testing with two norm-referenced tests, one being the Word Identification and Spelling Test (WIST). Submit posttest data with practicum student final report after a minimum of 65 lessons and instruction in WRS Substep 4.2 Accuracy.