Friday, February 5, 2010

Parent Workshop

The following workshop will be given by Sally Grimes a reading and learning disabilities specialist who consults and provides professional development nationally. Sally has consulted to the Burlington Integrated Preschool and has asked that we invite our parents to this workshop as well. It should be an interesting and informative evening.


Early Childhood Workshop
Monday, March 1st 7:00-9:00 PM
Swampscott Middle School Library

Predicting and Preventing Reading Success

The Swampscott Public Schools is pleased to offer an opportunity for parents to learn more about what parents and other caregivers can do to promote vocabulary and other Pre-Reading skills. Sally Grimes, a reading and learning disabilities specialist who consults and provides professional development nationally, will be in Swampscott on Monday night, March 1.

Sally will discuss the major findings of the National Early Literacy Panel and describe exemplary pre-literacy practices that provide a strong foundation for K-3 reading instruction. She will describe the Panel’s findings that outline what we now know about predicting reading success and failure and suggest activities that parents and others can do to promote oral language, phonological processing and print knowledge. Sally will describe the “red flags” that can alert parents to reading and pre-reading difficulties. Handouts and resource information will be distributed.

Sally’s work is based on scientifically proven material and 35 years of exhaustive and sophisticated studies, including brain and eye movement studies and her decades of experience in a wide variety of settings, ranging from pre-school to graduate school and from the classroom to the clinic.

The material in the presentation will be woven into an overview of the state-of-the-art of Reading instruction K-3 and explain how the five components of Reading (Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension) work together and are linked with oral language development.

We welcome all parents, teachers, librarians, teacher assistants, community workers, school board members, social workers, and others. We hope that you will participate in this great opportunity with Sally Grimes.

** Please note that this workshop is intended for adults only. Please make alternative arrangements for children.