Virtual WRS Introductory Course – Oct 9-11, 2024

This highly interactive remote workshop was developed with extensive participant input during the spring/early summer of 2020. It was designed to maintain participation and motivation for optimal learning, with strategically placed breaks and an extended lunch. Additionally, the workshop design allows for teacher input and active engagement via activities and discussions throughout each session.

This course provides participants with an overview of the Wilson Reading System^® (WRS) 4th Edition curriculum and serves as the prerequisite for WRS Level 1 Certification. Over three consecutive days (16.5 hours), this course examines how WRS addresses the teaching of phonemic awareness, word identification, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension through an integrated study of phonology, morphology, and orthography with students in grade two and above with persistent phonological coding deficits.

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.
At the completion of the workshop, 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

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

Workshop Agenda/Topics Covered:

Day 1

9:00-12:00

• Wilson Reading System (Who, Why, How, When, Where)
• Critical Information for Intensive Intervention
• Profile of WRS Student / Dyslexia & Language Deficits
• Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, & Comprehension
• Word Study / Syllable Types in English

1:00-3:30

• Introduction to Fluency and Comprehension
• Introduction to Vocabulary Instructions
• Principles of Multisensory Structure Language Instruction
• WRS Implementation Settings

Day 2
9:00-12:00

• Creating a Successful Environment
• WRS Student Notebook & Teacher Planbook
• Student Identification and Placement
• Pacing and Monitoring Progress through Program

1:00-3:30

• WRS Scheduling Lessons
• WRS Lesson Block 1 / Decoding – Review, Demonstration, Structured Practice
• WRS Lesson Block 2 / Decoding – Review, Demonstration, Structured Practice
• Wilson Academy: Ongoing Professional Learning

Day 3
9:00-12:00

• Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension
• Wilson Comprehension S.O.S. / Close Reading Strategies

1:00-3:30

• WRS Lesson Block 3 / Passage Comprehension with Controlled, Readable, and Enriched Text (narrative and informative) – Review, Demonstration, Structured Practice