William Paterson University Partners with New Jersey Department of Education to Provide Professional Development in Evidence-Based Reading Instruction for Northern New Jersey Educators

To empower educators and bolster literacy education for fourth- through sixth-grade students in northern New Jersey, William Paterson University is partnering with the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) to provide free professional development in evidence-based reading instruction for educators and district and school leaders in Bergen, Passaic, Warren, and Sussex counties.

The “Reading Acceleration Professional Integrated Development (RAPID) Plus Initiative,” funded by a grant from the NJDOE, is presented by William Paterson University literacy professors Elizabeth Brown, Michelle Gonzalez, and Julie Rosenthal, all of whom have decades of experience teaching K-6 students to read and preparing pre-service and graduate teacher candidates to teach reading.

“Current students in fourth through sixth grade were just beginning their formal schooling experience and learning to read in 2020 when schools shut down due to the COVID pandemic,” says Dr. Julie Rosenthal. “Many of these students never learned the foundational reading skills they need now to ‘read to learn’ in various subjects. Therefore, this supplemental training will provide age-appropriate strategies for students to continue to ‘learn to read’ while also ‘reading to learn.’”

The training is for all fourth- through sixth-grade educators who teach reading, writing, social studies, or science, and school and district leaders of fourth- through sixth-grade students.

“The increasing complexity of texts coupled with a curriculum that may only focus on comprehension strategies hinders readers’ ability to progress,” says Dr. Elizabeth Brown, a former fourth- and sixth grade educator. “Research highlights the importance of explicitly teaching upper elementary age readers advanced word knowledge, morphology, and fluency strategies to ensure readers are better equipped to build meaning of multisyllable, unknown words they will encounter.”

Educators who participate will learn how the brain engages with written texts and which strategies best support and engage upper elementary readers. All educators will leave the series with an overview of current research and several instructional tools and practices they can use in their classrooms. Similarly, school and district leaders will learn strategies for designing a system to support effective literacy instruction.

Topics will include the neurobiology of reading and the intricate process involved in skilled reading; advanced word study; instructional practices that support reading fluency; methods to teach, practice, and measure fluency; and instructional routines that support language comprehension, which is crucial for successful reading comprehension, particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Educators can earn four professional development hours, enriching their expertise in evidence-based reading instruction. Multiple session options are available, so educators and school and district leaders can choose dates that fit their schedules.

To register, visit the William Paterson University College of Education website at https://www.wpunj.edu/coe/departments/teacher-education-pre-k-12/rapid-plus-program