ISA/RtI Professional Development Online Learning Center

What Teacher Educators are Saying...



About the ELTEP webinars and archives

"The content was rich and well presented. The verbal elaborations to the slides, done through examples and explanations, were very helpful. There is much to think about and discuss."

"I found the entire presentation so wonderful. It made me realize how much I do not emphasize what is important for the pre-service teachers. It also validated so much of what I do. The entire phoneme awareness section is wonderful and I plan to use it for my course."

"I got to see seasoned faculty members teach, how they teach, so that was important and helpful for me. Now I can do that." "Good modeling-great videos."

"The videos added a nice touch to the webinars. I like looking at actual classrooms."

"All of the information given in these webinars has been extremely helpful in reviewing the content. Also, I would like to say thank you for the opportunity to view the archived webinars. They are extremely helpful and I feel like I can take my time getting through the information."

"Viewing the archived presentations is nice because I am able to pause and reflect a bit more."

"I really appreciate the webinars being archived. I often can't make the live sessions and the archive allows me to view more at my leisure, sometimes spread over several days."

"The archives are fantastic and easy to use."



About the ELTEP content

"Everything was fabulous. There were so many aspects of literacy that I learned and was able to see in their anecdotes and experiences."

"The most helpful aspect of the webinars is the systematic way of looking at early childhood literacy development."

"They were presenting the latest research."

"I was pleased to hear a reference to centers. Too often pre-service students do not understand the reasons for having these centers."

"The concept of approach vs. program is important for students to learn."

"I liked the overview of RtI and the explanation of supported reading."

"RtI is a huge buzz these days, a topic that is very confusing to many. The webinars helped to clarify things for me."

"Each year we save an entire class period discussing ways to motivate kids, not only to learn how to read and write, but to continue on as lifelong readers and writers. I enjoyed the ideas that were shared on motivating young children, as well as the discussion on intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation. The video clips were a good visual of how teachers can be motivating in a way that is not giving rewards."

"Excellent discussion of intrinsic motivation and motivators."

"Phonological awareness, so much information. There are many issues to address."

"I appreciated the discussion on phonemes and intentional comparisons of sounds."

"I think the opportunities to closely examine teacher decisions and practices, especially in terms of their varying support of student use of strategies, were quite effective. I also really liked how students were provided with specific resources to look at to support their puzzling through words."

"The depth of discussion around the sequence of phonological awareness development and how best to support the development of young learners was very useful."

"I really appreciated the exercise about the letter names."

"I really appreciated the exercise about the letter names and the sounds students hear when saying them. When dealing with invented spelling, one develops almost a second language skill at reading their writings, but this opens up new interpretations."

"The points about teaching phonograms, and in particular practicing them, were particularly well done. The importance of using more than one phonogram - and that they be quite different from one another initially - was clearly illustrated."

"I appreciated the models of hands-on activities for teaching reading. The cookie sheets and magnetic letters, letter slides, index cards, etc... I think it is important to use a wide variety of mediums when teaching children to read."

"I absolutely love the idea of having teachers watch video and make note of what the teacher does. I think having them code the story opens up wonderful conversation. I liked the video of the resource desk also. This will help teachers see how to use wall space effectively. The activity about promoting independence in word solving is fantastic! It allows teachers to think more about their actions when working with children and how to promote independence. The idea of "puzzling" through words is an important one for teachers to use so that all students have the wait time they need. I like the terminology you used."

"Many practical reminders to make learning high frequency words very intentional and fun."

"The exercise for sorting words by Tier (vocabulary) was very useful."

"I appreciated the emphasis on reading for meaning: while ISA provides valuable information on how to support student engagement in the reading process it stresses the significance of students understanding the meaning of the printed words (sentences) they are decoding."

"I liked the Phonological Awareness and Comprehension topics. My pre-service students struggle with these, so I have new ways to help them. It makes it easier to teach."

"I know that I don't cover motivation and comprehension enough, so I got a lot out of that. I was happy to see this information."



About the ELTEP instructional videos

"The real life video clips made a big impression on me, an actual classroom, great to use in the college classroom for students to see what early literacy instruction looks like."

"The videos showed kids reading non-fiction books, which are very important with the new common core state standards."

"The videos are valuable models and illustrations of the ideas under discussion."

"The videos are such a powerful feature."

"The videos were the best part; they really helped my students when they were tutoring."

"I really enjoy the short video clips. They will be extremely useful with my graduate students as we discuss interventions/instructional decisions post assessment."

"The videos clearly illustrated today's concepts and provided models of strong teaching for students."

"Good modeling - great videos. I will definitely use these videos with my pre-service teachers."

"My students loved the videos. Examples of good teaching are hard to find."

"I liked the overview of phonological analysis and the videos went well with the materials."



About the influence of the ELTEP on their instruction

"I really liked the slides dealing with the complexities of learning to read. I plan on using those in both my undergraduate and graduate courses."

"The entire phoneme awareness section is wonderful and I plan to use it for my course."

"I would share the information about teaching reading at multiple levels. I think this is an area that new teachers are underprepared for and would be helpful information."

"I only have access to students 1 day/week, so it's important to show them all you can in that time. The videos and other materials helped me do that. Overall this was a tremendous help in my instruction."

"This will definitely help me as I plan classes for my grad students."

"I am re-writing my course based on the content of this presentation. I do so much with this topic and I really feel it is enriching my teaching."

"I am so excited to have some great examples to share with my grad students about what explicit teaching looks like."

"I think having numerous videos that allow for examining what the student is doing, and what the teacher is doing, will become a more regular and prominent feature in my instruction."

"I think that language use, how to talk to students, to help motivate them is a major change in my teaching that was gained from the webinars."

"The webinars changed my perspective on comprehension, how to approach and teach it. There is a big need to have teachers practicing this."

"I used the phonological awareness and another topic with my students. They loved these. Some information is not readily available in other places. Here it is well defined."

"My students have a much better understanding of phonics and phonological awareness, because I have used that knowledge to teach them."

"The impact (on my students) will grow. There were phenomenal resources for illustration of concepts I am presenting in my class. I intend to use record-keeping, handouts, and other materials as I integrate them into my courses."