Sarah Gannon
Sarah Gannon worked as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, and literacy coach for 18 years. Currently, she is the Co-Director, along with Melissa Orkin, of Crafting Minds Group, an educational consulting practice in Boston. Sarah bridges her knowledge of the body of research, known as the Science of Reading, to the practical application in the classroom. She brings her experience with screeners and assessments to use a data-driven approach to instruction. Her knowledge of multi-sensory methods and interventions for students struggling with aspects of reading helps teachers plan targeted Tier 2 interventions to address weaknesses in decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Sarah completed her certification at the Associate Level in Orton-Gillingham in the fall of 2021. She is trained in Rave-O and has deep experience with various assessment and screening tools such as the DIBELS, supplemental inventories like the PAST, and standardized assessments like the RAN/RAS & TOWRE.
Demystifying Dyslexia: Organizing and Interpreting Evaluation Data
In many educational settings, practitioners have adopted a “one size fits all model” to remediate the decoding and fluency challenges associated with dyslexia. However, both cognitive neuroscience (Ozernov‐Palchik, et al., 2017) and behavioral research (McWeeny, et al., 2022) have established that dyslexia is a heterogeneous learning disability that can be organized based on the area of deficit. These areas include phonological, naming speed, and double deficit (both a phonological and naming speed deficit).
This workshop will introduce participants to a graphic organizer that allows users to arrange and interpret data collected during an evaluation for eligibility determination. Workshop content will support attendees in identifying and planning instruction based on students’ deficits. For example, while students with a phonological deficit benefit from traditional specialized phonics instruction, students with a naming speed or double deficit are likely to require an approach that integrates the multiple aspects of word knowledge to support retrieval and fluency development (Wolf, et al., 2009). At the conclusion, participants will have an understanding of the learning strengths/needs of students with dyslexia depending on their area of need, be familiar with a graphic organizer tool that supports data interpretation, and have knowledge of the key characteristics of effective instruction that maximize student achievement.
Topics: Diagnosing of Dyslexia/Screening, Dyslexia Therapy/Intervention, Evaluation Interpretation