Providing Students and Educators with Instruction on the
Five Essential Components of Reading

Norfolk, Va.—Norfolk State University’s School of Education, Reading First Teacher Education Network (RFTEN), the National Evaluation Systems, Inc. and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) are teaming up to present a live webconference on the campus of Norfolk State University Thursday, June 15 at 9 a.m. EST in the Bozeman Education Building.

RFTEN is a three-year grant initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Education and launched by the NCATE in 2003. The RFTEN project provides professional development in scientifically-based reading research strategies to faculty at Norfolk State University and 37 other Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-serving Institutions. RFTEN’s goal is to create models at these institutions to enable teacher candidates to teach reading, and ultimately increase the reading achievement among elementary school students.  

The free two-hour webcast will provide classroom teachers, teacher educators, and teacher candidates access to national reading experts, the opportunity to ask questions, and explore creative ways to teach reading in the classroom. Timothy Shanahan, president of the International Reading Association, and Mary P. Abouzeid, professor and director of Reading First Professional Development at the University of Virginia, are among the featured presenters for the webcast. Instructors for the event are Shannon Amiotte, a National Board Certified Teacher and a professor at Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, SD; and Erica Simon, M.Ed., a reading expert and educational consultant.

The role of professional development in reading instruction and the five core components of reading (phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency) and features of effective reading instruction are also among the webcast highlights.

RFTEN’s impact has been far reaching with at least 100 faculty providing scientifically-based reading research training at their respective institutions. Additionally, more than 2,100 teacher candidates have enrolled in 131 education and reading courses that use the scientifically-based reading research training method and nearly 1,900 of these teacher candidates have completed their practice using this method of instruction. Teacher candidates tutored and taught an estimated 47,500 public school children. The RFTEN project is now in its third and final year.

For more information on the free RFTEN webconference or to register, visit http://webconference.rften.org/ or call B. Denise Hawkins, RFTEN Project at (202) 466-7496.