Small but Powerful
Our 2006 Summer NCBIDA Scholarship Program for Slingerland Training
by Melissa King
Five dedicated educators to whom we offered partial summer scholarships completed intensive Slingerland training over the summer at sites in San Francisco and the East Bay. This fall, they are using their new skills in multisensory structured language instruction to help struggling students with reading and writing skills. We congratulate these professionals and thank all the donors who made these NCBIDA scholarships possible. Twelve educators applied to our scholarship program this summer, all of them motivated to improve their professional skills to support the special learning needs of their students. We were able to offer a total of $5,200 in scholarship awards.
Our scholarship recipients this year teach and support students in a variety of schools and structured support programs. Several are working with children in struggling schools in San Francisco. One offers pro bono tutoring to those most needing it; one is a high school teacher in Fremont who works with SDC (Special Day Class) students who read at first- and second-grade levels; and one individual is exploring the possibilities of introducing multisensory instruction in a private school system. All are now introducing Slingerland practices to students, to parents, and to educators/administrators, spreading the reach of their training to others who will hopefully adopt and encourage this method as well.
In our next newsletter, we will share with you our scholarship recipients' perspectives on integrating these new teaching techniques into their programs. We require each scholarship recipient to make a presentation to his or her school or program in the fall. In this talk, the newly-trained educator presents to colleagues, supervisors, and parents the highlights of the training, demonstrating a few techniques and addressing their experiences so far in the teaching setting. Their comments are always inspiring and we look forward to sharing them with you.
About the Slingerland Method
The Slingerland Approach is an adaptation for classroom use of the Orton-Gillingham method, which utilizes phonetics and emphasizes visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles. Since 1960, thousands of teachers throughout the United States, and in Canada and Australia, have received Slingerland training. This structured, sequential, simultaneous, multisensory teaching approach is designed to help dyslexic students with speaking, reading, writing, and spelling. The flexibility of the approach has made it effective in general education classrooms as well.
Help Us Build Our 2007 Slingerland Scholarship Fund
We encourage you to consider making a tax-deductible donation to the NCBIDA scholarship fund to enable other educators to attend next summer's Slingerland training. You will help give teachers the tools they need to help struggling students, and all students will benefit in the process. Please contact us if you have questions. Students will thank you for years to come!
About the Author: Melissa King is an NCBIDA board member and co-chair of the NCBIDA scholarship committee.
This electronic newsletter is a publication of the Northern California Branch of The International Dyslexia Association (NCBIDA). If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please send a message to office@dyslexia-ncbida.org with the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject |
