Join The Reading League New York and The Churchill School & Center for a focused summer symposium on evidence-based reading instruction. This event brings together educators committed to aligning classroom practice with the science of reading.

Register to learn practical strategies, examine current research, and connect with colleagues who share a goal of ensuring every student becomes a confident, proficient reader. Your participation supports our shared work to strengthen literacy instruction across New York.

• General Admission: $150
• We are a CTLE provider
• Contact Lynn Carpenter [email protected] if you need to pay with a Purchase Order

Speakers & Sessions

Keynote: Grades 3-5 in NYC: The Forgotten Students and What We're Doing to Help Them

with Dr. Wiley Blevins

This session highlights how one New York City school dramatically shifted outcomes, increasing the percentage of students reading on grade level from 9% to 84% in just a few years.

Building Foundational Skills in Older Struggling Readers

with Dr. Devin Kearns

This session will focus on practical, highly efficient, research-based strategies that teachers can implement in their classrooms to improve the decoding skills of struggling readers in grades 2 through 5. There are many decoding strategies available, but some produce better results than others. The questions answered by this workshop are these: (a) What decoding skills should we teach older struggling readers? and (b) How should we teach them? This session is designed for school instructional personnel, including teachers and coaches, and other school staff interested in learning what research is considered the most effective and efficient decoding strategies. It is also relevant for those interested in designing effective Tier 2 or secondary interventions as part of a Response to Intervention (RTI) or multi-tier systems of support (MTSS) model.

The Role of Spelling Instruction in the Intermediate and Secondary Grades

with Dr. Brennan Chandler

Spelling is often treated as supplemental to reading, yet research suggests it plays a central role in building the word knowledge that supports both reading and writing development. In this session, Dr. Chandler will unpack how spelling instruction strengthens orthographic learning and supports students’ writing development in the upper elementary and secondary grades. Participants will be introduced to practical instructional routines that integrate spelling into both classroom instruction and intervention, with an emphasis on teaching for transfer and generalization. The session will focus on designing instruction so that gains in spelling extend beyond isolated word practice and meaningfully support authentic literacy tasks.

Beyond Strategies: The Architecture of Reading Comprehension

with Dr. Marisa Stukey

Reading comprehension does not improve through endless strategy rotation. It develops through coherent knowledge building, vocabulary growth, fluent reading, and meaningful work with complex text. In this session, we will unpack the research base behind comprehension in grades 3+ and explore practical implications for classroom instruction and leadership.

Schedule:

8:30 — Check In/Welcome

9:15 AM — Grades 3-5 in NYC: The Forgotten Students and What We're Doing to Help Them

10:45 AM — Building Foundational Skills in Older Struggling Readers

12:00 PM — Lunch

1:00 PM —The Role of Spelling Instruction in the Intermediate and Secondary Grades

2:15 PM — Beyond Strategies: The Architecture of Reading Comprehension

3:30 PM — Implementation panel