Presenters
Executive Director of NYC Public Schools
NYC Department of Education
Jason Borges is a literacy leader and specialist. His journey began in teaching over twenty years ago in alternative schools in Massachusetts for students with disabilities. He has served in the Special Education Office in the NYC DOE as Senior Director of Intensive Interventions and Director of Academic Intervention Services in the Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Learning. Jason sees literacy as a foundation for educational justice. He is committed to continue serving NYC DOE schools as Executive Director of NYC Public Schools Literacy Collaborative.
Senior Director of Learning Design
Barbara Hubert, Ph.D., is the Senior Director of Learning Design at BrainPOP, where she leads the learning design of BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. Dr. Hubert began her career as an elementary school special education teacher, working for over ten years in public and charter schools in New York City. She established the vision and direction for creating equitable instructional access as a curriculum and instruction manager at New Visions for Public Schools. Her research focuses on traversing the space between discourses of learner difference and equitable and inclusive research-based instructional practice.
Nicole is responsible for writing the evolving, open-sourced ELA curriculum, as well as providing leadership and literacy training within the CMO and NYC’s DOE for the last six years. She began her teaching career in Baltimore City as a TFA corps member and was a founding staff member and Director of Teacher Development at MESA Charter High School. She is currently the Academic Board Chair for BELA Charter High School. Nicole holds a M.A.T. from Johns Hopkins University.
Session description
Many educators struggle to address the range of preferences in their classrooms. At a time when scores are at a concerning low, teachers need instructional materials that help them infuse high-impact literacy skill development into any subject. What could literacy learning look like if student differences were the norm?
Purpose & objective
Amid national news of declining scores on reading assessments, the stakes for literacy instruction has become even greater. We can look at the intersection between the Science of Reading and Universal Design for Learning for promising solutions. This panel will explore that intersection and equip educators with strategies for designing accessible literacy instruction, with a focus on comprehension and knowledge building.
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Outline
What the Science of Reading and cognition tells us about the role of background knowledge in building comprehension (15)
What UDL tells us about designing accessible instruction, proactively considering learner variability (25)
Unpacking approaches/examples that incorporate key principles from both the Science of Reading and UDL (20)
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Supporting research
Some of the ideas in this presentation come from new research on the impact of data-driven decision-making on school improvement. Recent reports supporting this approach include:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15345084211014926
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hoo7EAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=differentiated+literacy+instruction&ots=GFCGWbVzMS&sig=rEoOeJHq1y0YHzvNEgyen9DQxXM#v=onepage&q=differentiated%20literacy%20instruction&f=false
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2022/04/09/what-works-in-reading-comprehension-and-what-doesnt/?sh=5a4573a54e26
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