Ottawa Co. Community Foundation sponsors dyslexia training

        Ottawa County Community Foundation (OCCF) is providing full-tuition grants to provide a unique professional development opportunity for 15 Ottawa County educators.
        The 30-hour “Structured Literacy in the Classroom” series is based on the Orton Gillingham method of teaching children with dyslexia and is intended for anyone who works with struggling readers and writers.
        According to instructor Kara Lee, participants will gain a deep understanding of the structure of English, learn the science of how the brain learns to read, and have opportunities to practice multisensory, structured, explicit instruction for students who are struggling to read and write. Series topics include Science of Reading; Dyslexia; Oral Language Development; Phonological Processing; History of English; Decoding/Phonics; Written Syllable types and Syllable Division; Fluency; Basic Morphology and Assessment for Intervention.
        Lee said the series will begin Dec. 1 and will be delivered virtually via 15, two-hour sessions scheduled to accommodate working professionals, including regular and special education teachers, reading interventionists, and speech/language therapists.
        Rachel Terrell, an intervention specialist at RC Waters Elementary School in Oak Harbor, completed the training in August and is already implementing the strategies with her students. “Orton Gillingham training has made a huge impact on my classroom instruction. My students are immersed in explicit and systematic literacy exercises that have improved their reading skills and also raised their reading confidence,” Terrell said. 
        Kara Lee is the owner and principal trainer at Horton Educational Services, LLC. She holds a Master of Science and Educational Specialist degrees from Miami University and is an Instructor of Certified Academic Language Practitioners and a Certified Academic Language Therapist.  She has worked as a school psychologist, intervention specialist, and Trainer and Supervisor for the Children's Dyslexia Center in Columbus.
        OCCF provided grants to cover the full registration fee of $1,250 for the series. 
        In 2019, the Ottawa County Community Foundation distributed over $483,000 in grants and scholarships. Since its beginning in 1999, OCCF has distributed over $5.4M. It ended the year with assets of $8.8M. Learn more at the OCCF website www.ottawaccf.org