Events for August 23, 2025 - April 17, 2025

Join us for this month's coffee chat on September 14th! Board member, Stefanie Husejnovic, will continue our conversation from last month about multilingual learners. Check out this resource before the coffee chat: https://amplify.com/episode/science-of-reading-the-podcast/special-miniseries/episode-6-curating-a-confident-classroom-for-multilingual-learners-with-arturo-valadez-saenz/

Is your reading assessment system aligned to what you’re learning about the science of reading? Do you ever feel that you have too many tests to give and not enough time to teach? In this session, presented by Andrea Setmeyer, participants will be able to identify the four types of assessment and the specific questions each one can answer in an evidence-aligned assessment system to streamline and build a comprehensive assessment framework. These Experts Explain Series are presented in partnership with the Indiana Department of Education.

Join us for this month's coffee chat on October 12th! Board President, Stefany Bragg, will facilitate a conversation about the podcast episode "The Science of Learning with Amanda VanDerHeyden" from the Reading Road Trip podcast. Check out the podcast before the coffee chat: https://reading-roadtrip.castos.com/episodes/s3-e10

This session, presented by Dr. Heidi Beverine-Curry, is designed for administrators, classroom teachers, special educators, and interventionists that collect normed oral reading fluency (ORF) data (or who are thinking about it!) and want to better understand its usefulness. Learn why ORF data is so important, what it can tell you, what it cannot, and get some tips about making data collection and analysis more efficient. These Experts Explain Series sessions are presented in partnership with the Indiana Department of Education.

Working memory is not a passive observer in the learning process — it is the gatekeeper, the active participant, that determines the extent and quality of our learning. It is a critical element that impacts why the learning process can be more labor-intensive for some students than others. By understanding the limitations of working memory, we can make sense of students' challenges when transitioning from acquisition to fluency, from fluency to generalization, and from generalization to adaptation. This is a critical consideration for educators and instructional designers for guiding the development of instructional strategies and materials that foster learning.

In this session, presenter, Dr. Jamey Peavler, will model how to use diagnostic reading and spelling assessments to identify next steps in our literacy instruction. The focus will be on applying information gained from these assessments to classwide purposes such as designing a classwide intervention, forming small groups, and adjusting Tier 1 instruction. This session will be most beneficial for K-3 classroom teachers, coaches and school leaders. These Experts Explain Series sessions are presented in partnership with the Indiana Department of Education.

Now that you’re familiar with what diagnostic assessments are and how to use them, presenter, Dr. Jamey Peavler will demonstrate how to use diagnostic data to identify underlying skill deficits when students are referred for intervention. Several real-life examples from striving readers will be shared, and participants will walk away with knowledge of how to plan an intervention for students that are identified at-risk on a universal screener. This session will be beneficial for K-6 teachers, special educators, coaches, and school leaders. These Experts Explain Series are presented in partnership with the Indiana Department of Education.

Our December coffee chat will be a follow up conversation from Dr. Jamey Peavler's Nov. 6 session on cognitve load theory in instructional design. Current members (joined or renewed in the last 12 months) received the recording via email on Nov. 11. If you weren't able to attend live, take a moment to view the recording and join us for our Dec. coffee chat discussion! If you have questions about your membership or did not receive the recording, please email natalie@in.thereadingleague.org and she will look into it.

Are you ready for another year of collaborative conversations with stakeholders across the state? We have another jammed packed year of excellent coffee chats lined up for 2025. You can register for the whole year now! First in our line up will be conversing about a podcast by Dr. Hugh Catts titled "Comprehension is not a skill". This will be a piviotal conversation for all. Access to our Saturday morning Coffee Chats is a perk of membership with TRL-IN. Join or renew your annual membership today! If you are unsure of your membership status with TRL-IN, please email natalie@in.thereadingleague.org and she will look into it for you.

Progress monitoring (PM) with curriculum-based measures is a powerful tool for using data to change reading outcomes. But common misconceptions about progress monitoring can get in the way. This session with Dr. Stephanie Stoller will revisit and clarify the value of progress monitoring by illustrating examples of using PM data to improve instruction at all tiers of the MTSS framework for school improvement. These Experts Explain Series are presented in partnership with the Indiana Department of Education.