Hoehl Institute for Professional Learning

The instructor has such a deep understanding of the English language. She is able to seamlessly break down and explain these concepts, and connect them to literacy skills and instruction. Learning about the layers of the English Language and how it connects to spelling is truly eye-opening for me.

After taking this class and knowing Orton-Gillingham has been around for a really long time, I can’t believe that we, as special educators, aren’t trained to teach reading this way. I feel very fortunate to be in a district where we are implementing a schoolwide Orton-Gillingham Approach to reading. One of our kindergarten teachers, who has been teaching for 13 years, said her students made the most progress she had seen last year using the approach.

Before Orton-Gillingham, I’m not sure I could answer every question that my students asked about spelling and decoding. OG opened my eyes to the origins of our language, how and why syllables and words fit together, which patterns worked most of the time, and why, and which syllable types were most common and why. This knowledge has absolutely changed my teaching in a positive way.

“Our teacher modeled responsive and relevant instruction. The resources were of the highest quality and relevance, the sessions were engaging, and the video feedback was constructive and actionable. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this excellent program.”

The presenter was knowledgeable, warm, flexible, and professional. She was able to present new learning, facilitate discussion, field questions, and respond to participants’ needs with a high level of skill.

This is the best teacher training for teaching reading I have ever received!!! The instructor is very engaging and knowledgeable [and] I love collaborating with teachers from other schools.

Outstanding…It is the best assessment course I’ve taken, and I learned enough to know that I want to know more!

This course was not only led by amazing instructors who were there to support me every step of the way, but it was also life-changing for me. It helped me understand my students more and the strategies I can use to support their individual needs.

This course has given me concrete steps to move forward in my teaching.

The instructor is brilliant and has a WEALTH of knowledge. She’s kind and a natural, patient teacher! She takes her time with you but also honors your time. I could talk to her for hours about Orton-Gillingham because I always learn so much from her!

Thank you so much for giving me the confidence and the know-how to be an effective literacy teacher!

This course has provided me with more organization in my introduction of upper-level morphology. The multisensory resources and various ideas for presenting and teaching bases, prefixes, and suffixes have helped me make my lessons more effective and varied.

The presentation was well scheduled with a good mix of interaction & lecture. Lots of great takeaways I can share with my staff immediately!

The course was clear, easy to understand, and packed with so much valuable information!

The workshop was clear, easy to understand, and packed with so much valuable information.

I liked the amount of time that was spent on learning different strategies to enhance vocabulary that we want to present to our students AND then the amount of time to practice our delivery of those techniques. I love how the teacher presents the information we need to know as professionals and then helps us understand how our students will take that information by having us be the students and then flip that on its head by turning us into the teacher to other teachers. Talk about using the OG model!

The course included many practical examples that I can use in my teaching right away.

We can learn at our own pace. Having our lessons videotaped and critiqued is very helpful. Our Lead to Read instructor is always willing to help.

Outstanding. This has been one of the most relevant professional development courses I have ever taken. Frankly, anyone who works with students with any form of learning disability needs this course!

This was a tremendous course, really a giant achievement for all of you who created it. The resources are so detailed, comprehensive, well founded, and useful! I will be referencing them for years to come. I’m very grateful to you for this educational gift to the world of language/literacy teachers and our students.

I loved all of the resources! The content and activities shared in the course are invaluable. Thank you.

Our Lead to Read coach was very helpful and supportive throughout the year. She provided us with very useful resources and took the time to explain them. She made sure we felt supported and was willing to work with us and adjust deadlines if needed. Her communication was very effective, and she clearly knows the content!

It was very informative and applicable to where I am with teaching OG to my students. This was a top ten presentation for me and I will recommend this presentation to my fellow OG teachers.

The instructor was knowledgeable, kind, understanding, and effective. She followed every great teaching practice and helped everyone feel confident while learning new and complex information.

The course was very clear and easy to follow. It included good examples, and I liked how we had to create our own lesson.

I like that the information taught to us is in-depth and that we are given examples of what the practices look like in a classroom. It is much easier for me to apply a strategy/instructional approach once I see it modeled and explained.

The instructors at the Stern Center are stellar with a very clear, organized, and sequential method for sharing the research and strategies of the OG Approach. The practicum puts everything you have learned in class into practice with a master teacher by your side, guiding and supporting your lessons. You are asked to work hard, but once you see the results, you are fueled to work even harder! The team is extremely knowledgeable, experienced, and professional. This work has re-enlivened my work with students.

I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow with a large community of educators. I think the networking aspect was vital.

My training with the Stern Center has been outstanding. I have learned a ton, but one of the most important things is that there is always more to learn! Thank you!

“My coach has served as a virtual co-teacher to me. She encourages me, pushes me to dig deeper, and reflects on my lessons with me before, during, and after implementation to assist me in responding to students’ needs. I couldn’t have come this far without her.”

The depth of information presented was incredible! I learned so much I didn’t know about the structure of the English language, which is not only helpful for my own understanding but will transform the way I teach reading.

The workshop was an amazing learning experience and helped improve my performance at work. Every teacher and specialist will definitely benefit from taking this course.

I would recommend this workshop to all educators! The staff and participants are extremely thoughtful and professional. I feel like the entire experience is “next level” OG. I gained deeper knowledge of concepts I have learned but have not yet taught.

This Orton-Gillingham journey has been tremendously helpful to my practice and my students. I have learned more under the guidance of your instructors over the past years than in my undergraduate and graduate degrees combined.

Our instructor is AMAZING!!! She is incredibly knowledgeable, engaging, informative, funny, supportive, and simply the best. I would LOVE to take more classes with her!

This course was the most helpful class I’ve ever taken. It taught me how important it is for students to have a great foundation, and to master skills before moving on to new material. I highly recommend this course for anyone looking to improve their literacy instruction. You will not be disappointed!

Our coach is always so positive and encouraging. She looks for things we do well and offers strategies or tips to help us rise to the next level of instruction.

What I love about the Stern Center is the educator’s willingness to work with us. It’s such a collaboration, which is nice and convenient.

The instructional materials that were shared have been incredibly helpful. The content was displayed in a sequential and organized manner; it was easy to follow along. The instructor explained the assessment process clearly and thoroughly expressed the importance of analyzing students’ results.

The instructors were absolutely amazing and very knowledgeable in all areas of Orton-Gillingham. I would love to continue learning with the Stern Center—it was a great experience.

The level of expertise and depth on the subject of vowel teams was invaluable!

This course was engaging and the instructors did a fabulous job of organizing and sharing material in a way that made lots of learning possible in a relatively short period of time.

Learning from the best of the best, Dr. Melissa Farrall. I have led 3 book studies with therapy-level structured literacy practitioners. Hearing Melissa’s perspective was amazing.

Thank you so much for a wonderful course! I learned so much! Not only do I feel more knowledgeable about providing scientific-based reading instruction, I feel re-energized…I can’t tell you how much I appreciated the depth, substance, and quality of the class content and teaching strategies that you provided!

The instructor has such a huge wealth of knowledge to share and is a pro at making it accessible. This course provided so many points to consider.…Very helpful in making sense of what is going on for our students and how we can best serve them.

I will be using many pieces of this course! A couple things I am already using today are the blending board and the student screens!

I was so excited to walk into my classroom following each class and use something immediately!

I have new ideas I can take back to use with my students immediately, and incorporate into my professional learning with teachers.

I really liked that there were multiple examples and time to practice along with resources shared and activities that can be immediately implemented with my students.

Coming away feeling super prepared for teaching kids how to actually read. I feel like a totally different teacher!

The teacher modeled responsive and relevant instruction. The resources were of the highest quality and relevance, the sessions were engaging, and the video feedback was constructive and actionable. Our teacher also accommodated a scheduling conflict. This was not only generous and inclusive, it resulted in more personalized instruction (and, I think, greater student impact.) Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this excellent program.

The pacing and presentation were great. The content was excellent and the teacher is very knowledgeable.

This was one of the most organized, engaging, and informative courses I’ve ever taken, and I believe it will be one of the most practical and beneficial for my students.

Introduction to Orton-Gillingham for Upper Grades was the most helpful class I’ve ever taken. I highly recommend this course for anyone looking to improve their literacy instruction. You will not be disappointed!

The course offered tons of information and resources to help me do my job better, and provided a thorough review of concepts!

The instructor is so engaging and knowledgeable. Her presentation is streamlined and contains so much great information.

The instructor is very engaging and knowledgeable. I love collaborating with teachers from other schools…It is time well spent.

The course was Informative and filled with positive instruction creating a classroom community of respect and support.

The teacher is extremely knowledgeable. I like the hands-on practice. I would like to have seen a properly written mock testing report.

The instructors are both so knowledgeable and passionate about their work.

I loved that the instructor embraced approaches and programs, such as Orton-Gillingham, Wilson®, and Fundations®, and worked to help us integrate LiPS with what we’ve already learned.

I learned new information and also learned how to improve my practice along with being more diagnostic with what the needs of my students are.

My teacher encourages me, pushes me to dig deeper, and reflects on my lessons with me before, during, and after implementation to assist me in responding to students’ needs. I couldn’t have come this far without her.

The instructor did a FANTASTIC job of presenting very comprehensive information in an engaging and dynamic way. She was easy to understand even though some of the concepts were incredibly complex.

I appreciated the methodical way information was presented. I am currently teaching vowel teams and it was incredibly helpful to start with Level I and move on. Having the opportunity to divide syllables and conclude fairness for reading and writing was a deeply engaging and worthwhile activity. I particularly valued being able to do this work with other educators. I was constantly learning and also felt capable to share some of my own insight.

It was a very engaging and interactive course. The instructor has a warm presence that made me feel comfortable participating!

The course was so professionally organized and thoughtful. The instructors made excellent use of the time. They did an incredible job of engaging people in the online environment.

I now have so many new and great ideas for how to improve my teaching. I learned so much in this course and I am excited to keep fine-tuning and improving my teaching.