Personalized Learning & Mastery

Teaching That Sticks: The Science of Reading Meets the Science of Learning

Kim St. Martin, PhD, Michigan's MTSS Technical Assistance Center

Teachers are engaged in extensive learning about district and state priorities, curriculum resources, assessments, and more. This session focuses on how to prioritize literacy practices aligned with the sciences of reading, learning, and instruction. Quality instruction not only promotes learning — it also prevents social-emotional behavior challenges in the classroom. Strategies and resources teachers can use are shared throughout the session, from unpacking the core tenets of the Science of Reading to translating evidence-based principles into actionable instructional design.

Session outcomes: recall key words from the Science of Reading definition, explore the Science of Learning, and explain how the Science of Learning informs instructional design and delivery.

Facilitation Over Differentiation: Personalizing Learning Through Adaptive Decision Making

Sarah Weisbarth, Discover You · David VanderMolen, INSPIRED2CHANGE

Great learning environments are built on the belief that every student can grow, succeed, and contribute. In today's diverse and dynamic classrooms, educators benefit from approaches that help them respond to individual learner needs with flexibility, curiosity, and confidence. More than a set of strategies, effective differentiation requires a mindset and facilitation approach that helps educators notice student strengths, identify opportunities for growth, and make responsive decisions in real time.

This session introduces the FiveA Model of Advanced Facilitation — Alert, Acknowledge, Accept, Analyze, Advance — as a concrete, transferable tool for personalizing learning with any curriculum. Rather than adding new programs or instructional frameworks, the model strengthens an educator's ability to recognize when students are engaged, when they are struggling, and when they need a different kind of support or challenge. It shifts instruction from rote delivery to responsive facilitation, freeing teachers to make adaptive decisions in the moment and leverage the teachable moments that arise unexpectedly in class. Participants will experience the model dynamically, practice it in small groups, and see how it supports educator growth and strengthens collaborative learning environments.

Session outcomes: explain the FiveA Model and how it functions as a facilitation mindset rather than a curriculum, recognize learning signals and use adaptive decision-making to personalize instruction in real time, apply the model to classroom scenarios with any curriculum, and use it in leadership contexts such as coaching, team meetings, and board conversations.