(SAVANNAH, Ga.) Two-thirds of Georgia’s third-graders are not reading on grade level. The result is long-term negative consequences for those children, their families, their communities, and our state. But, according to Get Georgia Reading Campaign, this disparity has inspired hundreds of public and private leaders from across the state and sectors to come together to take on early language development and reading skills as an urgent priority for all who care about children’s health and well-being.
Coastal Georgia Indicators Coalition (CGIC), United Way of the Coastal Empire, Live Oak Public Libraries, Get Georgia Reading, Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy and Savannah Chatham Public School System recently presented a workshop series for Savannah educators focused on developing early language skills in young learners.
National early language and literacy expert Emily Rubin led all three training sessions, wrapping up the series in May at the Southwest Branch of Live Oak Public Libraries in Savannah.
”The groundwork we are laying today helps teachers foster language skills in young learners which will result in their becoming proficient readers by the end of third grade,” said CGIC executive director Lizann Roberts. “That will pave the way to improved outcomes throughout school and life.”
Co-developer of the SEE-KS approach, Rubin equips educators with tools that engage students in everyday settings and academic instruction. She also empowers teachers to sustain the work through peer to peer mentorship.
Rubin’s professional vision is to provide public schools with a framework for social and emotional engagement and learning that is: 1) ecologically valid to the demands of achieving academic standards, 2) sensitive to the unique needs of students with social learning differences, and 3) can serve as a universal design for learning that benefits all of our students and young children in order to maximize return on professional learning.
“We know classroom engagement is at the heart of children’s learning, but fostering those skills in students is one of the biggest challenges for local educators,” said Roberts. “CGIC’s collaboration of resource agencies is committed to addressing overall health and well-being while leveraging resource initiatives such as this workshop series.”
Local educators attended each of the three training sessions. The first event in January focused on tools to improve early language skill development to foster more positive life skills. At the second session, in March, Rubin outlined ways to mentor and provide support for the development of community-viable models of staff training.
“This training was designed to equip teachers with proven approaches and toolkits that better equip them to interact with students and provide the mentoring tools they need to assist other teachers in early intervention techniques,” said Roberts. “We now have a solid roadmap that shows educators how to work together better to foster their students’ social, emotional and academic needs.”
ABOUT SPEAKER EMILY RUBIN, MS, CCC-SLP
Emily Rubin, MS, CCC-SLP is the Director of Communication Crossroads, Inc. in Decatur, GA. She is a speech-language pathologist specializing in social emotional engagement and its relationship with language development, learning and positive outcomes. As a former adjunct faculty member and lecturer at Yale University, she served as a member of their Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic. She has also served as an instructor for the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts where she has developed courses to prepare graduate level students for addressing the needs of children with autism and their families. She participated as a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Ad Hoc Committee on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), a committee charged with developing guidelines related to the role of speech-language pathologists in the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of ASD.
Rubin’s publications have focused on early identification of autism, contemporary intervention models, and programming guidelines focused on the social emotional engagement of all learners. She is a co-developer of the Social Emotional Engagement – Knowledge and Skills (SEE-KS) professional learning approach, an approach that provides freely accessible tools for measuring learner engagement, enhancing engagement in everyday settings and academic instruction, and empowering educators to sustain the work through peer to peer mentorship.
Rubin provides support for the development of community viable models of staff training. Her focus is on building the capacity of school systems and early intervention providers to serve as informed consumers of evidence-based practices. Emily’s professional vision is to empower our public schools with a framework for social emotional engagement and learning that is: 1) ecologically valid to the demands of achieving academic standards, 2) sensitive to the unique needs of students with social learning differences, and 3) can serve as a universal design for learning that benefits all of our students and young children in order to maximize return on professional learning.
SPONSORED BY:
Corporate sponsorship for this training is provided by Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation and St. Thomas Thrift Store.
EVENT PARTNERS: Coastal Georgia Indicators Coalition, United Way of the Coastal Empire, Live Oak Public Libraries, Get Georgia Reading, Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy and Savannah Chatham Public School System.
ABOUT EVENT PARTNERS AND SPONSORS
Emily Rubin https://scerts.com/emily-rubin-ms-ccc-slp/
Get Ga Reading https://getgeorgiareading.org/
Deal Center https://www.galiteracycenter.org/
CGIC: https://www.coastalgaindicators.org
St Thomas Thrift Store Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StThomasThriftStore
UWCE: https://uwce.org
SCCPSS: https://spwww.sccpss.com/Pages/default.aspx
ABOUT COASTAL GEORGIA INDICATORS COALITION
The Coastal Georgia Indicators Coalition (CGIC) is comprised of community members and advocates working together through a comprehensive coordinated approach for planning accountability. It serves as a collaboration of resource agencies addressing overall health and well-being while leveraging resource initiatives. The purpose of the Coalition is to improve community well-being by engaging and leading the community to work collectively in its development of strategic priorities that guide policy, programs and resource allocation. CGIC is the responsible organization for the development, and with partners, the implementation of the Chatham Community Blueprint. CGIC has strength and capacity related to leadership, management, systems and partnerships.
https://www.coastalgaindicators.org
ABOUT UNITED WAY OF THE COASTAL EMPIRE
The mission of the United Way of the Coastal Empire is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of community. The nonprofit organization provides a safety net for the most vulnerable and pathways for upward mobility so everyone in Bryan, Chatham, Effingham, and Liberty counties thrive. With upward mobility in mind, United Way of the Coastal Empire intends to help build a ready & resilient workforce and a better future for our youngest citizens through READ UNITED, a year-round series of early language and literacy development programs, and strategic partnerships to support SCCPSS and all school systems in their four-county service area. For more information, please visit www.uwce.org.
MEDIA CONTACT
Marjorie Young
Carriage Trade Public Relations® Inc.
912-844-9990
marjorie@carriagetradepr.com