SERVICES Dynamic Professional Learning and Implementation Support for Your Team
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you for taking a moment to learn about Learning Without Tears® Professional Services!
Our learning team includes fellow teachers, school leaders, occupational therapists, and parents. We know firsthand that educators are facing new challenges and their time is limited, yet they yearn for accessible and relevant professional learning to re-energize themselves and the students they serve.
Our Professional Services provide dynamic professional development opportunities and implementation support for your teams. We care about your outcomes and collaborate with you to build flexible educator learning plans. We believe in investing jointly in your success to ensure maximum impact on instructional practice and student outcomes.
In these pages, you’ll discover more about our interactive, learner-centric approach. It’s based on decades of Learning Without Tears’ renowned fun, hands-on methods, the Standards for Professional Learning, our lived experience, and a data-informed focus on progressive improvement. We are learners at heart!
Reach out to our knowledgeable, helpful coordinators to begin building your organization’s personalized learning plan—together.
Sincerely,
Juliet Correll VP, Professional Learning & The Learning Team
Flexible Learning Plans
Our Professional Services team will guide you in building a learning path that best helps your educators on their journey to success.
LEARNING LEVELS
Getting Started
Build the foundation for implementation success with the knowledge, strategies, and skills needed for high-quality instruction and practical application.
Implementation Support
Support implementation through onsite lesson observation and collaboration or short, virtual sessions targeted to current needs.
Deeper Dive
Enhance effective instruction through reflection, collaboration, and new learning.
TOPICS FORMATS
On-site
Up to a full-day of customized and personalized, hands-on learning
Live Virtual
Half- or full-day interactive learning on an engaging virtual platform
Modular
Short, live, virtual sessions with guidance for application and practice between modules
Blended
Asynchronous webinar followed by a live, virtual Q&A session
Reading
A–Z for Mat Man and Me
Phonics, Reading, and Me
Pre-K
Get Set for School Pre-K Curriculum
Readiness & Writing for Pre-K
Handwriting
Handwriting Without Tears Print
Handwriting Without Tears Cursive
Keyboarding
Keyboarding and Digital Literacy
ONLINE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING PLATFORM
Participants will receive access to a leading-edge, experiential learning platform, enabling:
• Asynchronous and live virtual collaboration
• Build your community, share ideas, and learn from others
• Blended engagement options to contribute and reflect
• Formative and summative assessments provide actionable data
• Ongoing access to just-in-time curated support resources to sustain your learning
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
A Year at a Glance
Our priority is to co-design the most relevant and effective learning path for your educators to meet them where they are and guide them forward.
BACK-TO-SCHOOL
Summer/Early Fall
ADMINISTRATION
Collaborative Goal Setting
Personalized planning meetings that help you establish goals and curate the learning experience to reach success for the current school year and beyond.
NEW USERS
Getting Started
Build the foundation for implementation success with the knowledge, strategies, and skills needed for high-quality instruction and practical application.
EXPERIENCED USERS
Deeper Dive
Onsite
Virtual Modular
Virtual Half-Day
Virtual Full-Day
Virtual Blended
Enhance effective instruction through reflection, collaboration, review, and new learning. Onsite
Virtual Modular
Virtual Half-Day
Virtual Full-Day
IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT
Late Fall Winter Spring
ADMINISTRATION
Planning for Implementation Support
Reflect on previous learning experiences and set learning goals for upcoming Observe and Learn or Implementation Follow-Up sessions.
ALL USERS
Observe and Learn
Onsite Implementaion support with lesson observation from an LWT Content Specialist followed by targeted feedback and collaborative learning sessions targeted to current needs.
ALL USERS
Implementation Follow-Up*
Virtual support and just-in-time new learning for educators or coaches and leaders. Short, virtual sessions are scheduled as frequently as desired throughout remainder of the school year.
* Available as an add-on after holding a Getting Started, Deeper Dive, or Observe & Learn event in the same school year.
ADMINISTRATION
Renewal and Fall Planning
Collaborate to renew program materials, address additional curriculum needs, and plan your professional services for the fall.
Onsite
Helping students become proficient readers and writers takes time and effort. With A–Z for Mat Man and Me, you'll help them build alphabet knowledge by integrating phonics with connected text.
GETTING STARTED
Participants will receive a complete overview of the A–Z for Mat Man and Me program and learn to access and use their teaching resources and classroom materials. Participants will engage in hands-on learning, collaborative discussion, action planning, and reflection.
Learning Outcomes:
• Effectively teach letter learning by leveraging the letter books from A-Z for Mat Man and Me®
• Accelerate alphabet knowledge through systematic and explicit instructional strategies that target and support student acquisition of letter names, sounds, and forms.
• Differentiate instruction to meet the needs of diverse learners while highlighting and celebrating diversity through authentic, universal, and engaging stories.
• Facilitate meaningful learning experiences through hands-on, minds on activities that build early literacy foundational skills, social emotional habits, oral language, and comprehension skills.
DEEPER DIVE
This session is recommended for educators who already attended a Getting Started workshop and have at least 3 months experience using the program. The focus will be on enhancing effective instruction through reflection, collaboration, review, and learning about selected topics.
Select from the following topics to customize a Professional Learning session based on your teachers’ needs:
• Using A–Z for Mat Man and Me in your classroom
• Focused review of digital tools
• Assessment/data analysis support
• Differentiated instruction for Multilingual Learners and students with diverse learning needs
• Supporting students developmentally
• Learn effective read aloud strategies
• Providing background knowledge and vocabulary
• Maximizing use of the student text
• Teaching reading 101
• Classroom scenarios and case studies
• Encoding and decoding to support students
• Multimodal practice
• Differentiating with modes of reading
• Teaching phonics and word study skills
Phonics, Reading, and Me sequentially and systematically helps students acquire the range of skills they need to become proficient readers. This supplemental program prioritizes phonics skills that can be difficult to learn but truly make a difference for students along the path to reading.
GETTING STARTED
Participants will receive a complete overview of the Phonics, Reading, and Me program and learn to access and use their teaching resources and classroom materials. Participants will engage in hands-on learning, collaborative discussion, action planning, and reflection.
Learning Outcomes:
• Teach phonics and other high utility skills systematically and explicitly using Phonics, Reading, and Me print and digital resources.
• Scaffold phonics instruction to meet the diverse needs of students at varying levels.
• Build knowledge to develop phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension skills with rich literacy and informational texts.
• Use data to monitor student progress and make informed instructional decisions to improve student outcomes.
• Maximize instructional time by leveraging the Phonics, Reading, and Me integrated print and digital resources.
DEEPER DIVE
This session is recommended for educators who already attended a Getting Started workshop and have at least 3 months experience using the program. The focus will be on enhancing effective instruction through reflection, collaboration, review, and learning about selected topics.
Select from the following topics to customize a Professional Learning session based on your teachers’ needs:
• Using Phonics, Reading, and Me in your classroom
• Focused review of digital tools
• Assessment/data analysis support
• Differentiated instruction for Multilingual Learners and students with diverse learning needs
• Supporting students developmentally
• Learn effective read aloud strategies
• Providing background knowledge and vocabulary
• Maximizing use of the student text
• Teaching reading 101
• Classroom scenarios and case studies
• Encoding and decoding to support students
• Multimodal practice
• Differentiating with modes of reading
• Teaching phonics and word study skills
DECODABLES
Building a strong foundation in decoding text is the first step to achieving reading proficiency. Explore a new series of fiction and nonfiction decodable books that align with the Science of Reading. Each book features a specific high-utility phonics skill taught in the context of a joyful, purposeful text. Utilizing a unique multicriteria approach, texts are intentionally written to build decoding and word recognition fluency while supporting knowledge-building skills.
GETTING STARTED
Participants will learn how to leverage decodable books by Learning Without Tears to provide intentional instruction and practice during small-group instruction, intervention, and independent or collaborative reading opportunities to support the acquisition of phonics and word study skills. Participants will collaborate to strategically maximize student outcomes using instructional routines and best practices. Educators will leave prepared to teach phonics and word study through the use of Decodable Phonics Books. Participants will collaborate to gain a greater understanding of the phonics skills that are difficult to learn but make a difference for students on the path to reading.
Learning Outcomes:
• Explain why and how to use a multi-criteria decodable book.
• Implement a routine to provide systematic and explicit instruction using multi-criteria decodable books.
• Leverage multi-criteria decodable books to provide intentional practice.
Keyboarding Without Tears® prepares students with more than just typing skills. They learn general computer readiness skills, responsible online behavior, and online testing skills to help them succeed in the 21st century learning environment. This web-based, grade-level specific curriculum is fun and engaging for K–5 students as they become self-directed, moving through a 36-week developmental progression of activities. Educators can leverage the teacher-led lessons in digital literacy and the award-winning digital citizenship curriculum from Common Sense Education.
GETTING STARTED
A curriculum and implementation overview will equip your educators and co-educators with the tools they need to successfully get students started in the KWT program. Educators will preview the 36week scope and sequence across the K–5 grade levels, including the first six weeks of foundational skill-building activities, to experience the engaging, cross-curricular themes through activities that students find familiar and fun. We provide an overview of the features and settings available in the educator dashboard for effective management of both classes and individual students, including enrichment opportunities and the computer-based testing practice modules for students in grades 3-5. Lastly, participants will be introduced to the assessment options and reporting data.
Learning Outcomes:
• Apply best practices using developmentally appropriate keyboarding instruction
• Implement Keyboarding Without Tears® with fidelity in your learning environment
• Leverage the features and settings in +Live Insights
With the Get Set for School Curriculum for Pre-K, getting students on track for kindergarten readiness is simple. This complete, research-based Pre-K program provides a hands-on curriculum that engages young minds through purposeful play, active engagement, and custom manipulatives. Build and foster rich classroom routines of literacy, emergent writing, numbers and math, and more.
GETTING STARTED
Participants will receive a complete overview of the Get Set for School program and learn to access and use their teaching resources and classroom materials. Participants will engage in hands-on learning, collaborative discussion, action planning, and reflection.
Learning Outcomes:
• Recognize how the six learning areas are incorporated into the daily and weekly structure.
• Review the function and purpose of each multisensory material from the Get Set for School™ program.
• Discover embedded teacher support strategies used to plan and differentiate instruction for all learners.
• Locate progress monitoring supports within print and digital educator resources.
• Explore and discuss lesson activities and classroom videos from each of the six learning areas using the multisensory hands-on program materials.
• Given a lesson plan, use the program resources to select a differentiation strategy to adjust the activity to meet the needs of students at different levels of readiness.
• Review assessment options (Benchmark Assessments, Unit Assessments, Observation Checklists) and determine which components to use in your classroom.
DEEPER DIVE
This session is recommended for educators who already attended a Getting Started workshop and have at least 3 months experience using the program. The focus will be on enhancing effective instruction through reflection, collaboration, review, and learning about selected topics.
Select topics to customize a Professional Learning session based on your teachers' needs:
• A day in the life of a Pre-K classroom with discussion of one week’s lessons
• Focused review of the Pre-K Interactive Teaching Tool (PreKITT)
• Assessment
• Alphabet knowledge
• Classroom scenarios
• Name writing
• Small group instruction
• Fine motor skills and grip
• Multisensory activities for learning one or more of the following:
• Readiness to write
• Learning capital letters, numbers, and lowercase letters
• Language and literacy
• Numbers and math
• Oral language
• Science and social studies
READINESS & WRITING
The Readiness & Writing program is one component of the Get Set For School curriculum and has been carefully designed to prepare children for our Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum. Students build pre-writing and emergent writing skills developmentally through engaging, handson, play-based activities.
GETTING STARTED
Participants will receive a complete overview of the Readiness & Writing program and learn to access and use their teaching resources and classroom materials. Participants will also engage in hands-on learning, collaborative discussion, action planning, and reflection.
Learning Outcomes:
• Identify a developmental sequence for teaching readiness & writing skills that can be used to plan and differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students.
• Discover multisensory strategies and our step-by-step approach to effectively teach grip, fine motor and coloring skills using music and tools for little hands.
• Select purposeful hands-on, multisensory manipulatives, music and digital learning to teach position concepts, alphabet knowledge, letter formation, and name writing to promote Kindergarten readiness.
• Locate progress monitoring supports within print and digital educator resources.
DEEPER DIVE
This session is recommended for educators who already attended a Getting Started workshop and have at least 3 months experience using the program. The focus will be on enhancing effective instruction through reflection, collaboration, review, and learning about selected topics.
Select topics to customize a Professional Learning session based on your teachers' needs:
• Multisensory activities for learning one or more of the following:
• Developing readiness to write
• Learning capital letters and numbers
• Learning lowercase letters
• Paper-based activities
• Assessment
• Alphabet Knowledge
• Differentiated instruction for English Language Learners (ELL) and students with special needs
• Focused review of the digital teaching tool
• Classroom scenarios
Handwriting Without Tears® provides students with the explicit instruction and guided practice they need to learn handwriting and develop automaticity while also reinforcing broader literacy skills. Multimodal components and strategies create a dynamic and effective learning environment that engages and meets the needs of all learners.
GETTING STARTED
Participants will receive a complete overview of the Print (K–2), and/or Cursive (2–5) program(s) and learn to access and use their teaching resources and classroom materials. Participants will engage in hands-on learning, collaborative discussion, action planning, and reflection.
Learning Outcomes:
Print (K–2):
• Identify the 4 steps of explicit handwriting instruction that can be applied when teaching or remediating letters, words, and sentences.
• Select effective hands-on, multisensory activities to teach handwriting skills including grip, position concepts, alphabet knowledge, letter formation, and sentence skills.
• Choose two strategies to help children generalize handwriting skills across all subjects.
• Locate progress monitoring and differentiated instructional supports within print and digital educator resources.
Cursive (2–5):
• Identify the 4 steps of explicit handwriting instruction that can be applied when teaching or remediating cursive skills.
• Select effective hands-on, multisensory activities to teach cursive handwriting skills including letter formation and cursive connections.
• Choose two strategies to help students generalize cursive handwriting skills across all subjects.
• Locate progress monitoring and differentiated instructional supports within print and digital educator resources.
DEEPER DIVE
This session is recommended for educators who already attended a Getting Started workshop and have at least 3 months experience using the program. The focus will be on enhancing effective instruction through reflection, collaboration, review, and learning about selected topics.
Select topics to customize a Professional Learning session based on your teachers' needs:
• Multisensory activities for learning one or more of the following:
o Developing readiness to write
o Learning capital letters and numbers
o Learning lowercase letters
o Learning cursive letters and connections
o Strategies to teach and remediate letter formation, spacing, sizing, and line use
• Paper-based activities beyond the workbook
• Assessment
• Differentiated instruction for Multilingual Learners and students with diverse learning needs
• Focused review of Interactive Digital Teaching Tool
• Classroom scenarios and case studies
• Building Writers
Roxanne did an amazing job discussing and modeling different techniques that we can use in our classroom.
Valerie explained this program very well.
I loved the videos of teachers putting Handwriting Without Tears into practice. Thank you!
Learning Without Tears Professional Services are eligible for federal funding, including Title II and ESSER III.
Christina kept us engaged through asking us questions and encouraging us to post in the chat. I enjoyed learning tips from other educators in the break-out sessions.
