North East Florida Educational Consortium (NEFEC) is proud to offer online reading courses which are learner-centered, curriculum-focused and instructor-guided that will address the first five competencies for teachers seeking the Reading Endorsement. NEFEC's online professional development provides meaningful and authentic learning, access to a variety of research-based best practices, mentoring by our state's experts, and practical application for increased student performance.

Competency 1: Foundations of Language and Cognition (FOLAC)
Participants will develop an understanding of reading as a process of student engagement in both fluent decoding of words and construction of meaning. This 60-hour online training will provide substantive knowledge of language structure and function, as well as cognition for each of the five major components of the reading process. This training meets the requirements for Competency 1 of the Reading Endorsement Add-on Certification Program.

Competency 2: Florida Online Professional Development (FOR-PD)
Florida Online Reading Professional Development (FOR-PD) is an online staff development training designed to help teachers improve reading instruction for learners in grades preK-12. Course topics include the five essential elements of teaching reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. This 60-hour training meets the requirements for Competency 2 of the Reading Endorsement Add-on Certification Program. This course will be offered through NEFEC beginning in November, 2010.

Competency 3: Applied Data Analysis for Principals and Teachers (ADAPT)
This online training will provide teachers and principals with skills and knowledge in using the results of screening, diagnosis, progress monitoring and outcome reading assessments to guide instructional decision making in grades K-12. The 60-hour ADAPT training meets the full requirement of Competency 3, Foundations of Assessment, of the Reading Endorsement Add-on Certification Program. Required text is Developing and Using Classroom Assessments by Albert Oosterhof.

Competency 4 & 5: Foundations and Applications of Differentiated Instruction (FADI)
This online training will provide teachers and administrators with knowledge and skills to identify the needs of students with differing profiles and use this knowledge for instructional decision making to meet the needs of all students. Participants will gain an understanding of how to prescribe, differentiate instruction, and utilize appropriate strategies and materials from scientifically-based reading research in order to address prevention, identification, and remediation. This 60-hour online training meets the requirements for COMPETENCY 4: Foundations in Differentiation and Competency 5: Application of Differentiated Instruction, of the Reading Endorsement Add-on Certification Program. Required texts are When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers and Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom by Carol Ann Tomlinson.

The reading endorsement courses are NOT self-paced. The courses offer flexibility to work at your convenience during the week but assignments are due each Sunday. Each week participants will spend approximately 4-6 hours to complete a unit with two or more lessons. New lessons are released automatically each Friday which gives participants 10 days to complete the lesson. All assignments should be completed by the given due date. Because threaded discussions are used throughout this professional development, it is important for participants to stay current each week so communication is maximized and discussions develop fully between participants.

Three days (Friday) before the scheduled start date of the course (Monday), an email will be sent to each participant with login information and directions for accessing the course through Blackboard, NEFEC's course management system. Sometimes legitimate email messages are filtered by Spam filters within an email program. If you have not received login information by the close of business on the Friday before the course start date, please check first to see if the message is in a junk or spam mail folder within your email program. If you do not find it, contact elearning@nefec.org, to verify your email and to have the information resent.