The Windward Institute

Designing Powerful Early Literacy Instruction: From Research to Practice
2026-08-11 09:00 (America/New_York) | Westchester Lower School Campus, 1275 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY, 10605, United States
This workshop is part of a two-day institute, Foundations for Reading Success: Oral Language to Print. Join us for this individual workshop, join the full institute or mix and match days and to build a personalized experience.
Designed for early childhood educators, it equips participants with evidence-based strategies for building the foundational literacy skills young learners need to succeed. Deepen your understanding of how children develop oral language, vocabulary, and phonemic awareness, and walk away with practical instructional routines, print-rich environment strategies, and structured language practices that support the diverse needs of every learner in your classroom. In the afternoon, put learning into action by planning student-centered activities, including read alouds and games, using ready-to-use templates you can bring back to your classroom immediately.
Key Learning Objectives:

strengthen understanding of the role of oral language in early literacy and learn instructional routines that intentionally build students’ listening and speaking skills

learn and practice evidence-based approaches to vocabulary development

develop and practice instructional routines for phonemic awareness

learn effective teacher modeling and structured language scaffolds to demonstrate thinking, support student participation, and build students’ confidence using academic language

gain templates to plan read alouds and games to encourage and enhance oral language

Presenters: Kinjal Nicholls, MA; Dana Carr-Ford, MA, MsEd
Grades: PreK-2
Location: Hybrid
Credits: CTLE credits – 6 hours per full-day workshop, 3 hours per morning session
Participate in-person (9 a.m.–3 p.m. ET) on our Westchester Lower School campus or virtually (9 a.m.–12 p.m. ET) Flexible options designed to fit your schedule.

2 Day Literacy Institute – Foundations for Reading Success: Oral Language to Print
2026-08-11 09:00 - 2026-08-12 15:00
This immersive two-day institute gives educators a deep dive into the building blocks of literacy — oral language, vocabulary, and phonemic awareness — all grounded in the latest reading research. You’ll leave with a toolkit of routines that connect sounds to print, supporting students’ early reading and writing development through explicit, engaging instruction. Through game-based learning and hands-on practice, you’ll gain strategies that make foundational literacy skills accessible and exciting for every young learner. Walk away ready to implement purposeful literacy instruction that builds confident, capable readers from the ground up.
Day 1: Designing Powerful Early Literacy Instruction: From Research to Practice
This workshop equips early childhood educators with evidence-based strategies for building the foundational literacy skills young learners need to succeed. Deepen your understanding of how children develop oral language, vocabulary, and phonemic awareness — and walk away with practical instructional routines, print-rich environment strategies, and structured language practices that support the diverse needs of every learner in your classroom. In the afternoon, put learning into action by planning student-centered activities — including read alouds and games — using ready-to-use templates you can bring back to your classroom immediately.
Key Learning Objectives:

strengthen understanding of the role of oral language in early literacy and learn instructional routines that intentionally build students’ listening and speaking skills
learn and practice evidence-based approaches to vocabulary development
develop and practice instructional routines for phonemic awareness
learn effective teacher modeling and structured language scaffolds to demonstrate thinking, support student participation, and build students’ confidence using academic language
In-person attendees gain templates to plan read alouds and games to encourage and enhance oral language

Day 2: From Sounds to Print: Integrating Phonological Awareness, Reading, and Writing
Building on Day 1, this session helps educators translate research into engaging, print-based classroom practices — connecting sounds to print through game-based activities for early reading approaches that support decoding and meaning-making, and developmentally appropriate approaches to building the gross and fine motor skills essential for early writing. Leave with a fully planned, print-based literacy activity that integrates phonological awareness, early reading, and writing, ready for immediate classroom implementation.
Key Learning Objectives:

strengthen early foundational skills instruction by implementing routines that build sound–spelling knowledge, including letter identification
apply phonemic awareness skills to print-based activities that support early reading development
learn and implement early reading strategies that support decoding and meaning-making
develop and practice instructional approaches that support early writing skills
In-person attendees design integrated literacy activities that connect reading, writing, and play, including planning a print-based lesson that incorporates phonological awareness, early reading, and writing

Date: June 24th-June 25th (2 Days), 9:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m. ET
Presenters: Kinjal Nicholls, MA; Dana Carr-Ford, MA, MsEd
Grades: PreK-2
Credits: CTLE credits – 5 hours per full-day workshop
There are two ways to take the full institute:

2 full days 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., ET in-person at our Westchester Lower School campus
2 mornings, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET, virtual

Browse individual workshops to register by session.

From Sounds to Print: Integrating Phonological Awareness, Reading, and Writing
2026-08-12 09:00
This workshop is part of a two-day institute, Foundations for Reading Success: Oral Language to Print. Join us for this individual workshop, join the full institute or mix and match days to build a personalized experience.
This session helps educators translate research into engaging, print-based classroom practices — connecting sounds to print through game-based activities for early reading approaches that support decoding and meaning-making, and developmentally appropriate approaches to building the gross and fine motor skills essential for early writing. Leave with a fully planned, print-based literacy activity that integrates phonological awareness, early reading, and writing, ready for immediate classroom implementation.
Key Learning Objectives:

strengthen early foundational skills instruction by implementing routines that build sound–spelling knowledge, including letter identification
apply phonemic awareness skills to print-based activities that support early reading development
learn and implement early reading strategies that support decoding and meaning-making
develop and practice instructional approaches that support early writing skills
design integrated literacy activities that connect reading, writing, and play, including planning a print-based lesson that incorporates phonological awareness, early reading, and writing

Presenters: Kinjal Nicholls, MA; Dana Carr-Ford, MA, MsEd
Grades: PreK-2
Location: Hybrid
Credits: CTLE credits – 6 hours per full-day workshop, 3 hours per morning session
Participate in-person (9 a.m.–3 p.m. ET) on our Westchester Lower School campus or virtually (9 a.m.–12 p.m. ET) Flexible options designed to fit your schedule.

Expository Writing Instruction Summer 2026
2026-08-18 09:00 - 2026-08-20 14:30
Date: August 18, 19, and 20, 2026, 9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. ET
Instructor: Betsy MacDermott-Duffy, MsEd & Ann Spataro, MsEd.
Grades: K-12
Location: In-person at the Windward Westchester Lower School Campus in White Plains, NY or virtual
Price: $650.00
Credentials: 16.5 Approved CTLE Hours
Description:
Expectations to meet rigorous writing standards begin in the early grades and extend through high school. In this course, Betsy M. Duffy, MS Ed, Special Projects Advisor to the Windward Institute, will present strategies for teaching expository writing in all content areas in grades K through 12.
This prominent writing program, developed at The Windward School, is based on large statistical research studies for best practices in writing and utilizes strategies outlined in publications such as the Elementary and Secondary Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Practice Guides (Graham, et al.). Approaches from Teaching Basic Writing Skills (TBWS): Strategies for Effective Expository Writing Instruction by Judith C. Hochman and TBWS Templates by Betsy MacDermott-Duffy are incorporated with findings from Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading (Graham & Hebert, 2010) and “Effectiveness of Literacy Programs Balancing Reading and Writing Instruction: A Meta-analysis” (Graham et al., 2017). This writing program can be implemented in general education and special education classrooms across grade K through 12.
Key Learning Objectives:

learn specific evidence-based techniques to add structure, coherence, and clarity to students’ expository writing
identify instructional guidelines for developing complex sentences, outlining, writing paragraphs and compositions, and revising and editing
gain examples that explicitly demonstrate how to teach foundational and organizational skills necessary to write an argumentative essay
develop an overview of how to plan an expository reading lesson as springboard to writing
