The 2020 Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Convention, to be held in Portland Oregon, will feature a session honoring Direct Instruction inventor Siegfried Engelmann. The session is titled Special Education as Specially Designed Instruction: In Recognition and Honor of Zig Engelmann, and will be held on Thursday, February 6 from 1:00-2:00pm at the Oregon Convention Center. Session leader Ed Kame'enui will join Anita Archer, Doug Carnine, Geoff Colvin and Kurt Engelmann in presenting. Click here for more information on the session.

While you are at the convention, please visit us at booth 803 in the Exhibit Hall. Make sure to ask for your gift from NIFDI!

To honor the 50th anniversary of the arrival of Project Follow Through at the University of Oregon, the University of Oregon's College of Education recently hosted a panel of renowned experts to discuss the 50-year culture of research in the college. David Chard (Boston University), Doug Carnine (University of Oregon, Emeritus), Russell Gersten (University of Oregon, Emeritus), Colt Gill, (Oregon Department of Education) and Beth Harn (University of Oregon) discussed the research history that was born from Project Follow Through, its impact on educational pedagogy, its national and international reach, and its impact on the face of education overall. The event highlighted the lasting legacy initiated by Project Follow Through and how it advanced the Direct Instruction model and its numerous influences over the course of its 50-year journey.

The event traced some of education's most renowned and well-honored products, projects, practices, and people back fifty years to the arrival of a cohort of dedicated faculty and practitioners whose vision persists to this day. The influence and impact of Direct Instruction on current and ongoing education was celebrated, and honored. Click here to view the video.

Several years ago, Direct Instruction author Phyllis Haddox created training and support materials to be used in conjunction with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, the very popular text she co-authored with Zig Engelmann and Elaine Bruner. Recently, Phyllis decided to make the formerly for-purchase items free through her website https://startreading.com/.

To access the material, go to https://startreading.com/videos-supplementary-material/. There, you will find twelve short informational and training videos that support the program. The segment on sound-symbol relationship provides an excellent model of the sounds and a good practice guide. There are other videos for some of the key formats in the program, including word reading, story reading with comprehension questions, rhyming formats, and advanced word reading. Visitors to the website will also find many print materials that could be useful in supporting the program.