Session Eight: Writing Instruction in the MTSS Framework and Students with Disabilities at the Secondary Level

Name: Session Eight: Writing Instruction in the MTSS Framework and Students with Disabilities at the Secondary Level
Start: 2026-02-18T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-02-18T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Lexington Two Performing Arts Center

February 18

Free

Description

Presenter: Dr. Michael Herbert

This professional development program is designed to explore the reasons why secondary students with disabilities struggle with writing and to provide guidance on how to support them. With a focus on secondary special education and general teachers and others who support instruction, the program will also include discussions on how to collaborate with content area teachers to support writing across the curriculum, within an MTSS framework. The PD program will include one full-day, in-person training with two virtual follow-up meetings and supplemental instructional videos. Teachers should expect to write and participate in writing activities through hands-on activities. Topics covered will include:

why secondary students with disabilities may have difficulty writing
effective writing instruction and intervention,
supporting writing across content areas
implementing and adapting writing instruction within an MTSS framework,
practical writing assessment and data-based decision making,
collaboration practices, and
practices for improving students’ self-efficacy and motivation for writing.

Examples will center on writing with source material and supporting students with various disabilities. These topics will then be further explored and extended in the follow-up meetings and supplemental videos.

Schedule

Registration: 8:30 am
Session: 9:00 am – 3:45 pm (lunch on your own at 11:45 am)

About Dr. Michael Herbert

Dr. Michael Hebert is a Professor and Associate Dean of Teacher Education in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and he is the Director of the UCI Writing Project. He received a bachelor’s degree in childhood studies from Plymouth State University, a master’s degree in Language and Literacy from Harvard University, and his Ph.D. in Special Education from Vanderbilt University. His primary research interests include writing instruction and assessment, particularly for students with or at-risk for disabilities, and the impacts of writing on reading. Dr. Hebert has more than 65 publications, including two influential Carnegie Corporation reports: Writing to Read and Informing Writing. He is also the co-editor of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Writing Research: A Festschrift for Steve Graham, and Best Practices in Writing Instruction, third edition. He has received more than $13 million in grant funding to support his work in identifying effective literacy practices (elementary school through college), and training teachers to implement effective literacy practices. He also received one of the first Early Career and Mentoring Program awards from the National Center for Special Education Research in 2013. He currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Educational Psychology. Dr. Hebert was previously a classroom teacher and reading specialist in schools in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, California, and the Navajo Nation.