The event was filled with presentations as well as table discussion regarding oral language and vocabulary comprehension development, phoneme awareness and lesson structures for skills remediation.

“Today’s session was very informative and well-organized,” said Mexico Teacher Denise Perkins. “There are a lot of activities that teachers can take back to their classrooms.”

A group of teachers from Kingsford Park Elementary shared that they really loved seeing all the county’s districts coming together as a community for the same cause.

“One takeaway I had was the use of wordless picture books to help develop language,” said Hannibal First Grade Teacher Dylan France.

The Oswego County Literacy Initiative (OCLI) is a collaboration between all nine Oswego County school districts, the CNYOC Teacher Center, CiTi BOCES and the Reading League, whose goal is support reading achievement throughout Oswego County.

On the same day, more than 300 education professionals also trained with the Reading League at Michael A. Maroun Elementary as part of the initiative.

“We’re very excited about the initiative,” said APW Pre-K Teacher Maria Hendrix. “Even after 31 years of teaching, we can still learn from new evidence and apply it.”

For more information, visit CiTiboces.org/OCLI.