Faith Berens

2022 MassHOPE Convention Speaker

Speaker Bio

Faith Berens is team leader for HSLDA’s Special Needs Educational Consultants. She also works as a private educational consultant and evaluator. 

She has an MEd in reading from Shenandoah University. Her areas of expertise are early childhood literacy, reading assessment, and the identification and remediation of reading difficulties and disabilities.

Faith has over 15 years of teaching experience that includes serving as a classroom teacher in public and private Christian schools, Reading Recovery® teacher, reading specialist, NILD educational therapist, home educator, co-op instructor, and tutor.

She and her husband live in Virginia, where they homeschool their two children. Her passions include reading for pleasure, singing, traveling, nature/science, leading Bible studies, and teaching reading to struggling students.


Workshops handouts available for download below.

Speaker Workshops

Invisible
Laying a Foundation for Reading Comprehension in the Preschool Years

In this session, Faith discusses the ultimate goal of reading instruction: comprehension. She also explores various types of thinking and processing skills required for proficient comprehension. Faith shares tips, techniques, and strategies for developing the vocabulary of very young, as well as good habits of mind in order to lay a solid foundation for comprehension with our wee ones (up to age 5).

Phonemic Awareness: The Missing Ingredient in Reading Instruction
Do you have a child who just isn’t getting phonics—or is struggling with beginning reading instruction? Or perhaps you have a child who has sloppy speech or doesn’t seem to hear things correctly? Poor phonemic awareness could be partly to blame. This session provides parent-teachers with an understanding of phonemic awareness skills and how these skills (or lack thereof) impact a child’s ability to become a proficient reader. Participants receive a phonemic awareness assessment that they can use at home, take part in interactive activities in order to “play” with phonemic awareness, and receive a list of curriculum, materials, and games that address these important, foundational skills.
SOS! How to Homeschool Students with Special Needs
This workshop offers practical direction and encouragement for families who are considering home education or for those who have already plunged into the scary waters of special education at home and are seeking assistance to navigate this realm.   Faith shares resources for homeschooling special needs, diagnostic checklists for struggling learners, addresses common concerns homeschooling parents face (and how to navigate around them), and shares strategies for charting a course for success with your children who learn differently.
 
Reading Difficulties: Remediation Strategies & Techniques, Part 1

Do you have a student who is having reading difficulties? This session introduces the 5 Pillars of Reading: phonemic awareness, phonics (decoding and word recognition), fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Faith offers guidance for identifying the area and the level of your child’s reading difficulty, and she also shares practical teaching tools, strategies, and techniques for remediating your child’s reading struggles. Part 1 addresses decoding and fluency problems.

Reading Difficulties: Remediation Strategies & Techniques, Part 2
Do you have a student who is having reading difficulties? This session introduces the 5 Pillars of Reading: phonemic awareness, phonics (decoding and word recognition), fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Faith offers guidance for identifying the area and the level of your child’s reading difficulty, and she also shares practical teaching tools, strategies, and techniques for remediating your child’s reading struggles. Part 2 will cover addressing and remediating reading comprehension difficulties.
High School at Home for Teens with Special Needs
This workshop addresses some of the challenges associated with teaching struggling and atypical learners at home in the high school years. Do you have questions such as “How do I award my child with special needs a diploma?” or “What do I do since my child with dyslexia can’t read typical high school level material?” Faith discusses alternative coursework, specialized curricula and learning materials, assistive technology, transcript options, possible graduation guidelines, high school programs for special learners, and post–high school options. She also offers tips for navigating the process of applying for testing accommodations for College Board tests.


Print Workshop List

Back to Speakers Page

Donate to MassHOPE
Advertising
Speaker Inquiries
Exhibitor Information