Branch Workshops Branch Training Wilson Language Overview

Branch Workshops

Transforming Math Ability Into a Skills-Set: The CLSO Approach

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Gorton Community Center, 400 E. Illinois Road, Lake Forest, IL

Presented by Shad Moarif, Ed.M. (Harvard), Founder CLSO-MATH; President, CLSO Learning Systems, Inc.; Former Vice President and Member, Advisory Board, IDA (B.C.) Canada

This workshop offers ways of helping teachers scaffold the learning of so-called “chronic under-achievers”.  Participants will explore different ways of unraveling elementary mathematical concepts by using cognitive exercises.  It will begin with a good-humored introduction to the language of math and how it relates to the meaning and the process.  The workshop will examine ways to present a visual scaffold for teaching addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions. 

The program will also discuss the scope of multisensory approaches using manipulatives, the role of meaning-making in math, and the integration of math-learning with math-teaching.  The goal of this workshop is for teachers to learn how to transform a student’s latent math abilities into a tangible set of math skills by using imagery that guides mathematical thinking.

The session will also introduce a clinical approach to evaluating a student’s math needs based on the CLSO Assessment Protocol.  The novel CLSO (Concepts-Language-Symbols-Operations) approach suggests the sequence in which math is assimilated by learners, and offers a teaching methodology based on that same learning pattern.  It has been designed to appeal to different levels of learning abilities.  Participants will receive a CD-rom of worksheets/workbooks to use the very next day in their classrooms or private practices!

Additional workshops are currently being scheduled for 2009. Please check back for topics and dates.

For further information on all events call 630.469.6900 or email

Registration forms may be downloaded from the links listed above. Completed forms can be faxed to 630.469.6810.