As a learning and study skills specialist, Judy Dodge (M.S. Counselor Education) has served as a regional (to over 80 Long Island schools districts) and national staff developer, providing materials, curriculum development and teacher training to thousands of teachers. A frequently sought-after presenter and recognized leader in the field of effective classroom instruction, Judy has "trained the trainers" for the New York City school system, running workshops at the Manhattan headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers. In addition, she has presented workshops at the Nassau County Association of Elementary School Principals, the Association of Middle School Principals, the Long Island Regional Workshop of the Middle School Association, The Reading Specialists of Suffolk County, The Western Suffolk Counselors' Association, The Nassau Reading Council/Hofstra University, the NYS Association for Counseling and Development, the Long Island Counselors' Annual Conference, St. Josephs' College, Molloy College, and was a Pre-Conference Presenter at the New York State Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Since 2007, Judy's work has taken her to several states, where she has worked with agencies and school districts to improve student achievement. She returns yearly to train a new cohort of teachers in the Bay State Reading Institute in Framingham, Massachusetts. This year she will present at the Annual International Reading Conference in Chicago, Illinois, as well as the Staff Development for Educators (SDE) Midwest Conference on Differentiating Instruction. In addition, she will present differentiation workshops at the 2011 State Reading Conference in Michigan and reading workshops in Joliet, Illinois. She most recently presented an overview of “tiered instruction” in a differentiated classroom to teachers and administrators at the American International School in Johannesburg, South Africa.
An experienced staff developer, Judy spent almost a year as an educational consultant to Bascom Global Internet Services as they began to launch a safe, educational portal to the Internet. While there, she developed several tools for students to use while exploring the Internet. She now helps teachers develop students' critical thinking skills in Internet-supported and technology-rich classrooms, where curriculum goals drive the use of technology. Her latest book from Scholastic shows teachers how to integrate technology with formative assessments and includes a CD-ROM for teachers so they can use her templates on their interactive whiteboards.
Judy is the author of The School Tool, a student handbook for improving study habits and co-author of a second student handbook for middle level students, Study Survival Guide. Her third publication, The Study Skills Handbook, is written for teachers and was published by Scholastic Professional Books. Judy also published two articles in Instructor Magazine and was a contributor to the N.Y. State Resource Guide for The Teaching of Language Arts to Limited English Proficient/English Language Learners (ELLs). In 2005, Judy's book entitled, Differentiation in Action (Scholastic), helped teachers make sense of how to implement differentiated instruction while managing their mixed-ability classrooms. Following that publication, Judy wrote 25 Quick Formative Assessments for a Differentiated Classroom (Scholastic, 2009), to help teachers use creative, multiple measures of student understanding to drive their differentiated instruction. In 2010, she was chosen as an “expert” contributor to Instructor Magazine on the topic of Differentiating Instruction, along with Laura Robb and Carol Ann Tomlinson. She is presently working on a new book for Heinemann entitled, “Common Sense for the Common Core: Routines That Make a Difference.”
Judy's current work involves helping teachers to recognize and enhance the individual talents of all students as they grapple with the rigorous demands of the Common Core State Standards. She focuses on how to motivate both the struggling and advanced learner, while, at the same time, making sure that the average learner is equally engaged in quality work. Her workshops with differentiating instruction, formative assessment, and “tiered” activities are frequently reviewed as "the first workshop that I'm leaving where I finally understand how to implement DI in my classroom." Judy’s strengths lie in her ability to help teachers and administrators “do” differentiation and, finally, put the differentiated instruction they have been talking about for years into observable and effective practice.
