DERA Grant Summit

Integrated Reading and Writing (IRW) to Support General Education: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Friday, October 3, 2025, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.

Hosted at Lake Land College, 5001 Lake Land Blvd., Mattoon, IL, Webb Hall 081

Lake Land College received a Scaling and Assessing Developmental Education Reform Act (DERA) Project grant through the Illinois Community College Board in 2025, which allowed the college to provide funding for professional development and address ongoing developmental reading placement needs.

The DERA Summit will be held October 3, 2025, and will provide a professional development opportunity through a one-day conference on promising practices in corequisite integrated reading and writing. Our presenters, Haleh Azimi and Elsbeth Mantler from the Community College of Baltimore County’s Accelerated Learning Program (ALP), will guide faculty, staff, and administrators from Lake Land College and neighboring community colleges through integrated reading and writing approaches appropriate for transfer or career-technical programs.

Haleh Azimi	Elsbeth Mantler

Who is invited to attend?

• Multi-disciplinary, general education, and developmental education faculty and staff
• Library faculty and staff (staff who manage OER information)
• English, reading, and math faculty and staff from adult basic/secondary education levels
• Counseling and TRiO staff
• Testing Center staff
• Tutoring Center staff
• Institutional Research and Administrators

Agenda

Registration, Networking, and Breakfast Bar	8:30-9:00 a.m.
Grounding IRW: English and ALP	9:00-10:30 a.m.
Disciplinary Literacy (IRW in Multiple Disciplines)	10:45-12:00 p.m.
Lunch: La Luna Taco Bar	12:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Methodology of Teaching Reading across Disciplines	1:00-2:00 p.m.
Cross-training and Building Buy-in for Teaching Reading across Disciplines	2:30-3:00 p.m.

For More Information

For questions, please reach out to Shannon McGregor (smcgregor2@lakelandcollege.edu, 217-234-5334) or Lynn Breer (mbreer@lakelandcollege.edu, 217-234-5401).

Register Here