A Different Way to Read Learners
Two-day professional development for secondary educators
(We can do it in one)
What educators think they are seeing shapes what learners are given access to next. This workshop helps school teams examine those interpretations, practice curiosity as compliance, and recognize strengths that may be obscured by struggle, inconsistency, or misunderstanding.
Why This Workshop Is Different
Many neurodiversity trainings begin with traits, diagnoses, or accommodations. A Different Way to Read Learners begins one step earlier: with how educators interpret what they see. A learner who appears disengaged, inconsistent, oppositional, careless, or unmotivated may be communicating something very different. Those interpretations shape expectations, relationships, and ultimately access to learning.
We introduce curiosity as compliance: treating curiosity about a learner’s experience as part of the educator’s responsibility to provide meaningful access. Instead of asking only, “What accommodation does this learner need?” we also ask, “What might we be misunderstanding—and what changes when we read this learner differently?”
What Participants Will Explore
Across two days, participants move from seeing differently to acting differently within the systems they already use. The workshop explores how educators can:
Describe before deciding — separate observation from interpretation and judgment.
Hold ability and difficulty together — understand how giftedness, neurodivergence, and learning challenges can coexist and mask one another.
Examine the conditions around performance — consider the interaction among learner, task, and environment.
Begin with strengths and capacity — use interests, successful conditions, and existing abilities as meaningful information.
Make curiosity actionable — translate observation, inquiry, environmental adjustment, and measurement into professionally defensible practice.
The goal is not to give educators more to do. It is to help them see more clearly what is already there—and respond to what becomes possible.
Who Is It For?
A Different Way to Read Learners is designed for secondary-school teams working with neurodivergent learners, including:
Classroom educators
Special education and learning-support staff
School counselors and psychologists
Instructional coaches and department leaders
Administrators responsible for teaching, learning, access, or learner support
The workshop is especially useful for teams that want to move beyond accommodation checklists toward a more nuanced understanding of how learner behavior, ability, environment, and interpretation interact.