Course at a Glance

Short, focused professional learning designed to fit real school schedules. ✓ Four 50-minute sessions: built for planning periods and PLCs. ✓ Self-paced and asynchronous: move through the course on your own schedule. ✓ No prior training required: learn the full process from the beginning. ✓ Lifetime access: return to the sessions, tools, and resources whenever you need them. ✓ For educators in grades 3–12: apply the process to the lessons and texts you already teach across ELA, social studies, science, and more. ✓ Earn a certificate: complete the course and receive confirmation of your professional-development hours. ✓ Captions available: turn them on for any course video.

When Good Lessons Stall

Every student deserves access to meaningful, challenging work. Too often, though, lessons break down before they even begin. Students may struggle with the text, find the task out of reach, or feel unsure how to put their thinking into writing. Without the right support, even a strong lesson can stall. This course shows you how to get ahead of those barriers. You'll learn to identify what's getting in the way, choose the right support, and use targeted ten-minute routines to prepare students for the lesson ahead. Here’s how it works, step by step:

Course chart for identifying the barrier, sorting reading struggles into three types: the text, the task, and the answer, each voiced by a student speech bubble.

Step 1: Identify the Barrier

Learn to identify the biggest obstacle in a given lesson.

Course table matching text trouble types like vocabulary and background knowledge to specific boosts, each with an example script a teacher can say aloud.

Step 2: Choose the Boost

Select the best strategy to address that obstacle.

A completed pre-teaching routine for a task barrier, showing two steps with the exact teacher script for hyping the text and previewing the plot.

Step 3: Launch Student Success with a 10-Minute Routine

Equip students with the strategy they need to take on the lesson ahead.

What You'll Walk Away With

A repeatable process, practical tools, and documentation you can return to long after the course ends. ✓ A process you can use across your curriculum: identify whether the biggest barrier is the text, the task, or the written response; choose a targeted boost; and build a focused ten-minute pre-teaching routine. ✓ Your Core Tools: a downloadable toolkit for identifying barriers, choosing the right boost, and building each ten-minute routine. Yours from session one. ✓ Step-by-step demonstrations: watch every move modeled before trying it with students.

Curriculum

6 Chapters · 22 Lessons

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Your Core Tools: Download Before You Begin

    1. Course Overview (& When to pre-teach) Free preview
    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Reflect (2–3 minutes)

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Identifying the Barrier

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Quiz Which Barrier Is Biggest?

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Extra Resources - Session I

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Barrier A Walkthrough: When the Barrier is the Text

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Identify the Text Trouble Type (2–3 Minutes)

    3. (Included in full purchase)

      Barrier A Demonstration: Building a Text Pre-teach

    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Quick Application: Hype the Text (5 Minutes)

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Extra Resources - Session II

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Barrier B Walkthrough: When the Barrier is the Task

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Pick the Strongest Sentence Frame (2–3 Minutes)

    3. Barrier B Demonstration: A Task Pre-teach in Action Free preview
    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Quick Application: Preview the Plot

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Extra Resources - Session III

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Barrier C Walkthrough: When the Barrier is the Writing

    2. (Included in full purchase)

      Quick Practice: Pick the Practice Type & Writing Drill (2–3 Minutes)

    3. Barrier C Demonstration: Verbal Rehearsal Free preview
    4. (Included in full purchase)

      Quick Application: Connect to Build Esteem (3–5 Minutes)

    5. (Included in full purchase)

      Extra Resources - Session IV

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Certificate Performance Task

Gerrit works with a group of teachers during a professional development session.

Meet Your Instructor 

I’ve spent my career working with students and teachers to make reading instruction actually work, especially for students who find reading difficult. In my own classroom, this approach led to some of the strongest reading growth in the city and helped build a culture where students genuinely saw themselves as readers. That work even drew national attention, with my class selected to appear on the final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show for the reading culture we built together. Since then, I’ve continued teaching while also working with schools and educators across the country and internationally, helping teachers solve a common challenge: what to do when students can’t access a lesson. Together, we focus on identifying what’s getting in the way, making targeted adjustments, and ensuring all students are prepared to take on the work in front of them. Access in 10: Set Students Up for Grade-Level Reading comes directly from this work. It’s a practical system to help you diagnose what’s getting in the way, make the right move, and use focused routines to prepare students to tackle any lesson.

What Teachers & School Leaders Say

Educators on what Gerrit's work has meant in their schools.

”
Gerrit is one of the strongest reading practitioners and coaches I know. He was instrumental in setting up programming at our school and set a high bar for rigor.  As a teacher, I also saw him build the best reading culture I have ever seen.
Benjamin D. (High School Principal)

Chicago, Ill 

”
Gerrit's work helping to grow kids' identities as readers and writers changed the trajectory of my teaching and the identities of my students. When Gerrit teaches them how to think like a reader, he makes texts - even ones above their reading level - more accessible and more fun.  There's no better gift for teachers and students.
Nora M. (Louisiana Teacher of the Year Finalist)

New Orleans, LA

”
Gerrit has a rare ability to help students fall in love with reading, particularly those who struggle or lack confidence. His use of purposeful routines led to exceptional reading growth, and his impact extended far beyond his classroom through his work supporting and developing other reading teachers.
Adam Meinig (Principal of Gerrit's School)

New Orleans, LA 

”
With Gerrit, you never get rote methodologies. You get someone well versed in great practices to support literacy - and he helps you decide on best approaches that fit your class and their needs.
Amanda O. (Teacher) 

Bogota, Colombia

Set Students Up for Grade-Level Work Before the Lesson Begins

Diagnose barriers, choose the right support, and prepare students for challenging work with focused 10-minute routines.  Buying for a team? Schools and districts can purchase seats through Thinkific, or contact Gerrit at [email protected] for help getting set up.

$79.00

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