Liisa Freure, Founder of Fundamental Learning
Liisa is a regular speaker at local, national, and international conferences such as the Orton Gillingham Academy, The Learning Disabilities Association, and the International Dyslexia Association. She is often invited to speak and consult with individual schools, school boards, organizations, clinics or groups on Literacy related topics.
She is an Ontario Certified Teacher with an M.Ed. and over 30 years of experience in the field of education. As an Accredited Training Fellow with the Orton-Gillingham Academy and a Structured Literacy Dyslexia Specialist she has a deep understanding of Dyslexia, Orton-Gillingham, the Science of Reading, and Structured Literacy. She served on the board of IDA Ontario for 14 years, including two terms as President. She has also been intensively studying linguistics, the History of English, and Structured Word Inquiry for over a decade.
Liisa is available to speak or consult on a wide variety of topics and concepts related to language, literacy, and learning. She can provide a keynote or workshop presentation, or work with your group to support longer term professional development. Topics and models can be varied according to the needs of your group.
Past Conference Presentations:
Upcoming Conference Presentations and Events
Consulting and Professional Development
“Liisa’s leadership has transformed the literacy practices at our school. She has inspired and supported our teachers, tirelessly providing knowledge and resources. We are seeing significant improvements in our children’s learning, but more importantly we are more skilled at assessing and monitoring the improvements than we were before. She has been extremely flexible and responsive to ensure that professional development was job embedded and just in time learning.“
Nancy Steinhauer
– Principal at The Mabin School
Alana Hepworth
– Director of Student Services at Matthews Hall
Liisa Freure is an outstanding educator with a passion for learning and teaching. Over the course of a two-year literacy training program, Liisa provided direct instruction to our staff, supported teachers through their lesson planning, observed language lessons and provided individual feedback. Her instructional lessons displayed a wealth of knowledge in the areas of reading and writing that was fundamental to us developing a strong literacy program for our young learners.
Her demonstrations, exemplars, and activities made deep connections in learning for both the teachers and the students. Her breadth of knowledge and passion was contagious and invigorated our staff to take her teachings and put them into action. Liisa was able to take complex topics and present the information in a digestible, friendly and open manner. Her approach was welcoming and warm. She provided constructive feedback while holding firm to the philosophy and respecting each individual for the qualities that they bring to the classroom.
WORKING WITH TEACHERS AND CLASSES
Liisa visits a grade one class
I had the privilege of working with a fabulous teacher, Tracy, and her wonderful grade one class over the course of the 2022-2023 school year. Together we explored letters, letter formation, graphemes, phonemes, morphemes, spelling patterns and generalizations, and the History of English. We used use word sums and word matrices to help understand the structure of our amazing language. A favourite activity was finding new spelling patterns on packaging! They truly became Word Collectors and detectives.
Here is a short clip of us talking about mistakes. This was just before we began a sorting activity with the word family <play>. I wanted everyone to feel comfortable making an initial hypothesis, but also be open to the idea that learning involves making mistakes and that is okay!
You might be wondering about my shirt and the black cape. The teacher had introduced me as a “Word Superhero” so I played along and wore my cape for fun, but I wanted them to know that learning is messy and creative and fun – hence the shirt 🙂
A Teacher’s Reflection
Liisa was a “Word Superhero” to my class and she will always be a “Word Superhero” to me!
After my first class with Liisa, I said, “I will never look at words the same way ever again.” And I never have. Her passion and knowledge of language is infectious. I am so grateful my students had the opportunity to work with her. Through my O-G Classroom Educator training Liisa inspired me to challenge my students to be “noticers” and “wonderers”. That is exactly who they were. This allowed for various entry points for all learners and for me to meet everyone where they were. That same curiosity that I was fostering with the students, was being fostered in myself as well.
I have taken many of Liisa’s courses and each time I continue to deepen my understanding of English and how it works. Liisa’s knowledge of the content is broad, deep, and far reaching, but she is also able to embed it in practice that shows HOW to teach it to students at whatever level they are at, even at the earliest stages. I feel so much better prepared by all that I have learned with Liisa through my Orton-Gillingham training and the various workshops. The realization of how empowering the knowledge is gave me the motivation to share what I have learned and the confidence to move into a Reading Intervention role. Liisa’s passion is truly infectious. I am forever grateful to my “Word Superhero”!
Tracy Nick – Gr. 1 teacher – Toronto District School Board