July

Professional Learning for Educators

From book studies, assessment literacy webinars, EdCamps, Literacy Essential Overviews to informal educator meet-ups, the instruction and assessment team has many wonderful opportunities for Washtenaw County Educators to learn together this summer. 

Register HERE and please contact us with questions! 

 Summer Literacy Learning in our Community

AADL Summer Game

Northfield Township Area Library Summer Reading Club

Dexter Library Summer Reading Family Events

Saline District Library Imagine Your Story

Chelsea Library Summer Reading Program

Manchester Library Youth Summer Reading Registration

Ypsilanti Library Summer Challenge

Milan Public Library 

https://www.emich.edu/ccw/writing-project/wrtgcamps.php

https://www.826michigan.org/our-programs/workshops/

Back to School!

The First Week of School:
Community Building, Writing, and Goal Setting

From scavenger hunts to "Dear Me" letters, you might find some new ideas here to shake-up your back-to-school routine of building community and getting to know your students as readers, writers, and learners.   Create-Abilities shares five activities here.  

Knowing our History to Build a Brighter Future

Books to Help Kids Understand the Fight for Racial Equality

Readbrightly.com provides K-12 text resources to "help us move beyond tokens and icons to a deeper understanding of our history and its legacy, toward our own march for liberty and justice for all." 

Essential Instructional Practices for Literacy

While SOEL (Study of Early Literacy) moves into our fifth year at WISD and LESA, we continue to follow the most recent research (last two-three years) supported instructional practices through the Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy. 

The updated collection includes:

PreK

K-3

4-5

Building Level

Coaching

*Coming soon!  Grades 6-12 Discipline Specific

REGISTER for the MEMPSA Literacy Summit- October 4th at WISD

The SOEL Family Grows !  

During two SOEL Summer Institutes, the Study of Early Literacy welcomed 72 new members for the 2017-2018 school year. After three days of collaborative learning, teachers chose a learning path for the school year around early literacy instruction.  

Inquiry into Disciplinary Literacy and Learning (IDLL)

Secondary teachers of all subjects, you won't want to miss our IDLL line-up of professional learning and guest speakers for 2017-2018!

Save these dates:

September 28-  hosted at Saline High School with "From the Classroom" presentations. 

October 26-  at WISD with guest speaker Dr. Troy Hicks on Argument Writing in the Real World  Register HERE

December 14- at WISD with guest speaker Dr. Liz Kolb on Learning First, Technology Second  Register HERE

February 22  - hosted at Mill Creek Middle School in Dexter with Project Based Learning demonstrations.

March 22- TBD

May 17- TBD

*If you have any questions, please e-mail Melissa Brooks-Yip

Adolescent Literacy in the Content Area

Goal-directed Instructional Design Plan - Adolescent Literacy in the Content Areas Author - Melissa Brooks-Yip

A problem or a need – With Common Core State Standards requiring literacy in all content areas, teachers will need to solidify their understanding of disciplinary literacy and reading for understanding.

A real-world performance – Teachers will be aware of, understand, include in their lesson plan, and implement one or more learning objectives of the Common Core State Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects.

An instructional objective – -Teachers will read and understand the Common Core State Standards for literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects. -Teachers will solidify their understanding of the “Big Five” of adolescent literacy. -Teachers will create a lesson plan to incorporate one a reading, writing, speaking, or listening strategy into their content area literacy.

A set of essential content – Teachers may need to read/review the elements of adolescent literacy in the content area through research articles available online, and other online resources. Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practice Reading in the Disciplines Webcast on Adolescent Literacy The role of content area teachers in literacy Content area teachers share tips on literacy instruction Review of professional development sessions on adolescent literacy: Vocabulary Comprehension Comprehension 2 Engagement and Motivation Text Dependent Questions After reading the articles, webcasts, and reviewing the professional development presentations, teachers will create their own lesson plan incorporating one of the elements into a lesson in their content area.

An evaluation consisting of a test or observation – -Teachers may submit their final lesson plan to our Companion Wikispace.  The lesson plan must be in the Backwards Design model (Wiggins and McTighe) format and focus on incorporating one of the five elements of adolescent literacy into their content areas, and meeting at least one CCSS. -Teachers may deliver the lesson to their students and video tape the teaching.  A follow-up lesson will be to watch and reflect upon the lesson with their TLT partner (Teachers Learning Together).

A method to help participants learn – the method to deliver the content; a lesson. In addition to meeting with me personally after reviewing our past professional development sessions as outlined above, teachers may use the following resources for ideas and examples: Adlit.org Classroom Strategies ReadWriteThink

Motivation: Meaningfullness – This lesson and activity begins to meet the CCSS expectations for teachers to incorporate literacy in the content areas.  Administrators look for this upon teacher evaluation. Pleasant consequences – Knowledge of meeting teaching objectives, CCSS, and the needs of their students as learners. Novelty – Several online resources are available: Blogs, videos, and example plans, in addition to face-to-face time with myself (literacy consultant/instructional coach) and a peer/fellow teachers. Literacy Newsletter Blog Companion Wikispace Adlit.org ReadWriteThink

Socialization - Teachers work with their TLT partner, formerly arranged through work Kevin Feldman training around student engagement and motivation.  These partners frequently work together on plannig and observing each others teaching.  Trust has been built between these teaching partners.

Audience – Secondary content area teachers Prerequisite knowledge (including technology background): Teachers will need to know basic lesson plan design, and how to access our past professional development on our Blog and Wikispace.

Technology Needs – Teachers may use the PC with internet access available in their classrooms.