February

World Read Aloud Day is February 5! 

LitWorld founded World Read Aloud Day in 2010 for people all over the world to celebrate the joy of reading aloud and to advocate for literacy as a fundamental human right.  Join in the Day by visiting their site to register, download free resources, and access activity guides. Resources include tips on how to host a community event, create stickers and decorations, and read aloud tips to share with participants.  We'd love to see how World Read Aloud Day is celebrated in Washtenaw County, share to Twitter with #WRAD@WashISD

Upcoming Professional Learning Opportunities

Creating Context for Teaching Night

February 20th, 2020 WISD 8:30-3:30 FREE
*Most applicable to secondary ELA teachers.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum presents Creating Context for Teaching Night. 

The workshop will include: 

• How to teach Night within the larger historical framework of the Holocaust; 

• A history of antisemitism for context prior to reading Night;

• An exploration of materials and instructional strategies available in Echoes and Reflections to support effective teaching of the memoir; 

• The use of interdisciplinary materials including art work, photographs, poetry and personal narratives; 

• Identifying significant themes of the memoir

*SCHECHs Pending   REGISTER HERE

It's All About Inquiry: Understanding the Social Studies Standards, C3 Framework and Literacy Essentials

This is a three day training free to all Washtenaw County Educators

In this three day session, we work with educators to build background knowledge of the three documents through a short history and purpose, connecting through the thread of inquiry, and planning for long term work in instruction and assessment in social studies classrooms.

February 27, March 5, March 26

At Milan Middle School Librarium, Milan, MI
REGISTER HERE

The Diverse Lending Library at WISD

Don't forget about the Diverse Lending Library available to all Washtenaw County educators. E-mail me to check out books or ask questions about our books! 

For questions on anything in this Literacy Newsletter- please contact Melissa Brooks-Yip at mbrooksyip@washtenawisd.org 

January

Reflecting on a Decade and Starting a New

The end of one decade and the start of another spurs reflection in all aspects of life, personal and professional. Teaching Tolerance, We Need Diverse Books, and Edutopia offer resources to help educators and students reflect on the last 10 years, and set intention for literacy and instruction in 2020 and beyond.

Looking Back and Pressing Forward by Teaching Tolerance

Book Talking Kit from We Need Diverse Books

New Year's Resolutions: Don't Do It!  by Elena Aguilar for Edutopia

Upcoming Professional Learning Opportunities

 Creating Context for Teaching Night

February 20th, 2020 WISD 8:30-3:30 FREE
*Most applicable to secondary ELA teachers.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum presents Creating Context for Teaching Night. 

The workshop will include: 

• How to teach Night within the larger historical framework of the Holocaust; 

• A history of antisemitism for context prior to reading Night;

• An exploration of materials and instructional strategies available in Echoes and Reflections to support effective teaching of the memoir; 

• The use of interdisciplinary materials including art work, photographs, poetry and personal narratives; 

• Identifying significant themes of the memoir; 

*SCHECHs Pending 

 REGISTER HERE

It's All About Inquiry: Understanding the Social Studies Standards, C3 Framework and Literacy Essentials
This is a three day training free to all Washtenaw County Educators

In this three day session, we work with educators to build background knowledge of the three documents through a short history and purpose, connecting through the thread of inquiry, and planning for long term work in instruction and assessment in social studies classrooms.

February 27, March 5, March 26

At Milan Middle School Librarium, Milan, MI
REGISTER HERE

The Diverse Lending Library at WISD

Don't forget about the Diverse Lending Library available to all Washtenaw County educators. E-mail me to check out books or ask questions about our books! 

For questions on anything in this Literacy Newsletter- please contact Melissa Brooks-Yip at mbrooksyip@washtenawisd.org 

November

What are we reading in SOEL and IDLL?

The Study of Early Literacy kicked off year seven this fall as a community of learners committed to deepening our literacy instructional practices through reading, experiences, and Teacher Action Research.  What we are reading aligns with the Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy PK, K-3 and 4-5, while some texts also support literacy integration, disciplinary literacy, and Culturally RelevantTeaching. 

The following practitioner texts support each SOEL member’s learning goal, as well as give background to what we’ll see during school visits in Washtenaw county.

• Letter Lessons and First Words
• All About Words
• No More Culturally Irrelevant Teaching
• Reading, Writing, and Talk: Inclusive Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners, K-2
• Every Child a Super Reader: Seven Strengths to Open a World of Possible
• Interactive Writing Across Grades: A Small Practice with Big Results PreK-5
• Literacy Teacher's Playbook K-2 and 3-6
• No More Science Kits or Texts in Isolation
• No More Low Expectations for English Learners

The Inquiry into DisciplinaryLiteracy and Learning (IDLL) began our fourth year this fall as a learning network committed to building on previous work and further study of the Essential Practices for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction in the Secondary Classroom, just officially released to the state of Michigan in June 2019.  Our text, Real World Literacies, helps us to see what literacy looks like in the disciplines while highlighting authentic literacy experiences connected to community.  We are excited to also visit Washtenaw County schools and EMU this year to examine disciplinary literacy in action.

Understanding the Social Studies Standards, C3 Framework and Essentials for Instruction in Disciplinary Literacy

In October, we offered the first ever three day series examining these three documents a little closer. The Social Studies Standards, C3 Framework, and Essential Practices for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction in the Secondary Classroom, all have themes of inquiry in learning, literacy in the disciplines, and teaching future citizens.  Stay tuned for another offering of this series this winter and/or spring!

Additional Literacy and Social Studies Resources  

C3teachers.org- Resources to support the C3 Framework through the Inquiry Design Model

1619project- The1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. 

ReadInquireWrite- Resources for teaching reading, reasoning and writing with sources through Social Studies inquiry

Teaching Tolerance-Resources to help teachers and schools teach educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy.

Commonlit.org Text Sets- Text sets to support historical, political and cultural topics across genres.

...and don't forget The Diverse Lending Library at WISD! 

October

Introducing our Diverse Lending Library!

In a collaboration with teachers Rhoshawda Miller of YCS, Kristi Schaffer of WIHI, Candice Huddleston of WLHS, Dr. Laura Jimenez of Boston University and Dr. Shayla Griffin, our Diverse Lending Library in memory of Caroline Jacob is now ready for release to Washtenaw County educators. 

The purpose of the library is to support Washtenaw County educators and students in an equitable, inclusive education. We are offering this lending library of PreK-12 culturally relevant books so that students may see themselves in texts and see others that represent our global society.

We Believe: 

📘Access to diverse books will work to interrupt bias and prejudice in our classrooms;

📕Students should see themselves, their loved ones, their peers, their languages and their celebrations represented in the books they are learning to read;
📙When students see themselves in their learning materials, they gain a sense of ownership and accountability to their classrooms, their school system, their community, and the world;
📗Literature provides the perfect opportunity for students to learn new terms, ideas, cultures and languages. When students can make personal connections to the literature, they are more engaged, inquisitive, intrigued and vested in their learning; 
📚Libraries can and should play a crucial role in empowering diverse populations for full participation. 
You can see our list of books HERE and use it to create your own Diverse Library. 

Our lending library is small right now, but we hope to grow it over time. If you'd like to know more, ask me or a colleague in SOEL or IDLL. 

SOEL to Present at NCTE Fall Conference!  

A team of SOEL educators have been accepted to present our work at the National Council Teachers of English fall Conference in Baltimore, Maryland on November 21.  

Our presentation featuring the power of inquiry based teacher professional learning is a perfect fit for the theme of the conference, Spirited Inquiry.

Melissa Brooks-Yip, WISD- Inquiry as Teacher Professional Learning 

Dr. Cathy Fleischer, EMU- Teacher Research

Chip Bennett and Kat Dudzik, YCS- 

Oral learning, social readiness and reading engagement with cross grade literacy friendships 

 Tonya Saragoza, Milan Area Schools- 
 Writing instruction in 3rd grade

Stay tuned for more after the conference in November! 

Professional Learning Opportunities

KRA Data Day-  
Access a KRA Data Webinar HERE

Social Studies Standards, Framework and Essential Instructional Practices in Disciplinary Literacy!  
 IN PROGRESS- REGISTRATION CLOSED

Join us for a series of dates to help deepen our understanding of these three documents. 
 October 21, October 29, and November 7  
 8:30-3:30 at Saline Liberty School.  

 Free to Washtenaw County educators.  
$25 for those outside of the county.

Register HERE for this three day series! 

November

 Using Argument as a Tool for Integrating Science and Literacy

    Erin Washburn and Andy Cavagnetto share an instructional framework aimed at integrating best literacy practices for science learning. They argue that being scientifically literate is more than being able to “read” science texts and recognize scientific vocabulary, rather it is the ability to comprehend, interpret, and analyze. Through PONG cycles (Problem/Question, Observation, Negotiation, Goal), teachers can facilitate thinking: 

1. Teacher poses a problem or shares a focused           question.

2. Students make observations.

3. Students make evidence-based or reasoned             claim(s).

4. Students share and critique claim(s).

5. Students revise their evidence based claim(s).

Click HERE for the entire article from The Reading Teacher, a publication of the International Reading Association (IRA). 

Reading Like a Historian

Check out the Stanford History Education Group for Reading Like a Historian. This free resource was created for teachers to access material that engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents designed for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities. This curriculum teaches students how to investigate historical questions by employing reading strategies such as sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating, and close reading. Instead of memorizing historical facts, students evaluate the trustworthiness of multiple perspectives on historical issues. They learn to make historical claims backed by documentary evidence. See research on Reading Like a Historian here.

*Thanks to Brandon Szwejkowski for sharing this valuable resource! 

Is there a Purpose for Teaching Cursive Today? 

    When an administrator posed this question to me a few weeks ago, I did some investigating on this topic with my colleagues at Red Cedar Writing Project at MSU.  It was a very lively discussion, and one teacher made a live binder for our collection of shared articles and conversation on the topic. 

     It's a little difficult to find an article that is 100% against cursive.  They are either completely for cursive or share equal (or less) time to an opposing side.  While most agree that students need to know how to read cursive writing, most also agree that we cannot justify spending loads of time on it in an already pressed- for- time school day. What do you think? 

PD Opportunities Nearby

MSU College of Ed Technology Conference

    The 30th Annual MSU College of Education Technology conference will be held on Saturday, November 16th, 2013 at Michigan State University in Erickson Hall from 8:30 am - 3:00 pm. The theme of this year's conference is online and mobile education. Through a continued collaboration between the College of Education, the MSU College of Education Alumni Association and the Master of Arts in Educational Technology Program, this year's conference will be FREE OF CHARGE to all attendees.  Light breakfast items will be available as well as coffee, tea, and juice.

 Literacy PD at WISD:

Writing Collaborative teacher workshops (secondary)

Winter 2014: Feb. 6, 7 and March 7

Spring 2014: April 29, 30 and May 16

*See flyer here  

Reading Apprenticeship teacher workshops (secondary):

Winter 2014:  Jan. 28, 29 and Feb. 12

Spring 2014:   April 22, 23 and May 14
 *See flyer here

Early Literacy: 

Tim Shanahan on Early Literacy:  March 11, 2014

*All details, costs, and registrations can be found on WISDGoSignMeUP!