Summer 2021- June and July

 Summer 2021 Reading

No matter your plans this summer, these booklists and ideas for educators and kids will serve your needs with novels, non-fiction, and professional development.  Read to learn, advance your knowledge and action in social justice, escape, or find adventure.

Institute for Arts Integration in STEAM Summer 2021 Reading List 

Random House Teachers and Librarians Summer 2021 Reading List

NEA Get Serious About Summer Reading

Teachers, Books, Readers Blog

MDE Summer 2021 Early Reading Guidance

 Check your local library for summer reading programs:

• Ann Arbor District Library

• Northfield Township Area Library 

• Dexter Library Summer Reading Family Events

• Saline District Library Imagine Your Story

• Chelsea Library 

• Manchester Library 

• Ypsilanti Library 

• Milan Public Library 

Summer Literacy Learning for Kids

Summer Learning

Self Guided Book Studies @ WISD

This summer, read these educator titles at your own pace with the self guided book studies.  Content will be posted in late July for self guided study and online discussion with others.   

Then, we'll have one synchronous live meeting in August for each book.

Books will be provided for Washtenaw County educators

Register HERE for all 

  

Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy 

by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad

    

Forged by Reading: The Power of a Literate Life by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst

    

The Write Thing: Kwame Alexander Engages Students in Writing Workshop, (and you can too!) A Must Have Resource for Teaching Writing in grades K-12 , by Kwame Alexander

We Got This. Equity, Access, and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be, by Cornelius Minor

Responsive Teaching Coalition CountyWide Opening Day! 

August 23

Join us for an amazing professional learning session with Dr. Bettina Love and Dr. Christopher Emdin, as they offer keynote addresses on how educators can achieve educational equity by centering students, families, and the community. 

Dr. Bettina L. Love is an award-winning author and the Athletic Association Endowed Professor at the University of Georgia. Her writing, research, teaching, and educational advocacy work meet at the intersection of education reform, anti-racism, carceral studies, abolition, and Black joy. The aim of her scholarship is twofold: firstly, to advance how the field of education understands and critiques the systemic and structural racism of public education within the U.S.; and secondly, to advocate for abolitionist approaches in the field of education that seek new possibilities for educational justice. 

Dr. Christopher Emdin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Teachers College, Columbia University; where he also serves as Director of the Science Education program and Associate Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education. He is the author of the award winning book, Urban Science Education for the Hip-hop Generation and the New York Times bestseller For White Folks Who Teach In the Hood and the Rest of Ya’ll too. 

 FREE for WISD educators- register HERE

Bringing Joy to Your K-5 Classroom with Diverse Books-  August 16 (repeat session)

You’ve heard the buzz about diverse books, but what does that mean? How and why do you use these books in the classroom? Join instructional coaches and teachers from Washtenaw County to learn the multiple purposes diverse texts can serve and how to honor student identities through text. 
Register HERE
 
A limited number of books will be raffled off during the session. 
 
WASHTENAW Educators Only. Limited to 30.
 

State Provided Professional Learning

Disciplinary Literacy- Offered to Secondary Educators by the Disciplinary Literacy Taskforce

PreK, K-3, Coaching and Schoolwide Essentials Online Modules

June

SOEL Celebrates Another Year of Learning!

As the 2018-2019 school year comes to a close, SOEL teachers took time in our last meetings to reflect on and share what they learned about literacy instruction, the changes they made in teaching because of that learning, and how that, in turn, resulted in student learning. 
*Please see our charts from PreK SOEL and K-3 SOEL and our quick visual summary below:

IDLL and the Disciplinary Literacy Essentials! 

After giving feedback three years ago, studying them for two, and being a pilot county for one, The Essential Practices for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction in Secondary Classrooms have finally been publicly released.  In 2019-2020, our Inquiry into Disciplinary Literacy and Learning will continue to study disciplinary literacy through book studies, school visits, and collaborations with EMU and UM.

2019 Reading Book Lists from ILA

Just in time for summer reading, The International Literacy Association released the Choices Reading Lists. Each year, thousands of children, young adults, and educators around the United States select their favorite recently published books for the Choices reading lists. These lists are used in classrooms, libraries, and homes to help readers of all ages find books they will enjoy. Check them out for yourself and the children in your life:

Teacher's Choice

Children's Choice

Young Adult Choices

Summer Learning Opportunities

Disciplinary Writing Institute
 9:00-3:00  at EMU
June 24-25

Register HERE

*This connects to the newly released 6-12 Disciplinary Literacy Essential Instructional Practices and our IDLL network here at WISD

Teaching the Holocaust, Empowering Students

July 31 8:30-3:30 at WISD

Register HERE

Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy-
 One Day Overviews

 August 1st for grades K-3 at WISD 8:30-3:30

August 2nd for grades 4-5 at WISD 8:30-3:30

At the end of each session, registrants will be invited to join the SOEL network for the 2019-2020 school year. 

**Also, don't forget about the online modules for the PreK and K-3 Essentials

June

Summer Resources for Students

Michigan residents have free access to many resources through the Michigan eLibrary.  Families can find resources to help ease the summer slide, read eBooks, conduct research, create reading lists, and prepare for college, careers, and high stakes tests like the SATⓇ.

There is a playlist on the MeL YouTube Channel (https://goo.gl/fDC4Be) and a 2017 Summer Resources Letter that can be either emailed (or printed and sent home) to Michigan K-12 families.  Please help distribute this letter to as many schools and families as possible.  You may also want to subscribe to the MeL YouTube Channel, so you keep up to date on the latest with the Michigan eLibrary!

The letter is available in the following formats:

• Google Doc: https://goo.gl/63jnW5
• Word Doc: https://goo.gl/gMMb3m
• PDF: https://goo.gl/B5CuVs

Summer Professional Learning Opportunities

 

Personalize Your Learning  A New Professional Development Opportunity 

E​ducators now have the ability to participate in nine self-paced modules drawn from the 21 Things 4 Teachers content​. Each self-contained module covers current educational topics that make connections between curriculum, technology and best practice strategies. ​It takes about ten hours to complete a module.​

The complete list of modules can be found on the 21 Things 4 Teacher website. Here are two examples: Media Literacy: Real or Fake, educators can learn the difference between real and fake news. In Creating Efficiency & Productivity learn how using technology can actually increase and improve classroom productivity, efficiency and organization.
D​istricts may use the modules​ internally for professional development.

​Educators can earn 10 SCECH for each completed module and up to 90 SCECHs if they complete all nine. The modules can be started and completed between May 1 – June 30 and July 1- September 5. An instructor facilitates each course. More information can be found at https://www.smore.com/2sgdk

May

Summer Reading for All

The Library of Michigan is part of the Collaborative Summer Library Program.   Please share these resources with families for information on early literacy, elementary, teen, and adult literacy programs available at their local library this summer.  A short PSA was also created to build awareness of library resources available.

 Professional Learning Opportunities

SAVE THE DATE! MAY 20-22, 2017

The 2017 4T Virtual Conference will be held on May 20, 21, and 22.  Register HERE

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June 27, 28, 29, 2017 at EMU Student Center

This workshop will help you become part of the school reform conversation as you learn to develop your own personal stories into a public narrative. By day three, you'll have an action plan to take back. Register here.  Facilitated by Dr. Cathy Fleischer, co-director of the EMWP and author of Teachers Organizing for Change. 

July

Summer Reading for YOU!

For Literacy Instruction

Elementary:

 The Not This, But That Series

"By the end of each book in this series you will understand both what not to and what to do to improve student learning."
-Nell Duke and Ellin Oliver Keene, Series Editors

Much like the diet phenomenon Eat This Not That, this series aims to replace some common, existing teaching practices with approaches that are more effective—healthier, if you will—for our students. We hope to draw attention to widespread practices around important instructional topics that have little support in research or professional wisdom and offer alternatives that have greater support. Each text is collaboratively written by authors representing research and practice. By the end of each book, you will understand both what not to do, and what to do, to improve student learning (from Heineman.com)  

* These texts will be among the book club choices for the SOEL network. 

Secondary

This is Disciplinary Literacy: Reading, Writing, Thinking and Doing... Content Area by Content Area

Disciplinary Literacy is about to go from theory to game plan—taking students from superficial understanding to deep content expertise. And guess what? ReLeah Lent’s big secret lies in highlighting each content area’s differences—advancing a discipline-specific model in which literacy is used as a tool for strategic thinking, reading, writing, and doing within each field.
That’s right—no more reading strategies used uniformly across the curriculum. Instead, This Is Disciplinary Literacy helps content-area teachers put into action the key literacies of their specialties. Teaching science? Students must evaluate evidence and question as they read. History? Comparing and contrasting sources and interpreting the import of events are key. Writing in Math? Accuracy is favored over elaboration and craft. Reading fiction in ELA? Synthesizing and attuning to voice and figurative language reign supreme. Students fully own knowledge because your instruction zeroes in on the academic habits that matter most.  

* This text will be a book club choice this year for the IDLL network.

For Pleasure Reading

NPR's 100 Best Summer Beach Reads Ever!  

Looking for something to read on the beach?  These 100 titles are recommended by NPR listeners!  

Summer Professional Learning

June

It's June!  

How do you Keep Calm and Teach On at this time of year? 
K-12 Teachers from our literacy networks shared many suggestions in our May meetings that keeps kids engaged so you can teach on:

• Get outside!  This is a good time for students to write using the five senses, nature observations, the health benefits of being outdoors or a myriad of other things that come to us with a change of scenery. 

• Reflect!  Teachers and students need to reflect upon all the hard work done throughout the year.  Take some time to review all of that and write reflection letters to yourselves or parents.  

• Storytelling!    If you feel you didn't read aloud as much as you wanted to this year, or your students like oral storytelling, make time for that now. It's engaging for all age groups.

• Try a new tool!  Exercise skills learned throughout the year with a new tool:
• Pinterest for creating food groups/healthy meal boards
• This I Believe writing
• Kahoot game based learning
• Aurasma presentations for augmented reality
• Wonderopolis to explore the many questions kids have.

Summer Reading

Keep your students reading this summer with these SUMMER READING LISTS 
and SUMMER READING PROGRAMS.   

Summer Professional Development

  Writing Collaborative

June 16, 17, 18     WISD     8:30-3:00     Open to all grade 4-12 teachers      $125

REGISTER HERE

 Helping teachers and students understand writing in the content areas in order to make explicit the processes and strategies needed to improve student writing.

**All trainings are three days in length: 

 Lunch not provided.  SCHECHS available.

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The Study of Early Literacy  

 August 3-7    8:30-3:30  WISD   FREE

 ( Open to PreK-3 Livingston and Washtenaw Educators only) 

The Study of Early Literacy (SOEL) is a committed group of PreK-3 educators learning, researching, and applying best practices in the teaching of early literacy.  While SOEL gears up for our third year, we are pleased that our work has led to a publication in the Michigan Reading Journal.  

Interested in joining us this summer and for the 2015-2016 school year?  Read and complete this form or contact me at mbrooksyip@washtenawisd.org or 734-994-8100 ext. 1266.

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Echoes and Reflections:  Holocaust Education

August 27, 2015   8:30-3:30 at WISD. 

Open to ALL Social Studies teachers in grades 6-12  FREE SCHECHS availableLunch not provided.

Echoes and Reflections is a comprehensive Holocaust education program that delivers professional development and a rich array of resources for middle and high school teachers. Echoes and Reflections prepares educators to teach about the Holocaust in a way that stimulates engagement and critical thinking while providing opportunities for students to see the relevance of this complex history to their own lives. 
See more information HERE 

REGISTER HERE