News - Partnerships for Literacy and Learning

Explorations in Literacy

October 2, 2019 by Mary Grace

Date: January-June 2020 (rolling start)
Presenter: Ellen A. Thompson, Ed.D.
Location: ONLINE
Cost: $600 for individuals, $200 for individuals in partner schools.
Credit Option: 3 graduate credits from NVU are available for an additional $600

What our students read and write matters. How much they read and write matters. What they do with what they read and write matters! As their teachers, we matter!

Join us in a new way to explore and enrich your understandings of literacy instruction in a completely on-line experience. This course offers facilitated discussions, readings, videos, and opportunities to connect with colleagues around the state. This online professional learning experience can be a useful foundation for PLC meetings, school-team or cross grade discussions, and whole school literacy learning.

Modules include:

Literacy components – YOUR CHOICE!
The BIG Picture: Comprehensive Literacy Approach
Reading Workshop Model
Understanding Vocabulary Instruction
Assessment
Wrapping Up: Planning Next Steps

Consider signing up as a faculty, team or individual teachers. Perfect for K-8 teacher and the time frame can be customized to meet your needs.

Building Equity Through Powerful Literacy Instruction

August 23, 2019 by Mary Grace

Date: March 13, 2020
Presenter: Kathleen Brinegar, Ed.D
Location: Hampton Inn, Colchester
Time: 8:30am-3pm
Cost: $225.00 (includes continental breakfast and lunch)

Education is not a neutral enterprise. As educators we can either choose to maintain the status quo, or reconsider and reimagine education centered in equity and inclusion. To prepare us for the latter, the morning session will focus on exploring inclusive and equity focused pedagogical practices—from Cornelius Minor’s focus on decolonizing education by getting to know your students to Tricia Ebarvia’s anti-racist literacy movement #DisruptTexts—we will engage in dialogue around what it means to build equity through our literacy instruction. In the afternoon we will shift from dialogue to action. Participants will engage in personal bias work, goal-setting, and curricular and pedagogical work that center equity and inclusion in the classroom. Please bring curricular and other materials to make the most out of the day.

Start with Joy: Designing Literacy Learning for Student Success and Happiness, Gr K-8

August 23, 2019 by Mary Grace

Date: February 7, 2020
Presenter: Katie Cunningham
Location: Capitol Plaza, Montpelier
Time: 8:30am-3:00pm
Cost: $225 (includes continental breakfast and lunch)

In this day-long workshop, participants will be introduced to a seven-pillar social-emotional framework that bridges literacy learning with strategies for student happiness. First, participants will learn about research from across fields that explain why now is the time to intentionally design for the sustainable happiness of students as a fundamental part of the school experience. Next, participants will learn about the seven-pillar framework as it relates to literacy instruction. The pillars are: Connection, Choice, Challenge, Play, Story, Discovery, and Movement. In particular, the day will support teachers across the domains of reading, writing, and speaking/listening with emphasis on how to infuse joy into read-alouds, small group instruction, conferring, and mini-lessons. Participants will be supported to create plans to integrate social and emotional learning with existing literacy curriculum (including but not limited to read alouds, writing prompts, visual prompts, guided reading interactions, conversation starters, and mini-lessons).

Coaching For Equity in Literacy Instruction: Gather. Collaborate. Learn.

August 22, 2019 by Mary Grace

Gather. Collaborate. Learn. Coaching for Equity in Literacy Instruction

Date: October 4, 2019, January 17, and April 7, 2020
Presenter: Gayle Moskowitz & Ellen Thompson
Location: Capitol Plaza, Montpelier

Cost: $225/day or $625 for all three days (includes lunch)

Literacy instruction matters: it is more than just a thing we teach – it is vital for our students to become competent, engaged, and thoughtful readers and writers if they are to develop into active members in our communities. That happens when teachers teach literacy with flexibility and expertise in a system that is equitable for all learners. Coaches play a vital role in increasing teachers’ knowledge and expertise. In this session, literacy coaches will discuss how their work builds equity for all learners using embedded coaching strategies, facilitated conversations, and strengthened leadership roles. As participants consider their literacy coaching role within their specific context, we will build a community that supports professional growth through:

engagement in collaborative discussions,
problem solving strategies, and
examination of resources

The three days are open to any coach, leader, or mentor looking to deepen their coaching knowledge and build connections to the coaching community in Vermont. Come for one day or all three.

2019-2020 Courses

August 22, 2019 by Mary Grace

Coaching In Literacy: Getting Started

Instructor: Ellen Thompson, Ed.D.
Location: Online (Jan 23-Apr 14) and In person at PLL Offices (Jan 3, Mar 12, Apr 9, 4-7pm)
Dates: January-April, 2020
Credits: 3
Cost: $1450

This course will set the stage for what literacy coaching is and what it is not. The research on coaching as an effective tool for school change will be included. Use of data to inform instructional decisions will be heavily discussed. This course will explore how coaches support new understandings of developmental literacy instruction and incorporation of the Vermont Multi-tiered System of Supports (VTmtss) into their work. Participants will read the The Literacy Coach’s Handbook by Sharon Walpole and Michael McKenna to better understand the many roles coaches have take within a school and with teachers.

Reading that Matters: Responsive, Responsible & Compassionate Readers Gr 2-8

Instructor: Ellen Thompson, Ed.D. & June Golato, M.S., CCC-SLP
Location: Online
Dates: January 20-April 16th, 2020
Credits: 3
Cost:$1450

This online course will allow participants to understand more completely what the expectations are for the teaching readers to really think about their reading within the context of ELA CCSS. For teachers to encourage and produce readers who really love reading, we have to nurture them into deep understanding of their reading. Using the text, Disrupting Thinking: Why how we read matters, written by Kylene Beers & Robert E. Probst, we will begin to develop the skills to push our readers into that deep thinking mode. This text coupled with Chris Lehman & Kate Robert’s book, Falling in Love with Close Reading: Lessons for analyzing texts- and life! will provide much knowledge on how to increase student understanding and use of voice in an age of fake news and more, the importance of supporting readers to be critical thinkers and readers is of the utmost importance.

REGISTRATION IS STILL OPEN FOR:

Coaching for Success: Scaling Up with Networks of Practice

Instructor: Ellen Thompson, Ed.D. and Gayle Moskowitz (presenter)
Location: Online and In Person dates at the Capitol Plaza: October 4, January 17, & April 3, 8:30-3:30
Credits: 3
Cost: $1450

The course will create a Networked Improvement Community (NIC) for participating coaches to focus on problems of practice and change ideas that will lead to improved coaching, teaching, and learning. Coaching can be a lonely role, and establishing a community of coaches to explore specific practices, innovations, or “improvement” ideas allows all participants to benefit from the learning and expertise of others in a similar role. Course participants will establish an online community as well as have opportunities to work alongside each other at the Coaching Forums series: Gather.Collaborate.Learn. The work during these face to face meetings will establish the problem of practice to be explored through Plan-Do-Study-Act Inquiry cycles within each coach’s school setting. Working together in this network, the coaches will gather strategies and approaches from each other to outline a response for their identified problem of practice within their coaching roles. Participants will read Anthony Bryk’s book, Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better.