School teams of three or more teachers (across disciplines and content areas) interested in reflecting on and strengthening their own teaching practice. Participants will collaborate with colleagues and learn to implement and adapt Reading Apprenticeship® (RA) approaches in their content area classes.
In SLI Network sessions, participating teachers have opportunities to:
- investigate how they and others make sense of content area texts;
- explore students' reading strengths and needs by looking at student and classroom case videos and student work;
- learn about the Reading Apprenticeship Framework and instructional practices that support students' reading improvement;
- develop and refine their own classroom practices in Reading Apprenticeship;
- collaborate and plan with colleagues within and across schools.
The SLI Network is a year-long professional development series focusing on RA, a research-based approach to adolescent literacy that helps middle and high school teachers engage, motivate, and empower students to develop the tools they need to improve their content area reading.
The Network series includes:
- three-day summer institute August 4-6, 2010;
- four release days of professional development during the school year;
- regular school team meetings between network sessions;
Participants engage in an inquiry into student reading with an emphasis on embedding RA in their classrooms. They learn a set of rich routines to support the "metacognitive conversation" at the heart of RA. This seven-day series strengthens participants' understanding and implementation of RA by providing extensive opportunities for them to:
- learn about the Reading Apprenticeship framework and instructional practices that support students' academic literacy improvement;
- investigate how they and others make sense of content area texts in order to coach and model effective thinking and reading processes in the classroom;
- explore students' reading strengths and needs by studying student and classroom case videos and texts;
- examine their own classroom practice to refine and improve their practice of RA;
- learn powerful instructional strategies that support content-area reading, writing, and thinking;
- explore multiple examples of students' reading and of RA classrooms in action using video case studies;
- learn effective processes for working with colleagues to successfully implement RA.
SLI Network Institute and Sessions are led by SLI directors and professional development staff and Reading Apprenticeship consultants.
Resources include a copy of the Strategic Literacy Initiative's book, Reading for Understanding: A Guide to Improving Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms and comprehensive course materials for each participant.
Students whose teachers participated in RA training have become more confident, engaged, and strategic readers. In one SLI study, students in RA classrooms gained two years' reading proficiency in seven months. In another SLI study, students in RA classrooms made significant gains in their national reading percentile ranking. In one urban district, English learners grew as much as their fluent-English-speaking peers, and students initially scoring in the lowest quartiles made the most rapid gains. The National Staff Development Council recommends Strategic Literacy Initiative training in their book What Works in the High School: Results Based Staff Development (PDF).
The cost for seven days of professional development, a comprehensive set of course materials, 7 continental breakfasts, and 7 buffet lunches is $1,200 per participant.
NCLB funding: Strategic Literacy Initiative training qualifies as "High-Quality Professional Development" for: Title I, Part A; Title II, Part A; Title III, Part A; Title V, Part A; and Title VII, Part A.
The 2010-2011 SLI Network series begins with a summer institute Wednesday August 4-6, 2010. The four school-year sessions are held at WestEd's Oakland office at 300 Lakeside Drive, 25th floor (dates to be arranged). To request an application or for more information, please contact Rita Jensen (510) 302-4243 or rjensen@wested.org.
The Application Deadline is June 1, 2010.
Download application
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Rita Jensen at 510.302.4286 or
rjensen@wested.org
Teacher Professional Development Program
Strategic Literacy Initiative
Reading for Understanding: A Guide to Improving Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms
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