The Trinity Teaching and Learning Center`s Summer

The Trinity Teaching and Learning Center’s
Summer Workshop on Balanced Literacy
NCAIS 2014 Annual Educator’s Conference
Trinity Episcopal School
Chris Weiss, Head of Lower School/Assistant Head of School
Joann York, Fourth Grade Teacher
Monica Charlton Browne, Lower School Academic Dean
Emily Rietz, Middle School Language Arts Teacher
Jennifer Moore, Kindergarten Teacher
What is the Trinity Teaching and Learning
Center (TTLC)?
The TTLC is managed and supported by the faculty and staff of Trinity
Episcopal School, a K-8 independent school founded in 2000 and located in
Charlotte’s center city.
The TTLC provides learning opportunities for educators, in and around the
community, to study and develop best practices for K-8 students in literacy,
mathematics, technology, and the social sciences. Our current focus is on
literacy with future workshops planned in other classroom disciplines.
TTLC Mission and Vision
Mission: The Mission of the Trinity Teaching and Learning Center is an extension of the
Mission and Values of Trinity Episcopal School which are “grounded in an exceptional
educational program that inspires a love of learning and a quest for knowledge” and
“affirms our commitment to outreach and service to others.”
Vision: We achieve this Mission by developing and sharing our expertise within and
beyond the Trinity community. In doing so we provide our own faculty, especially those
newer to the field of education, and educators in the broader community with access to
learn and develop their craft from master teachers. Trinity students especially benefit
from being taught by teachers who are experts in their profession and who instill and
model a love of learning. By opening our doors to educators from other schools, we can
support fellow colleagues in their desire to learn new approaches to teaching, which
ultimately serves a wide range of children beyond Trinity.
Launching the
Trinity Teaching and Learning Center (TTLC)
● History of Trinity Episcopal School
○ K-8 School, founded in 2000
○ Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop from the beginning
● Inspiration and Training
○ Lifetime Guarantees by Shelley Harwayne
○ Teachers College, Columbia University
○ Boothbay Literacy Retreat
○ Nancy Atwell’s Center for Teaching and Learning
○ Sam Bennett, author of That Workshop Book
○ And many others: Kathy Collins, Jen Serravallo, etc.
●
The Principal’s Center (Harvard Graduate School of Education)
Summer Weekly Schedule
Monday:
7:30 - 8:00 Check-in and coffee/pastries (Dickson Dining Hall)
8:00 - 8:40 Opening remarks and Launching Our Week Together
8:45 - 11:45 Balanced Literacy session (Main Floor and Kindergarten Classrooms)
11:45 - 1:00 Lunch on your own
1:00 - 2:30 Breakout sessions (Main Floor Classrooms)
Tuesday - Thursday:
7:45 - 8:00 Coffee/pastries (Main Floor Lobby area)
8:00 - 11:45Balanced Literacy session (Main Floor and Kindergarten Classrooms)
10:00 - 10:15
Break
11:45 - 1:00 Lunch on your own
1:00 - 2:30 Breakout sessions (Main Floor Classrooms and Kindergarten Classroom)
Summer Weekly Schedule-cont’d
Friday: School Spirit Day! Wear something that represents your
school.
7:45 - 8:00
Coffee/Pastries (Main Floor Lobby area)
8:00 - 11:00 Balanced Literacy session (Main Floor and Kindergarten
Classrooms)
11:05 - 12:05 Breakout session (Main Floor Classrooms) and Surveys
12:15 - 1:15
Lunch (provided) and Closing Celebration (Dickson Dining
Hall)
1:30 - 2:30
Open hour for follow-up planning and debrief with TTLC
Faculty
Overview of the Day
Morning and Afternoon Sessions: Each participant has been placed in one of four
main sections based on grade levels of Kindergarten, 1-2, 3-4, and 5-8, and each is led by
the Trinity Teaching and Learning Center (TTLC) faculty.
The mornings will be devoted to the core goals of this Balanced Literacy workshop,
including how to launch the reader's and writer's workshop in your classroom, basic
structures, mini-lessons, classroom libraries, assessment, and more. You will also spend
time observing and practicing with elementary students in one of our summer “Camp
Read” classrooms.
Afternoon breakout sessions will allow you to choose from an array of special topics,
including Technology in the Balanced Literacy Classroom, Word Study, Writer’s
Notebooks, Book Clubs, and many others.
Afternoon Sessions
Breakout Sessions and Descriptions 2014
Camp Read-and-Write-a-Lot
●
●
●
●
●
Through Trinity’s Wildcat Summer Camp
Open to TES students and the community
Half-day camps taught by Trinity teachers
Used as “lab classrooms” for TTLC participants to observe the workshop
model in action
Opportunity to try out conferring, in-book assessments, guided reading
groups with “real” students!
Icebreaker!
“Turn and Talk” to your neighbor and ask one of these three
questions:
● “What kind of reader are you?”
● “What kind of reader would you like to be?”
● “If you could live in a setting from a story, where would
it be? Why?”
● What’s your most cherished book from childhood?
TES Bottom Lines of Balanced Literacy
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Reading and writing instruction is explicit--broken into distinct steps and
modeled--throughout the day
The majority of instructional time during a reading or writing workshop is
devoted to students reading or writing at independent levels.
Students learn from, read from and write real-world, authentic structures.
Instruction is replicable across a child’s learning life.
(day-to-day, year-to-year, etc.)
Student work is celebrated and published to promote student ownership,
investment, and voice as readers and writers.
The Work of the Teacher
Instruction happens during every minute of the reading workshop,
from the first to the last minute, but it starts with the mini-lesson. So
the reading workshop is not a time when the teacher can snuggle
down with a book—far from it. This is the most intensive instructional
time of our day.
--Lucy Calkins,
Director of Teachers College Reading
and Writing Project
Typical Structure of a Reader’s Workshop
1.
2.
3.
4.
A focused, 10-minute MINI-LESSON teaches the skills and strategies of
proficient readers and rallies students to see how it matters in their
reading.
CONFERRING AND SMALL GROUP WORK offers a repertoire of
strategies for coaching all readers to make tangible process on a wide
range of skills.
The MID-WORKSHOP TEACHING POINT addresses widely-shared
problems, reminds readers to draw on prior instruction, or offers tips to
book clubs.
The TEACHING SHARE/DEBRIEF reconvenes the class to make a closing
point and helps kids integrate what they have learned with their ongoing
reading.
Model of the Workshop Structure
Sample Primary Daily Schedule
60 minutes - Reader’s Workshop (daily)
10 minutes: Mini-lesson
20-40 minutes: Independent practice
5-10 minutes: Debrief/share
50 minutes - Writer’s Workshop (daily)
10 minutes: Mini-lesson
20-30 minutes: Independent practice
5-10 minutes: Debrief/share
15 minutes - Word Study and/or Handwriting (3 times a week)
10 -20 minutes - Read Aloud (daily)
Sample Intermediate Daily Schedule
20 minutes: Word Study/Grammar (assessment on Fridays)
50-60 minutes: Reader’s Workshop (daily)
10 minutes: Minilesson
35-45 minutes: Independent practice
5-10 minutes: Debrief/share
20-30 minutes: Read-aloud
40-60 minutes: Writer’s Workshop (daily)
10 minutes: Minilesson
25-35 minutes: Independent practice
5-10 minutes: Debrief/share
Sample Middle School Schedule
Days 1 - 3
50 minute blocks:
10-15 minutes: Grammar instruction/practice
5-10 minutes: Mini-lesson in reading or writing unit of study
20 minutes: Independent practice
5 minutes: Debrief and homework as applicable
70 minute block:
10-15 minutes: Grammar instruction/practice
10-15 minutes: Shared short text & reading notebook turn in
* once/month = Reading Notebook museum
5-10 minutes: Mini-lesson in reading or writing unit of study
25 minutes: Independent practice
5 minutes: Debrief and homework as applicable
Day 4
50 minute block:
15-20 minutes: Grammar assessment
20-25 minutes: Independent practice
5: Debrief and weekend plans for learning
Why do we assess students?
● To determine reading level
● Check independence
○ skills they know at their level
○ strategies they use independently
● Determine next steps for teachers
○ to inform our teaching
○ to reflect on our teaching
● Determine next steps for kids
○ strategies they need to work on
○ skills they need to learn
What does assessment look like in a
Balanced Literacy classroom?
●
●
●
Start with grade-level and school-wide benchmarks and exemplars
Remember, assessment drives your teaching!
○ Diagnostic, Formative, Summative
Assessment Resources: (formal and informal)
○ Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark System K-8
○ CPT4 (ERBs)
○ Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Resources
○ In-book assessments, conferring practices, Reader’s and Writer’s
notebooks
○ Word Study/Grammar: can be taught and assessed separately, as well
as within the context of the reading and writing work
What does differentiation look like in a
Balanced Literacy classroom?
● Workshop model= Differentiation
● Content and Process:
○ by readiness, interest, learning profile
● Flexible grouping
○ use assessments to plan for instruction
○ guided reading/writing groups
○ book clubs (by interest and readiness)
● Collaboration amongst colleagues and other support personnel
(TES Learning Catalyst--for both struggling and advanced learners)
TTLC 2014-15
● Saturday Alumni Workshops: Fall and Spring
● Please join us for our Open Classroom Days:
○ Thursday, November 6, 2014
○ Tuesday, March 31, 2015
○ 8:30 - 11:30 am
○ Observe classrooms/meet
with teachers/leaders
Trinity Episcopal School website:
www.tescharlotte.org
Q and A