Research indicates literacy coaches have a direct impact on literacy instruction and student achievement in today’s schools. Coaches use their role in the schools to enhance others’ abilities through motivation and support. This can oftentimes be an overwhelming and daunting task. This program will offer inspiration, guidance, training, modeling of strategies, and evidence based practices for the 21st century elementary literacy coach.

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Designed for teachers in grades 4 to 12.

The statistics are consistent: young male readers lag behind their female counterparts in literacy skills. In many instances, the reading scores of boys bring down the reading scores for the entire school. Explore the social, psychological, and developmental reasons why boys lag behind girls. Identify reading materials you can use in your classroom to capture and keep the attention of your struggling readers. Experience a variety of instructional methods such as text selection designed for boys, contests and competitions, focus reading groups, and the latest websites and blogs to boost literacy achievement. Discover solutions to capture the attention of reluctant male readers and examine strategies that motivate boys to sustain reading in the classroom and at home.

Open to teachers in their first, second, or third year of teaching, this program supports motivated beginning teachers by strengthening their knowledge base and classroom expertise. Through experiential learning, teachers will explore pedagogical concerns including differentiated instruction, brain-compatible teaching, assessment, the effect of poverty on achievement and behavior, and classroom management. Come prepared to build professional competence and confidence, improve student achievement, and reinforce your commitment to this critically important profession.

As a teacher, what are your strengths, in and out of the classroom? What are your leadership skills, in and out of the classroom? Standard 1 of The North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards requires that teachers demonstrate leadership that extends beyond their own students. If ambitious, creative, effective teachers could remain in the classroom while still finding means to have impacts on their schools, districts, or communities, the entire educational system would benefit. Teacher leaders will examine their work settings and their roles in them. Teachers will develop means to integrate intellectual growth and leadership skills, as well as explore ways to have continued impacts, in and out of the classroom. They also will step out of their comfort zones for a day of engaging with the US Coast Guard to examine their teamwork and leadership models and hear from leaders in other professions.

Today’s diverse students enter school eager to become successful in classrooms originally designed for culturally homogeneous populations and are expected to learn from teachers who are often not from the same cultural, ethnic/race or social-class. Unsurprisingly, student performance in reading and other subjects is often low while student dropout and teacher burnout rates are high. This program guides participants to explore and document their experiences in motivating at-risk students to become effective readers. In addition to sharing successful strategies for improving reading skills and producing a written narrative, participants will examine barriers children encounter along the pathway and how these barriers affected them. Additionally, participants will become familiar with strategies they can use today to change the culture of the classroom to support the development of higher order thinking skills while enhancing self-motivation, personal responsibility, and perseverance to become skilled readers who excel academically.

What should literacy instruction look like in today’s classrooms? High quality literacy instruction promotes and advances critical thinking. This program will investigate intentional instruction that fosters critical thinking skills. Examine strategies to “dig deeper” into the text and discover the art of dialogue and purposeful questions. Utilize multiple media and technologies to support and enhance a student’s critical eye for thoughtful interpretation of ideas.

Whether or not your school or district has adopted a Google Chromebook environment, if your LEA infrastructure allows for the use of Google Tools and/or Apps, the “Googlesphere” can be an immense help. It can aid in engaging students, keeping in touch with parents, automating feedback and assessment, sharing documents, and more. Hone your skills with the Google Chrome Browser, with Google Apps, with Android Apps, and with Chrome OS so that you can engage your students using freely available tools on almost any platform.

Writing well allows students to process and organize their thoughts and feelings and to communicate effectively with a range of audiences. Writing well is also one of the most difficult skills to teach, and many find the task overwhelming. The grading alone taxes the commitment of even the best of our profession. In this program, we will examine ways to write and how best to introduce various writing techniques to your students while providing useful, timely feedback. Participants will be given several writing assignments and should be prepared to give and receive feedback on that writing.

Reading, as the old saying goes, is fundamental. However, not all public school students have access to the variety of materials necessary to build a strong reading foundation. Research grant opportunities for purchasing books, digital devices, and other materials to aid in literacy instruction. Explore multiple means of acquiring literacy-related donations and discover open-access materials online. Finally, participate in the sharing of strategies for the effective use of these resources.

Literacy instruction is as difficult as it is essential. This program will provide early grades teachers with a complement of research-based tools and strategies to help answer some of their more burning questions: How do I teach close reading to students who don’t yet know the alphabet? What level of writing can I attain from children who are still learning to spell? How do I simultaneously provide enrichment for advanced readers and remediation for delayed readers? How can I integrate reading and writing instruction into all other subject areas? Finally, what does this instruction look like in the classroom and how are student engagement and learning measured in this process?