LITI Opportunities

Throughout their time in the program, students can access a range of opportunities to engage with the work of the Reading and Writing Project and leaders in the field. Depending on interest and experience, students can become TCRWP fellows, engage in ongoing inquiry work in NYC schools, attend Calendar Days, or shadow a staff developer for a semester.

TCRWP Fellows:All Literacy Specialist students are welcome to become a Teachers College Reading and Writing Project fellow. This role entitles you to attend almost any of approximately one hundred calendar days the Project offers, or to function as a TA/research assistant in a think tank, and to learn from the organization in other ways, as well. The TCRWP offers workshops to teachers who work with primary students, with ELLs, with children with IEPs, and with upper grade students. You may receive extra credit within a course for your additional study and can include this valuable experience on your resume.

Apprentice with a Staff Developer: Students in the Literacy Specialist Program who are already or who have an interest in becoming teacher educators, literacy coaches, Directors of Language Arts, or principals may have the opportunity to apprentice with one of the staff developers or senior leaders of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. This apprenticeship means that the graduate student becomes a sort of junior staff developer, helping to support school-wide reform in a handful of nearby schools. The graduate student sometimes joins into the staff development as a learner, and sometimes extends the reach of the staff developer—perhaps returning to the school between the staff developer’s visits to help the new work become rooted, or working with half the teachers while the staff developer works with the other half. Graduate students also become TAs at Coaching Institutes, the Content Area Institute, and in Specialty Groups.