Support for Systemic Large-Scale Reform in Literacy: Building Capacity Within Large Districts
The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project is proud to offer a multi-tiered, multi-year package of supports designed to bring Best Literacy Practices to scale across selected large districts. We will provide a system of comprehensive supports to administrators, teachers and students across these district.
This package can be customized to fit the needs of your district. Offerings may include:
Needs Assessment
Advice and guidance from TCWRP to help you assess your district’s needs and to develop an implementation plan appropriate for the your district’s needs. This process may include visiting representative schools, studying district’s data and assessment and working with local teachers and leaders to develop or adapt curriculum.
Single- and Multi-Day Events
TCRWP will provide large one-day conferences as well as smaller study groups designed to rally enthusiasm and build knowledge and skills related to best practices in teaching reading and writing. These days can be tailored to your needs and can include:
Keynoting Superintendent Conference Days
Leading day-long conferences at regular intervals across the year designed for all-teachers across particular grade levels
Leading study groups, instructional rounds, and a leadership course for administrators
Institutes in Reading and/or Writing
Providing a site-based ‘homegrown institute’ over the summer and/or during the school year that mirrors the famous institutes that TCRWP leads each summer in NYC. These personalized institutes in the teaching of writing or reading give teachers and administrators a chance to live the life of a workshop student for a week, while also learning the theory behind this method and curriculum. These can involve as many as several hundred participants.
Support for Coaches and Teacher Leaders
Leading a coaching institute for district coaches/literacy specialists/administrators designed after the Coaching Institute at TC (the crown jewel of the Project’s events). These institutes help teacher-educators learn a repertoire of methods for teaching teachers. This experience will have a particular impact because it will be on-site in one of your demonstration schools.
On-Site Professional Development
Intensive professional development designed to help select schools become demonstration sites. Teachers at these schools will need to be involved in most of the above and also to receive in-classroom staff development that accelerates their journey towards becoming laboratories that illustrate best practices in literacy.
Data Analysis
Developing a plan for tracking student progress and for mining data to inform curricular reform and professional development.
Next Steps
TCRWP will develop this deep and long-lasting partnership with only a few districts, and those districts that embark on this with us now will help design the plan. We our still exploring the extent to which this work will be hybrid, involving some technology-based distance learning.
We are also exploring ways in which we might develop relationships between the large-scale partner districts.
If you are interested in getting more information about this new offering please email Laurie Pessah at laurie@tcrwp.org or Kathy Neville at kathy@tcrwp.org.
