In this fifteen hour course teachers will learn how to design a unit that will ultimately spark student interest in reading novels by a specific author and give students another avenue, familiarity with an author, for selecting novels for further independent reading. The unit involves students reading two novels written by their chosen author, identifying the elements of fiction, learning to locate and process information regarding their authors' lives through research, note-taking, creating a timeline of factual information about their authors' lives, and writing an extended research-based report about the author's life. The unit culminates with each student creating a T-shirt advertising his/her author presented at an Author Fan Club Convention including refreshments, decorations, etc. reflecting the themes of their authors.
6 - 8
The Big Five in Literacy
In this six week course we will take a close look at how we are currently teaching phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension to our students. Through group discussions, reading literature, sharing current and online resources and describing what we think works (and does not work), we will assess how we can make our teaching even better and more beneficial to our students. I believe that the ideas that we will focus on in this course-phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, vocabulary and fluency," The Big Five" are essential to the success and academic progression of all of our students.
K - 12
Children's Literature
This rigorous yet enjoyable course explores a variety of genres and levels of children’s literature for all grade and subject instruction. Teachers will collaborate with colleagues to create interdisciplinary and differentiated instruction using literature to help their students master their grade and subject-specific New York State standards. All K-12 teachers will benefit by learning to: supplement the textbook for improved content-area instruction, motivate a diverse population of students with multicultural literature, integrate the internet and children’s literature, and use children’s literature to teach struggling students. Coursework can be completed anywhere and time internet access is available, making this a convenient way to get 15 hours of inservice credit.
K - 12
Creating Supportive Literacy Environments for English Language Learners
The student population of English Language Learners continues to grow daily in our schools. The purpose of this course is to explore a range of literacy strategies for teaching English Language Learners and Limited English Proficient students. Drawing on the presenters own research and years of practical experience in the field as well as recent trends, the course will examine recent legislation, implications, assessment strategies and linguistic diversity. Language proficiency will be studied in all modalities – listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and visual representation. The course will go in-depth into important strategies for teaching English Language Learners, including response to intervention, differentiated instruction, flow of instruction, integrated content-based instruction and whole language instruction. Finally the role of parent/cultural outreach, as well as the community, will be covered.
K-12
Creating Templates for Reading Comprehension
How do students connect to literature? Does visualizing a text help students to improve comprehension? Wouldn’t it be great to design reading handouts that can be used with all of the literature you cover in the classroom? Using Laura Robb’s theory of reading comprehension instruction as a model, this course is designed to review reading strategies to improve comprehension, provide a forum for ELA educators to discuss best practices, and provide an opportunity for teachers to design templates for reading comprehension instruction in the classroom.
9-12
Effective Writing Instruction
This instructional approach provides a systematic plan for introducing the concepts which regulate the formation of the English language sentence and its paragraph structure coupled with practice strategies that lead to mastery and assimilation. The key to successful writing instruction is a carefully planned sequence, presenting a crucial concept followed by focused practice before moving on to the next concept. The practice is cumulative. Nothing is watered down, which would only serve to delude the student into thinking the writing process is easy. A resulting perk is that both student and teacher become more proficient readers. Though ELA and social studies teachers will benefit the most, those teachers of even special education and Spanish have also found the strategies valuable.
6 - 12
Engaging Students in Critical Thinking Through Writing
This 15-hour course is designed to provide teachers with practical methods for integrating writing in the content area classroom. Subject area specialists will examine their perceptions of writing and explore the differences between using writing as a means to learn and writing as a demonstration of knowledge gained. Students will examine research-based methods for supporting writing as a critical thinking tool in the secondary classroom. Primarily, the foundation of this course is the belief that writing is vital to learning and thinking and that teachers of all subjects can effectively and confidently promote writing in their classrooms. Thus, participants will also analyze the reciprocal relationship of reading and writing to heighten awareness of the intrinsic value of a balanced literacy approach in the classroom.
K-12
Incorporating Reading Strategies into the Content Areas
This online course is designed to assist middle and high school subject area teachers and speech teachers with strategies to help struggling readers in their subject classrooms. We will examine various strategies (including connecting background knowledge, visualizing, and making connections) and decide which strategies will work best for both the classroom teacher and the collaborative/reading specialist/special education teacher. At the end of this course, you will be able to design lesson plans that incorporate these new strategies which will help your struggling readers to improve their reading skills and to better comprehend subject area material.
K-12
Integrating Google Apps into ELA
Utilizing different Google applications, Participants will create a digital classroom that will increase home school relations, engage ELA students, as well as provide a place for students to share, collaborate, and assist each other throughout the learning process.
K-12
Language and Literacy in the Early Education Classroom
Language and literacy are the foundation for all other learning. This course will provide early education teachers the necessary tools to facilitate a language and literacy rich approach to teaching. By incorporating these strategies throughout all aspects of the classroom, students will gain insight and understanding of knowledge they will need for future success in their elementary years.
K-3
Lost in the Ring of Fire
This course uses the SmartBoard as a focus for projects that encourage writing, creativity and fun. Participants will be able to finish this course with ready-to-use classroom projects, complete with links to appropriate websites that are sure to motivate their class. Using world maps, plate tectonics and volcanoes as a focus, the reading and writing in the content area will be emphasized. Web access to many forms of technology for use with the smartboard will be featured. All of the web based material will be open and free to access. This course will give teachers experience working with the Smartboard Notebook software, websites specifically designed for the smartboard but can also be modified to work with other classroom media. There are language arts, global environmental "green" issues and earth science concepts that will be incorporated into the projects.
3-12
Portfolios: Authentic Assessment
In this 15 hour course, participants will learn about authentic assessment, how to maximize the usage of portfolios and reflection in their English Language Arts classrooms, and the benefits of using portfolios to assess individual learning. The portfolio is a flexible and valuable tool that can be used for a variety of purposes. This class is designed for middle school English Language Arts classes, and will cover all of the New York State English Language Arts Learning Standards.
6-8
Project-Based Reading and Writing
Many students today need a little extra motivation to get them going in reading and writing. This course will give you many exciting reading and writing activities that you can use in the classroom to motivate those students. The activities are educational and based on the NYS ELA Standards. You will actually do several projects that will soon be a part of your classroom plans. There will be opportunities to work together in a live chat session using the program, “Elluminate”. I will be there supporting you in all of your online work. Join us in a worthwhile experience and have some fun along the way. Recommended for Middle School Grades but can be adapted to any level.
5 - 8
Sloan Course
A Simpler and More Effective Way to Teach Writing: Syllabus
This course is designed to provide teachers with a simpler framework for teaching writing (and enhancing critical thinking) skills in the classroom. The focus will be on helping students to improve their writing by proving effective feedback that dispenses with jargon and helps students focus on the three primary tasks of any good communicator: making a strong point, backing it up, and telling us why we need to know it. Good writing isn’t complicated. But much of what is written about how to teach writing over-deconstructs the process: This makes it harder for teachers to teach and students to learn, and it does nothing to ease the grading burden.
K-12
Teaching Poetry Writing to Young Learners in the 21st Century
Whether you have never taught poetry writing or have and just want some more tools in your teacher "bag o' tricks", we will explore ways to make it easy, fun and meaningful to our young writers!At the end of this course, you will have lessons for the Grade Level you teach and will be able to benefit from lessons developed by the other participants. The course is interactive, so I expect to learn some things from you, as you learn from me and from interaction with your peers.
K-12
Teaching Reading and Writing to Students who have Difficulty Attending, Processing and Following Directions
This course is designed to provide information to increase awareness and knowledge of an Auditory Processing Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder in young children learning to read and write. Participants will learn what Auditory Processing Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder are and the various signs of these disabilities. Participants will read related articles about A.P.D. and A.D.D. /H.D. with a focus on how it affects elementary school aged children's reading and writing ability. There will be ongoing discussions, reactions and reflections about the readings with the expectation that you submit an action plan of various strategies and tools to help better teach students who struggles in these areas.
K-12
Tech Treasures for Literacy
This 15 hour online course will focus on finding, creating (and of course sharing) literacy tools, TREASURES, for use within PK-3 classrooms. Participants will explore MarcoPoloNY, as well as o the r free online software sites, search for online manipulatives, and create classroom resources. Focus will be on the FAB 5; phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency.
PK-3
Sloan Course
Using Digital Resources to Enhance Reading Comprehension
Have you ever read a book... a short story... a poem and been able to see the characters, know the place, or empathize with the protagonist? Many students haven't had such a memorable reading moment. They'd much rather surf the web, text friends and search for themselves on youtube. To motive students to read teachers can connect reading with the digital resources students use every day. There is a wealth of Web 2.0 resources to connect kids with books. Using Digital Resources to Enhance Reading Comprehension will provide teachers with the knowledge and skills to connect kids with reading through digital media and easy to use Web tools.
2-12
Using Literacy Across the Curriculum
This is a course designed to show teachers from Pre K- 12th grade how to use literacy as the core for any of their lessons. It will be based on Heidi Hayes Jacobs’ philosophy from her book, Active Literacy across the Curriculum.
K-12
Using Literature Circles to Enhance Reading
Literature Circles add an exciting dimension to a
student’s literacy experiences. These discussion groups encourage students to
be positive members of a literate classroom community while capitalizing
on how they personally respond to literature. This course will help the
participant explore the various roles of the literature circle and select roles
appropriate for their students – regardless of reading level or ability.
Participants will conduct and record literature circles in their own
classrooms.
2-5
Using Research Skills in the Development of Student Newsletters
In this course teachers will learn to use MarcoPolo as a resource to guide students through research on a specific topic. They will develop clear guidelines geared to the development of individual student newsletters. They will develop a rubric designed to aid students in assessing their work, and will learn to use Microsoft Publisher so as to guide students in the use of that program in order to develop student newsletters. Teachers will learn how to show their students how to develop new research skills and hone existing skills while using MarcoPolo, learn basic components of a newsletter, apply their knowledge in developing their own newsletters, and synthesize their research results by developing newspaper articles.
