Curriculum and Instruction

As schools face increasing accountability and public demand for improved student performance, the need for high-yield, research-based strategies to increase student academic achievement grows.

One of the most influential and productive strategies employed by schools is the systemic use of writing as the assessment of curriculum standards.

Writing with a focus on modeling and measuring thinking skills produces much more than traditional “writing across the curriculum” methods.

In this session, strategies to build writing as a reflection of thinking are discussed. Participants practice “Quick Writes” based on Dr. Robert Marzano’s metacognition power strategies, and plan for thinking/writing targets for all students.

Gain a foundation for the complexity of texts and close-reading instruction, ultimately learning how to show their link to the next generation of assessments.

Participants explore best practices and strategies in formulating text-dependent questions and identifying complex texts.

Writing is one of the most rigorous thinking tasks we can ask the brain to do.

There are three types of writing that should occur in a classroom on a regular basis. Learn not only how to motivate students to want to write across the curriculums, but to also gain a better understanding of why it is such a powerful strategy.

Participants will engage with over 10 of the best ways to get students involved in writing about what they are learning.

When successfully implemented in the classroom, students can’t wait to share their writing and receive feedback from others, ultimately realizing how much more they can learn by writing about their standards.

When students understand what words mean, reading comprehension improves.

In this session, participants will learn top strategies to engage students in the reading process, including: how to own words to improve students’ reading comprehension, writing clarity, and speaking.

Try out the most powerful reading and vocabulary strategies to support learners on their journey of reading independent-level texts, instructional-level texts, and complex texts.

During this course, attendees will explore ways to guide students to approach content learning through reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Participants learn how to support students as they decipher complex texts through close, critical reading. By looking at ways to develop strategic text-dependent questions, attendees will be able to drive students back into the text for deeper processing of content.

A key takeaway from this course will be the ability to plan engaging interactions focused on content ideas, building knowledge, and preparing students for writing and presentations. Specific strategies, including conversation cards and generative sentences, will be shared as a way to engage students in content learning.

Attendees will also investigate the use of academic language to support thinking and discourse, and further explore the idea that information and opinion gaps require communication.

This course explores the Six + 1 Traits of Writing and how to build student confidence in writing skills while advancing overall classroom achievement. Discover practical mini-lessons for today’s 21st century learners in addition to engaging technology and online literature resources for all levels.

Additionally, learn the common language framework and how to maintain consistency in assessment while motivating students to revise and edit.

As an alternative option for professional development, this digital video series allows teachers to participate in training for literacy and reading development at their convenience. Each video is approximately 20 minutes in length and includes research-based strategies and classroom lesson ideas.

This training features the following topics:

• Core knowledge
• Informational Comprehension
• Phonemic Awareness
• Phonics
• Sight Words
• Word Maps

This hands-on workshop incorporates technology interwoven into specific lessons and activities to support the instruction of math standards. Workshop content focuses on step-by-step processes of teaching: decimals, fractions, representations of basic number operations, and number talks — including specific ways to conduct them.

During this course, participants will take an in-depth look at the production and distribution of writing. This course also covers tips to help students respond—in writing—to constructed response questions that are open in nature and might involve the use of contextual information or the use of graphs, charts, and other graphics.

Key takeaways include the ability to guide students to compose content-based argumentative essays. This skill will help students gain a better understanding of the differences between persuasive and argumentative pieces. This course will help participants clarify appropriate approaches to teaching each form of writing. The use of graphic organizers and a wide array of resource materials are also investigated.