Professional Development
Based on the Total Literacy approach, professional development
will be comprised of:
- An orientation workshop
- Embedded year-long training in the classroom with a highly
qualified Total Literacy trainer, delivering Total Literacy
strategies
- Brief organizational meeting
- Model lessons taught by trainers
- Adaptations of model lessons team planned and team taught
by trainer, teacher and paraprofessional
- Coaching
- Development of follow-up activities for centers and
after-school programs
- Post-training support at a choice of three levels depending
on teacher needs and requests.
The training module has been developed to deliver the district's
grade level curriculum, with materials ready for the August
training. The approach is designed to be sensitive to each teacher's
skills, interests, and style. Teachers can expect to learn and
practice 20 open-ended Total Literacy strategies that they will
use to deliver the curriculum, and are designed to spark teacher
and student imagination.
Family Services
Some classrooms will be provided with a family worker who will
deliver a range of services based on family needs, including
attendance monitoring, crisis intervention, a range of family
support, and organization of parent involvement in the school
and classroom.
Extended Year
Some classrooms will attend an additional month, extending the
learning and helping children retain their growth seamlessly
into the next grade level.
Lighthouse after-school program
Some classrooms will have a Lighthouse after-school program
that extends the academic learning. The lighthouse provider
will be trained in Total Literacy strategies and participate
in the embedded professional development. Total Learning staff
will help to develop centers, thereby assuring that the strategies
and curriculum content continue to be explored by students during
after-school hours. Total Learning staff will also collaborate
to organize parent volunteers for the after-school centers.
Evaluation
The effectiveness of the Total Learning approach will be determined
through a research study conducted by an independent research
team. As we know, student test outcomes are very important,
but only begin to tell us what has been learned and what strengths
our student bring. The evaluation component is designed to broaden
the discussion about what is important and should be considered
evidence of progress. Teachers, parents and administrators will
be involved in surveys and interviews through which the evaluation
team can determine Total Learning's impact. The evaluation team
is sensitive to busy schedules, and will be respectful of everyone's
time.
