The literacy team helps K-12 teachers develop challenging, interesting curriculum that is critical for students to graduate college and be career ready. When schools and districts partner with us they receive support in
- Implementing best practices in English Language Arts instruction
- Designing flexible assessment systems
- Integrate reading and writing across content areas
- Aligning instruction with the Common Core State Standards
- Meeting the needs of children learning English and students with disabilities
Services Provided:
Our experienced team will help identify, facilitate, and sustain high quality learning in literacy. To assist our partner schools and districts, the PDCE can provide
- Presentations and institutes about evidence-based practices in literacy;
- Coaching support for teachers in using evidence-based practices in literacy;
- Design and implementation support for response to intervention initiatives;
- Training and coaching for small-group foundational skills instruction;
- Training and coaching for genre-based writing instruction;
- Training and coaching for knowledge-building read alouds;
- Support for principals observing and providing feedback about literacy instruction;
- Support for implementation of Bookworms Reading and Writing; and
- Design and support for professional book studies.
Bookworms K-5
Teachers new to Bookworms receive five half-days of grade-specific, guided, explicit training in all of the Bookworms curriculum components, including time and guidance to prepare for the first month of school. We have found virtual training to be the most efficient and cost-effective option for training delivery. However, we also offer in-person delivery. Training emphasizes the skilled practice of the instructional routines delivered during shared reading, interactive read-aloud, genre-based writing, and differentiated instruction. We will also provide tasks for your grade-level teams to accomplish together after each training session. Consider reserving an additional 3 hours of planning time for teachers for each training day.
Effective implementation of HQIM is more likely with ongoing support. We recommend 90 minutes of collaborative inquiry (CI) per month, during which grade-level teams study and practice upcoming lessons and evaluate student work to set instructional goals. Literacy specialists will observe lessons linked to goals and deliver actionable feedback between monthly CI team meetings. Partnerships benefit from 28 days of coaching per school grade-level band (K-2, 3-5, 6-8) during the first year. We offer both virtual and in-person coaching support.
Bookworms for Middle School (BWMS)
CCSS-aligned, differentiated Tier I ELA curriculum for grades six through eight. The curriculum is grounded in evidence-based practices and explicitly centers on equity and social justice. A small faction of the SSC team authors the curriculum under the direction of Sharon Walpole, Ph.D., and provides training and coaching to school-based partners. Training supports include, but are not limited to, a multi-day introduction to the curricular design, lesson types, equity orientation, and planning; professional development that supports partners’ needs and centers student achievement; and module-specific professional development that prepares partners for implementation. Coaching supports include, but are not limited to, goal-oriented cycles of observations and debriefs with teachers or school-based coaches relative to a BWMS-aligned Innovation Configuration (IC), guided peer walkthroughs and IC-aligned debriefs, collaborative PLCs, and planning assistance. The BWMS team is always eager to work collaboratively alongside teachers, coaches, school-based administrators, and district leadership.
Science of Reading: Differentiated Instruction for Adolescents
Our Literacy Specialists will engage teachers in thinking about targeted skills interventions for adolescent students. In this course, teachers will study methods for teaching adolescent students how to more effectively engage with, read, and comprehend text. Work in this course is designed to be applicable to teachers’ work in the classroom, flexible, and customized to fit specific needs of teachers as well as their students, schools, and districts.
Science of Reading and Writing for Adolescents
This course provides an overview suitable for upper elementary teachers, specialists, and administrators looking to build an understanding of the relationships between reading development, writing development, and knowledge development. This understanding will help educators to see the teaching and learning affordances of high-quality instructional materials. Readings used during these sessions will be provided.
Genre-Based Writing for Adolescents
This course provides an overview suitable for upper elementary and middle, and high school teachers, specialists, and administrators looking to understand the best practices in writing instruction for the upper grades and ways to differentiate. This understanding will help participants to gain confidence in the classroom when teaching writing and motivate their students to write effectively.
Science of Writing for Adolescents
This course introduces teachers to the Hochman Method, an evidence-based and proven instructional methodology in writing that focuses on explicit, sequenced instruction that builds from sentences to compositions in expository writing that can be integrated into any content. Specific strategies are presented to improve students’ writing structure, coherence, and clarity.
Early Literacy Development
This course provides an overview suitable for elementary teachers, specialists, and administrators looking to build an understanding of the relationships between reading development, writing development, and knowledge development. This understanding will help them to see the teaching and learning affordances of high-quality instructional materials. Readings used during these sessions will be provided.
Science of Reading and Writing K-5
This course will provide an overview suitable for upper elementary and middle school teachers, specialists, and administrators looking to build an understanding of the relationships between reading, writing, and knowledge development. This understanding will help them to understand, plan, and implement the teaching and learning of high quality instructional materials. The course has six 3-hour segments through a synchronous learning format. Participants will be provided the required texts for reading.
Assessing DDOE Micro-credential
Teachers select micro-credentials from Digital Promise that are aligned with their personal goals, student needs, or school-wide priorities which they do on their own time. They select individual modules that are based on research on the Science of Teaching Reading. The teachers complete modules by reading the research and then submitting evidence in regard to instructional practice, student learning, evaluative procedures, and data analysis. The evidence that is submitted is a combination of audio, video, and written responses. My role is to evaluate and analyze the evidence using research, observation, and performance rubrics.
We offer flexible-design professional learning support for K-5 teachers implementing Walpole & McKenna’s Differentiated Instruction (DI) Model foundational skills curriculum. Educators will engage in customized professional learning sessions for implementing the DI Model in their classroom, school, and/or district, with topics selected from one or more of five different focus areas:
- Understanding the DI Model structure
- Learning about the research informing the DI Model design
- Learning how to assess and place students into instructional groups at the beginning of the year
- Learning how to teach and progress monitor each instructional group
- Supporting DI block planning and preparation
To ensure effective implementation, we recommend ongoing coaching throughout the school year to support teachers in initial assessment and skill group placement, lesson implementation, progress monitoring and data analysis, and flexible grouping.
Our Literacy Specialists work in collaboration with professors at the University of Delaware’s School of Education, supporting their research by planning and implementing the coaching and professional development necessary for study participants in schools.
School-based leaders unite within and across districts to conduct walk-throughs and consider actionable feedback for high-quality implementation of Bookworms K-8. Six half-day face-to-face sessions begin with a needs assessment, continue with school-based PL with walk-throughs and conclude with an evaluation and district-wide portfolio of implementation.
The SSC offers a specialized year-long course of study for district/school-based literacy coaches who are supporting a literacy curriculum that is considered to include HQIM (specifically Bookworms Reading and Writing). For the first half of the year, the coaches are engaged in PL 3 days per month, focusing on the “hows” and “whys” of the four components of BWRW K-5, including the supporting research. This PL period also includes studying research-based best practices and protocols for coaching, viewing lessons for each component, and practicing coaching conversations through role-play simulations. Coaches will have assignments between sessions in order to practice teaching the curriculum K-5, observe instruction in K-5, and provide actionable feedback. For the second half of the year, the coaches will receive support in their schools as they work with an SSC coach to observe instruction and provide feedback. Then, each coach will receive one-on-one support to prepare for the follow-up coaching conversation with the teacher and again after the conversation to discuss the process, next steps, and to receive feedback. SSC coaches can also provide support throughout the year with monthly full-day PLCs virtually or in person. During the PLC, each coach will receive one-on-one individualized support for 20-30 minutes to meet their individual needs. Then, during a 1-2 hour group session, school-based coaches will continue to build their knowledge of the curriculum as they collaborate with one another to enhance their coaching skills.