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Events

K–12 Reading, Mathematics, Science, ESL and Special Leadership Institutes

October 30, 2007 – April 8, 2008
Brooklyn, NY

The NYCC Adolescent Literacy Team conducted a series of workshops with the New York State Education Department (NYSED)—Office of School Improvement and Community Services at the Brooklyn Marriott Hotel. Participants included district/school administrators, literacy coaches and teachers who work in Schools Under Registration Review (SURR), Schools in Need of Improvement (SINI) and Restructured Schools where achievement must be improved on state assessments in English Language Arts (ELA). The workshops focused on implementing research-based practices for improving middle and high school ELA performance.

NYCC Workshop Presentations at the Leadership Institute


Reading and Writing at the Secondary Level, Part 1: What Does Research Say about Adolescent Literacy? (October 30, 2007)

At the first session, participants focused on the five recommendations of the Center on Instruction (COI) Academic Literacy Instruction for Adolescents: A Guidance Document. After a brief presentation to set the context for the document, participants worked in small groups to unpack one recommendation. Then they shared out the major ideas of each recommendation and, along with the NYCC facilitators, discussed how these recommendations could be implemented in classrooms and schools. In the afternoon, participants were introduced to the document Writing Next and discussed its implications.


Reading and Writing at the Secondary Level, Part 2: Making Informed Decisions (December 11, 2007)

The workshop focused on three objectives:

The morning session engaged the participants in the Looking at Student Work protocol and provided them with opportunities to brainstorm ways of sharing the protocol with their colleagues. In the afternoon, participants reviewed different kinds of assessments that can be administered in schools and practiced creating, administering, and scoring an informal diagnostic tool to estimate students' reading ability with specific texts.


Reading and Writing at the Secondary Level, Part 3: Applying Available Knowledge to Address the Needs of Struggling Readers (February 7, 2008)

This workshop addressed three objectives for participants:

The morning session provided the participants with an opportunity to learn various methods of obtaining readability estimates of print and online student reading materials, practice applying qualitative judgment about the text and the reader to fine-tune the readability level, and apply their knowledge of both reader ability and text difficulty to match students to appropriate texts. In the afternoon, the participants followed a prescribed LSW protocol to sharpen their skills of looking at a single student's written work in depth to inform their instruction. The session concluded with participants reflecting on the process and its benefits to them and their student(s).


Reading and Writing at the Secondary Level, Part 4 (April 8, 2008)

To prepare high school students to succeed on state assessments, teachers must understand the types of reading challenges inherent in the texts of the different content areas, specifically science, social studies, and mathematics. In this workshop, participants focused on understanding these reading demands and challenges by engaging in a panel discussion by content area specialists who addressed the following questions:

Participants identified common reading and writing demands and discussed comprehension strategies that can be used across the content areas in understanding text. They received a copy of the document Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas: Getting to the Core of Middle and High School Improvement by Heller and Greenleaf (Alliance for Excellent Education). In the afternoon, participants focused on writing and had the opportunity to practice using a Looking at Student Work protocol to engage other teachers in their schools in building a community of learners.