Three and One-Half Hour Workshop

Parent – Teacher Workshop on Writing

This interactive workshop involves grade teachers and parents in the stages of the writing process. Parents and teachers will, together, draft pieces of writing in the three modes (informational, narrative and persuasive) assessed on the PSSA and use the Pennsylvania Writing Scoring Guide to think about improving student writing.

Ten Hour Workshops

Making Connections: Writing in K-12 Classrooms
This workshop will pay particular attention to how writing is central to learning in the content areas.

Making Connections: Reading and Writing in the High School Classroom This workshop will focus on cross-curricular instructional strategies as they pertain to the high school classroom in particular.

Interventions: Exploring the Writing Process in Three Modes and Strategies to Help All Students Improve Their Writing This interactive workshop will involve content area and special education teachers in the stages of the writing process as they produce and assess narrative, informational and persuasive writing for special education students.

Inquiry into Projects: Connecting Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
To meet graduation requirements, students in grades 4, 8 and 12 in the School District of Philadelphia must be able complete a promotion or graduation project. This workshop has been designed for teachers working to help students meet project goals. Teachers will have the opportunity to develop their own projects and performance assessments in the context of student centered teaching and learning.

Getting a Great Start: Kindergarten through Second Grade Comprehensive Literacy
This workshop will provide teachers with an opportunity to examine issues and practices related to literacy in kindergarten through second grade.

Composing in Three Modes: The Pennsylvania Writing Assessment Using three modes of writing, this workshop focuses on process writing and develops strategies for improving skills and abilities described in the domains of the Pennsylvania State Scoring Guide.

Teachers and Students as Authors: Creating Writing and Reading Workshops
This workshop will focus on building a classroom community of writers and readers through Writing and Reading Workshops. Teachers will learn about creating workshops by experiencing the process firsthand. Each participant will be invited to create a children’s book.

Participating in the Grand Conversation: How Internet Technology can Support Teaching and Learning in Schools
This workshop will acquaint teachers with how the Internet can be effectively used to support a Comprehensive Literacy Framework.

Transacting with Text throughout the Literacy Block This workshop will focus on strategies to help surround text with opportunities to speak, write and listen in order to construct meaning during modeled, shared, guided and independent reading.

Composing Text throughout the Literacy Block This workshop will concentrate on creating opportunities and strategies for composing text during modeled, shared, guided and independent writing.

Supporting Collaborative Inquiry through Protocols This workshop will focus on the use of protocols or structured conversations about student work as a tool for supporting collaborative inquiry and increasing student achievement.

Arts and Literacy This five-part series focuses on the arts as a resource for teachers of all subjects. As they explore possibilities of sharing their work with the larger community, critical connections to areas of the curriculum and standards in English, language arts, history, science and social studies are made using various art forms.

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One or Two Ten Hour Workshops

Building Professional Communities of Practice Participants in this two-tiered workshop (the first tier is an online ten hour study group, the second tier is a ten hour workshop series within a school) will work to build collegial learning communities for the improvement of student learning.

Fifteen Hour Institutes

Writing Leadership Institute
This three-day writing institute is designed for principals and other school/district leaders. It is intended to enhance the knowledge and skills of administrators related to their own professional writing and to their leadership of elementary, middle and secondary schools where writing is integral to learning for all students and staff. A diverse institute staff including university faculty and School District of Philadelphia administrators and teachers will involve up to 30 participants in a variety of collaborative activities over a three-day period.

Thirty Hour Courses

Writing with English Language Learners
This course has been designed to deepen participants’ knowledge of the multiple roles of writing in English Language Learners’ classrooms through an exploration of literacy teaching and learning across the curriculum. Self-reflection and an inquiry approach will be emphasized as participants investigate their own literacy practices and the implications of cultural diversity. Examining the writing process through writer’s workshop will be emphasized, and participants will reflect on the connection between writing and language acquisition.

Seminar in Teaching and Learning for Middle and/or High School Teachers
Participants will explore events that influence learning in relation to the underlying beliefs that currently inform their teaching. They will collaborate on project-based assignments and/or thematic units that integrate reading and writing in the content areas. There will be an emphasis on systematic techniques for looking at and assessing students’ work and the implications for instruction and assessment. Participants will explore and learn to develop Essential Questions as a starting point for an interdisciplinary curriculum and how this may influence the individual teacher’s content specific curriculum.

Practicum School: A Four-Week Summer Program
This four-week summer program combines a collaborative classroom instructional program in the morning with an afternoon research-based professional development opportunity for reflective practice.

Comprehensive Literacy for Bilingual and English Language Learners
This course is designed to introduce new and practicing teachers to theoretical, cultural, pedagogical and political issues surrounding second language learners and to encourage reflective teaching practices. Participants will gain an understanding of the theoretical issues and current research questions in the field of second language acquisition from the perspective of researchers, policy makers (national and local), and practitioners as well as of the effectiveness of an inquiry stance. Participants will also develop knowledge of the School District of Philadelphia’s Curriculum Frameworks and balanced literacy approaches and their relationship to English language learning.

Planning Curriculum and Instructional Strategies for English Language Learners This course focuses on infusing writing across all content areas into the curriculum and describing promising instructional strategies to support ELL learners develop writing proficiency.

Writing in the Library: The Role of Writing in Research and as a Response to Literature This course is designed for new and practicing librarians to enhance their instructional practices around student learning through writing. Through their own shared learning experiences and the development of independent inquiry projects that can serve as models for student and teacher research, librarians will develop a network which will function as a means to explore their role as instructional leaders.

Other Offerings

ELL Reading and Writing Summer Camps Three instructional programs are provided for elementary, middle and high school ELL students, of all proficiency levels, and their parents in summer camp format. This workshop also provides opportunities for “interactive demonstration” for ELL teachers.