Instructor: Christian Courtemanche
Dates: June 24-27, 2019; 8:00 am – 4:00 pm plus 2 follow up classes 10/3 and 11/5; 3:30 pm – 6:30 pm
This 3 credit graduate course explores a menu model for differentiation, reframing Tier I math instruction in order to meet the ongoing range of instructional needs. Learn how to manage a ‘centers’ approach to your teaching and restructuring your math block to allow for small group and individualized lessons. Embedded in the coursework will be examining lessons through the lens of the Common Core Math Standards of Practice, as well as how to utilize technology as a direct tool for math instruction.
Explorations include:
- How can I keep up with my curriculum map AND make accommodations in time for students struggling with math concepts?
- What do I do with students who consistently finish their math assignments early?
- How do I maintain a pace that matches different students’ needs?
- How can I maximize integrating technology with limited resources?
- When do I use a Tier II intervention and when do I support students in the classroom?
- How can I find time to incorporate the great games and resources that are part of my math program?
Texts:
- Jorgensen, J. and M. Murray. (2007). The Differentiated Math Classroom: a guide for teachers, K-8
- Hoffer, Wendy Ward (2012). Minds on Mathematics: Using Math Workshop to Develop Deep Understanding in Grades 4-8
Vermont Core Teaching Standards Addressed:
Standard 1: Learner Development: The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
Standard 2: Learning Differences: The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards
Standard 3: Learning Environments: The teacher works with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self motivation.
Standard 7: Planning for Instruction: The teacher plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.
Standard 8: Instructional Strategies: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
Standard 9: Professional Learning and Ethical Practice: The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the community) and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner.
Instructor: Annie O’Shaughnessy Hybrid/Online course
Start Date: July 1 Face to Face Dates: July 8 – 12 9:00 am – 3:30 pm
Online Work: Intro/Prep 7/1 – 7/5 and 7/15 – 7/19
Target Audience: Educators, therapists & helping professionals
In this course we will explore Mindfulness and Restorative Practices as foundational and interdependent practices central to developing a vital learning community. While class meetings will be primarily experiential in order to develop an embodied understanding of mindful awareness and restorative work, online material and assignments will challenge participants to become fluent in the principles, science and research that support them.
Emphasis is placed on each participant’s unique goals and teaching styles, providing structure, resources and support for the tricky, often challenging work of teaching content while building community and attending to the social and emotional needs of students. Finally, participants will experience the power of Mindfulness and Restorative Practices as tools within a collaborative reflective practice, looking closely at our teaching lives.
Participants will:
· Review research on the effect of mindful awareness activities and restorative practices (RP) on classroom learning, executive functioning & behavior and teacher/counselor wellness.
· Use mindful investigation and analysis to improve teaching practice
· Design & implement mindfulness activities that are developmentally appropriate and feel authentic to the teacher.
· Learn how RP works to improve classroom culture, decrease behavioral incidents and increase positive academic risk-taking.
· Explore how RP can be woven into content instruction
Includes book: Rechtschaffen, D. (2014). The Way of Mindful Education: Cultivating Well-Being in Teachers and Students and Riestenberg, N. (2012). Students & Circle in the Square: Building Community and Repairing Harm in School.
Standards are for Teaching
Standard 3: Learning Environments: The teacher works with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self motivation.
Standard 8 : Instructional Strategies: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep
understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
Standard 9: Professional Learning and Ethical Practice: The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually
evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the community) and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner.
For Leading:
Standard 2: An education leader promotes the success of every learner by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to learning and staff professional growth.
Standard 5: An education leader promotes the success of every learner by acting with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical
About the Presenter: Annie O’Shaughnessy
Instructor: Beth Moore
Dates: July 1 – September 30, 2019 Location: Online at EDU 2.0
Target Audience: Grades K-5 Teachers, teachers who are newer to writing/reading workshop and will be using Writing Workshop and who have access to one complete grade level boxed set from the series Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing: A Common Core Workshop Curriculum by Lucy Calkins et al (2013, Heinemann)
This course is designed to help teachers in grades K-5 establish writing workshop. This course will include the study of methods of teaching writing including writing workshop, minilessons, conferring, small group work, shared writing and interactive writing.
This course will use a combination of video clips, readings, samples of student work, creating practical lesson plans, and other engaging online resources to provide a very practical overview for teachers, especially those new to teaching writing workshop, or new to their grade level. Participants will also practice their own writing, drafting three main types of writing highlighted in the Common Core Standards: narrative, informational, and opinion/argument.
The course is designed to be self-paced, allowing participants to work on sessions as schedules allow across the summer. Informal, formative assessments are embedded into each session. A companion summer online course, Reading Workshop with Beth Moore is running concurrently and should be registered for separately.
Note: Books not included, but access needed to take course.
Instructor: Beth Moore
Dates: July 1 – September 30, 2019 Location: Online at EDU 2.0
Target Audience: Grades K-5 Teachers,teachers who are newer to writing/reading workshop and will be using Reading Workshop and who have access to one complete grade level boxed set from the series Units of Study for Teaching Reading by Lucy Calkins et al (2015, Heinemann), including the accompanying trade book pack.
This course will be devoted to studying, planning for, and practicing various methods of reading instruction. Methods covered in this course will include:
· interactive read-aloud,
· explicit strategy instruction,
· independent reading,
· guided reading,
· shared reading, and
· phonics/word study.
These will be learned through a combination of related readings, video clips, analyzing samples of student work, and a range of other engaging online resources.
The course is designed to be self-paced, allowing participants to work on sessions as schedules allow across the summer. Informal, formative assessments are embedded into each session. A companion summer online course, Writing Workshop with Beth Moore is running concurrently and should be registered for separately.
Note: Books not included, but access needed to take course.
Instructor: Michael Martin, Ed.D.
Dates: August 5 – 9, 2019 Time: 8:00 am – 3:30 pm
Includes the book: Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, 2nd Expanded Edition)
Target Audience: K- 12 Educators
Despite a great deal of innovation and hard work by Vermont educators, the current transition to proficiency-based learning (PBL) has raised a number of important questions about unit design, assessment, and grading. The purpose of this course is to provide structures and strategies that help clarify next steps for teachers and school leaders who are engaged in this work and are responsible for communicating this change to students, families and the wider community. The operating assumption is that proficiency-based learning will improve equitable student outcomes through greater precision, transparency, and relevance thanks to intentionally structured learning activities and assessment. The course will examine the importance of habits of learning, growth mindset, and how feedback practices can either help or hinder future growth. This course will incorporate a variety of resources, including Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2006) as a framework to help teachers create purposeful units driven by authentic assessment and inquiry. Participants will have time to learn through professional dialogue, examine their own assessment strategies, and apply PBL principles to their own work during the course meeting time.
Course participants will learn how to:
● explain the purpose of PBL in simple terms to students, families & community members
● assess transferable skills in concert with content-area proficiencies
● create a hierarchy of standards in order to simplify and clarify unit planning, assessment & reporting
● develop formative assessment strategies that are manageable for teachers
Instructors: Nicole Gaboriault, Literacy Coach, RR Teacher, Literacy Interventionist
Melissa Lyons, RR Teacher, Literacy Interventionist
Amy L. Riendeau, Literacy Coach
Dates: August 5 – 6, 2019 Time: 8:00 am – 3:00 pm
Plus monthly sessions 9/12, 9/26, 10/10, 10/24, 11/14, 12/12, 1/9, 1/23, 2/6, and 2/20/20
Time: 4:00-7:00 pm
Location: NCSU Room A209 and NCCC Room 380
Cost: $1000 w/out credit $1390 w/ 3 grad credit from St. Michael’s College
Limit- 20 participants
For questions contact: Nicole Gaboriault – Nicole.gaboriault@ncsuvt.org
Target Audience:Reading Recovery trained teachers, Title 1 Teachers, Special Educators, ELL teachers, Literacy coaches and Primary classroom teachers
This course addresses small group teaching for the lowest achieving children in grades 3-5. Topics include assessment and grouping, planning for instruction, using leveled texts, supporting English language learners, teaching word study and phonics, teaching for fluency and phrasing, comprehension, vocabulary, and self-regulation strategies.
Participants are required to work with at least on small group of children for 18 weeks.
Behind the Glass Observations:
Participants may be required to teach one group behind the glass (or videotaped) in selected training sessions to develop skill in observation and decision-making.
Course Principles:
· Reading is a complex process involving the use of meaning, language and print information.
· Observation of reading behavior informs teacher decision-making and provides evidence of learning.
· Children take different paths to common outcomes.
· Readers need to develop self-monitoring and self-correcting strategies.
· An understanding of language and language differences is essential to understanding the development of a reading process.
· Reading and writing are different but complementary processes.
· Reflection on and analysis of teaching practice are ways to improve teaching.
· Teacher knowledge of text levels and characteristics is critical in effective teaching.
· Phonological awareness is a critical factor in learning to read.
· Readers who are having difficulty are different from each other.
· Fluent responding is a necessary goal for effective reading and writing.
· Assessment informs ongoing teaching.
· Writings need to develop a flexible range of strategies.
· Comprehension within, beyond, and about the text is an important aspect of effective reading at each level.
Instructors: Melissa Lyons, RR Teacher, Literacy Interventionist
Nicole Gaboriault, Literacy Coach, RR Teacher, Literacy Interventionist
Amy L. Riendeau, Literacy Coach
Dates: August 5 – 6, 2019 Time: 8:00 am – 3:00 pm
Plus monthly sessions 9/12, 9/26, 10/10, 10/24, 11/14, 12/12, 1/9, 1/23, 2/6, and 2/20/20
Time: 4:00-7:00 pm
Location: NCSU Room A209 and NCCC Room 380
Cost: $1000 w/out credit $1390 w/grad credit from St. Michael’s College
Limit- 20 participants
For questions contact: Nicole Gaboriault – Nicole.gaboriault@ncsuvt.org
Target Audience:Reading Recovery trained teachers, Title 1 Teachers, Special Educators, ELL teachers, Literacy coaches and Primary classroom teachers
(All teachers are required to teach a small intervention group of 3 students for at least ½ year.)
This course is designed to help teachers provide powerful, daily small-group instruction for struggling readers in schools that have implemented Reading Recovery. Combined with Reading Recovery, it provides a systematic approach for improving the reading and writing achievement of the lowest achieving children in the early grades. Students participate in daily 30 minute small group lessons that combine:
*Reading ,Writing, Phonics / word study
*A specially created and sequenced set of original children’s books
*Highly effective teacher lesson plans
Emphasis will be put on professional teacher development in deepening the understanding of many research-based techniques to help struggling readers make accelerated progress. The following materials and resources will be used:
*When Readers Struggle: Teaching That Works
*The Continuum of Literacy Learning
*The Fountas & Pinnell Prompting Guide 1: Teaching for Strategies in Reading and Writing
*The Leveled Literacy Intervention System*(Orange, Green or Blue depending on Grade level) Schools will need to purchase the System.
*See https://www.heinemann.com/collection/lli?utm_source=fountasandpinnell for pricing and ordering
*The Benchmark Assessment System is also strongly recommended.
Topics
*Assessing and Grouping Students
*Understanding the Lesson Framework
*Coding, Scoring and Analyzing Reading Behaviors
*Analyzing Reading Behaviors to Inform Teaching
*The Role of Oral Language in Literacy Learning
*Systematic Phonics Teaching
*Supporting Writing Development
*Teaching for Phrased, Fluent Reading
*Teaching for, Prompting and Reinforcing Effective Reading and Writing Strategies
Instructor: Hilary Kissel, M.Ed. and M.A.
Dates: August 12 – 16, 2019 Time: 8:30 am – 4:00 pm
Reading Aloud and Beyond: Fostering the Intellectual Life with Older Readers by Cyndi Giorgis and Frank Serafini and 
Learning Under the Influence of Language and Literature: Making the Most of Read-Alouds Across the Day by Lester Laminack and Reba M. Wadsworth
Target Audience: Grades 3-5 educators
Reading aloud to students often stops in the primary grades; but reading aloud is a powerful instructional tool for students in the upper elementary grades as well. Through the lens of the read-aloud, participants will learn about the specific elements of author’s craft, ways to help students think and talk about them, how these elements build from grade 3 to grade 5, and various resources, both print and digital, for finding text to investigate author’s craft. Both fiction and nonfiction will be discussed, and although the focus will be on the skills listed below, others may be included. Planning time for implementation of ideas in the classroom will be included in class time. Time will also be spent exploring the use of the read-aloud in grades 3-5, the importance of reading aloud to students in the intermediate grades, and how the read-aloud fits into the structure of the reading workshop and the school day.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will become familiar with the reasons for, and research that supports, reading aloud to students.
2. Participants will become familiar with various types of read-alouds, including interactive read-alouds.
3. Participants will learn how to use picture books and novels to study author’s craft with students.
4. Participants will understand, and learn to facilitate, discussion and response to text about the following elements of author’s craft: form and organization, perspective, use of techniques to build suspense, and figurative language.
5. Participants will keep a reader’s notebook in which they will practice ways of responding to text.
6. Participants will build a 4 week plan for using read-alouds to explore author’s craft in their own classrooms which will include: specific read aloud lessons that facilitate discussion and response to text and help students build an understanding of author’s craft, a bibliography of read-aloud texts, a daily plan for using read-alouds, and a long-term plan for using read-alouds.
Syllabus-Reading-Aloud-to-Discover-Authors-Craft.pdf
Instructor: Michael Martin, Ed.D.
Dates: August 12 – 16, 2019 Time: 8:00 am – 3:30 pm
Includes the book: UDL Now! A Teacher’s Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning in Today’s Classrooms (Novak, K. (2016)
Target Audience: K- 12 Educators
Many schools are now turning to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a powerful framework for inclusion that also unifies important initiatives including but not limited to proficiency-based learning (PBL), social emotional learning (SEL), and a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). Universal Design for Learning has been nationally recognized as best first instruction for all learners with its basic precept being to first remove barriers in learning environments before resorting to curriculum modifications and accommodations. UDL is a framework to advance equity because its research-based, learner-centered approach emphasizes engagement, access, and expression for all learners. But as a classroom teacher, where to begin? This course will provide teachers with a foundational understanding of UDL and actionable strategies for making their classrooms more inclusive. Course participants will deepen their understanding of UDL through course readings, professional dialogue, peer observations, and classroom practice.
Course participants will learn how to:
- make meaningful connections between various school initiatives and the UDL brain-based guidelines
- exhibit an understanding of how UDL strategies can improve outcomes for all learners
- reexamine classroom norms & routines through an equity lens with an eye to engaging all learners
- develop specific UDL classroom strategies for inclusion
- improve learner agency through intentional strategies to foster expert learners
Instructor: Betsy Allen. M.Ed., CAS
Dates: August 12 – 15, 2019 8:00 – 4:00 pm, with Follow up dates Sept. 26 and Oct. 10 4 – 7:00 pm
Target Audience: Teachers Grades 3 – 8, Special Educators, and interventionists
This 3-graduate credit course will explore the learning progressions and the standards progression of the Vermont Common Core State Standards along with current research on how students develop a deep understanding of fractional concepts. Each participant will analyze student work to identify where students are on a learning progression, identify the common misconceptions, and then develop and plan next instructional steps. They will collaborate with other grade level teachers to strengthen and/or develop their fraction unit, including formative assessments and instructional strategies and lessons, with integrated technology.
Learning Outcomes
1. Participants will deepen their own content knowledge of fractions.
2. Participants will know and understand fraction content of the CCSS across grade levels and the shifts of content.
3. Participants will know the cognitive research about how children develop fractional concepts that is the basis for the learning progressions.
4. Participants will learn how to identify where students are on a learning progression and identify student misconceptions.
5. Participants will develop a variety of instructional strategies to promote student learning.
6. Participants will develop and/or strengthen a fraction unit of study and incorporate the use of formative assessments as an instructional strategy.
7. Participants will learn technology applications and games during the course so that they might incorporate them in their instruction.
About our Instructor: Betsy Allen is the District Math Coach in Essex Westford School District. Prior to this, she graduated from VMI and coached math at Hardwick Elementary. Betsy represented Vermont in several Smarter Balance Assessment projects.