Saturday, April 20, 2013

Summer Workshops

Time to start planning for summer! Even though the trout lilies are just blooming and it's quite cold here in Pennsylvania, it's time to think about what we'll do in the summer to refresh and learn more.


Over the last few years, I've enjoyed putting together different workshops for summer staff development. Here are some of my favorites from the last few years:

2012: A Closer Look at Close Reading, Reading Strategies and the Common Core

2011: Reading Refresher
This was so much fun--we looked at some of the newer ideas emerging in reading and how to integrate them into the classroom. I loved talking and sharing information about multiple literacies and multimedia texts.

This year, I'm putting together a morning workshop looking at grammar and the Common Core. How should our grammar expectations change? How can we make teaching grammar a meaningful part of the language arts classroom? We'll look at how we can help kids to develop a deeper appreciation for the rules of the language...and the confidence to experiment and try things out.

In the afternoon, we'll explore text complexity and the Common Core. (For more on this topic, check out my blog post over on the KSRA Conference blog.) I'm planning to get together a huge assortment of books for participants to browse and enjoy. We'll look at several text complexity rating tools and talk about how we can add more text complexity to our classrooms.

If you are an Adams or York County teacher, you can register through the LIU 12 site.

Notes
-The first peregrine falcon baby hatched today! I don't know how much teaching I'll get done on Monday--the kids are sure to be excited. I can't wait to share our last peregrine falcon text, which compares peregrine falcons to red-tailed hawks.
-I've been adding lots of new books to my Text Structure Pinterest board.
-On Monday (after we look at the peregrine falcon chicks, of course!) I'll be trying out some text structure literature circles. You can read about my experiences with previous literature circles here. You can download my literature circle materials for narratives from Slideshare here.

2 comments:

  1. OH my goodness. Every since you posted about the falcon project and I purchased your text structures pack, MY STUDENTS ARE OBSESSED. I cannot wait until Monday to bring up the feed. They have been bugging me like crazy, excited for the hatching. They actually each created a Peregrine Falcon magazine to show their knowledge of the bird and express some creativity. I need to get back to blogging on my own site, and perhaps that is the next thing I will share because they did such a great job! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. That is so exciting! The second baby hatched this morning and I hardly got anything done because I kept watching it. I can't wait to show the kids tomorrow. Thanks for writing!

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