Check out the Twitter feed of the @TCRWP, and you’ll see scores of Tweets brimming with enthusiasm, learning, and energy from participants of The Reading and Writing Project’s annual June Reading Institute, going on this week. These Tweets include snippets of wisdom from workshop leaders, featured speakers, fellow participants, and of course, from Lucy Calkins herself.
Some of the most tweeted lines from Lucy’s Monday keynote include:
"It is time to say, Yes! to what really matters! Time to make a strategic shift in practice and define what matters to us.”
"As Ts we need to have the courage to say, No! Step away, reflect on your core values, don’t get caught up in the minutiae, be careful of losing sight of what REALLY matters.”
"We have a lot of urgent work to do in the teaching of reading. It used to be a teachers’ job to deliver info to the uninformed. Now our job is to teach students how access, apply, and analyze.”
And, this author’s personal favorite:
“We’re a band of believers singing our hearts out.”
By the way, you’ll also see countless snapshots tweeted out during institutes. Many of them are photos of wonderful charts, tools and other teaching resources. You’ll also see fun and inspiring selfies of participants gathered in iconic Teachers College spaces, or huddled with Lucy herself.
According to the Reading and Writing Project's website, some highlights of the reading institute include:
- The central role of curriculum development in the teaching of reading
- Units of Study in the reading workshop
- Aligning reading instruction to global standards
- Comprehension strategy instruction
- Phonics as an integral component of early literacy
- Developing classroom and school cultures that value self-assessment and setting challenging goals
- Accountable talk as a vehicle for teaching comprehension
- Teaching interpretation, critical reading, synthesis, and main idea
- Interpretation book clubs
- A trajectory of minilessons for supporting foundational skills
- Using formative assessments and learning progressions to plan for instructional next steps
- Classroom structures that support inquiry and collaboration
- Assessment-based small group instruction
- Supporting cross-textual work in nonfiction
- Reading across the curriculum
- Writing about reading
This Wednesday night, TCRWP staff developers Samantha Barratt and Anna Sheehan will lead a chat on ways to integrate the learning of the June reading institute into new teaching practices and gear up for the best possible start to the coming school year. Whether you are an institute participant who wants to connect with others and solidify your learning, or you would like to learn vicariously from the experiences of those who are there, we welcome you to join.
Each Wednesday night at 7:30pm eastern, The Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project hosts a Twitter chat using the hashtag #TCRWP. Join @mrsbarrett317 & @AnnaSheehan627 to chat about the 2018 June Reading Institute tomorrow night.
Not on Twitter? Take Heinemann’s free Twitter for Educators course here.
Anna Cockerille, Heinemann Editor and Coauthor of Bringing History to Life (Grade 4) in the Units of Study for Teaching Writing Series, was a teacher and a literacy coach in New York City and in Sydney, Australia, and later became a Staff Developer and Writer at TCRWP. She also served as an adjunct instructor in the Literacy Specialist Program at Teachers College. Anna has been a researcher for Lucy Calkins, contributing especially to Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement (Heinemann 2012), and the Units of Study for Teaching Reading, Grades 3–5 series (Heinemann 2010). Anna is currently serving as an editor on the forthcoming Phonics Units of Study series for grades K-2, and previously served as an editor for the Units of Study for Teaching Reading, K–5 series.
Follow her on Twitter @annagcockerille
