This week, thousands of educators are gathering with The Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College at Columbia University to learn, to think, and to share on the topic of the Teaching of Reading.
This week, thousands of educators are gathering with The Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College at Columbia University to learn, to think, and to share on the topic of the Teaching of Reading.
For over thirty years, educators have been gathering at TC for The Project’s summer institutes. Many of the basic principles and methods of learning are just as they have always been since the inception of the institutes: participants learn by doing the reading and writing they will be asking students to do; they attend fast-paced, info-packed lectures; they hear inspiring keynotes; they have access to leaders in the field of literacy and children’s literature. (Hello Lucy Calkins, Kathy Collins, Lester Laminack, and James Howe!)
But there is one way in which the institutes have changed, and that is due to the influence of social media. Currently, in the first days of the Reading Institute, check out the #TCRWP Twitter feed, and you’ll find:
- Links to posts by edu-bloggers writing about their experiences
- Quotes extracted from keynote speakers, many from Lucy Calkins
- Snippets of learning from large and small group sessions, attributed to group leaders
- Photos of charts, toolkits, pieces of writing, and other artifacts from sessions
- Selfies in front of the Teachers College plaque posted by educators from across the country and globe
What a boon social media has quickly become to the institute experience. This week’s TCRWP Twitter chat will be devoted to reflecting on the August Reading Institute. Staff Developers Kara Arnold and Elise Whitehouse will lead attendees in chatting about their learning, their future plans, their burning questions, and more. Whether you are attending the institute or learning from afar, or you are a novice or a veteran teacher, we welcome you to join in.
Each Wednesday night at 7:30pm eastern, The Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project hosts a Twitter chat using the hashtag #TCRWP. Join @karnold022 & @whithouse09 to chat about the August Reading Institute tomorrow evening.
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
