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Professional Development

Quick Reference PDF

Online from TCRWP

Video Orientations to the Units of Study

In these 45 to 60-minute video courses, Lucy Calkins and her colleagues speak directly to teachers at a particular grade level, providing their best advice about all the things teachers need to know in order to be successful as they begin teaching the Units of Study in Reading and Writing.

View K–8 Writing Video Orientations
View K–5 and Middle School Reading Video Orientations View K–5 and Middle School Reading Video Orientations

TCRWP Online Office Hours Webinars

Receive help and advice directly from Lucy Calkins and Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Staff Developers. During these live, online conversations, Lucy and her TCRWP colleagues respond to questions about reading and writing workshop and offer practical advice on how teachers can raise the level of their practice. They also help administrators consider ways to support effective implementations of Units of Study and respond to additional questions attendees pose live. Sign up to receive Office Hours updates.

Facebook Discussion Groups

Join the Units of Study community on Facebook to learn from educators across the country, including Lucy Calkins and TCRWP staff developers, and to share your own experience. Search Units of Study in Writing TCRWP and Units of Study in Reading TCRWP.

Classroom Videos

Dozens of live-from-the classroom videos let you eavesdrop on Lucy and her colleagues' instruction in teaching literacy workshop classrooms. These clips model the minilessons, conferences, and shares you will engage in as you teach the units of study.

View Videos from TCRWP

Resources

The Project posts important and useful resources throughout the year, including examples of student work.

Twitter Chats

On Wednesdays from 7:30—8:30 P.M. EST join TCRWP and our colleagues for live chat sessions on topics supporting literacy instruction.
Follow them at @TCRWP or search #TCRWP.

Across the Country

Each year, the Reading and Writing Project and Heinemann offer several one-day workshops for teachers and administrators. These off-site seminars are held in selected locations across the country and focus on Units of Study for Teaching Reading and Writing. The workshops are delivered by TCRWP leaders and are open enrollment events.

Register for TCRWP-Sponsored Workshops

In Your School or District

Units of Study "Quick Start" Days

Through a one-day intensive session, teachers can get started unpacking the series' components, grasping the big picture of effective workshop teaching, and gaining an understanding of how to integrate assessment into the curriculum.

Contact Bethany Rimpila

Details

Multi-Day Institute for 40–300 Educators

Invite a Reading and Writing Project Staff Developer to work in your school or district, helping a cohort of educators to teach reading and/or writing well. Host a Homegrown Institute for writing instruction, reading instruction, or content literacy. Tailored to your district's needs, the instruction and materials are specialized for K-2, 3-5 or 6-8 sections.

Contact Laurie Pessah, Senior Deputy Director

Phone: (212) 678-8226

Details

Extended On-Site Professional Development

For deeper, more intensive professional development, schools and districts can work with TCRWP to plan on-site professional development that includes a sequence of 10–25 school-based staff development days, spaced throughout the year. Usually this work involves the entire faculty and focuses on reading or writing. Often a school or district selects one focus as a starting point. Staff developers tend to divide their time on each of these days between:

  • leading state-of-the-art demonstration teaching within classrooms
  • coaching teachers, providing feedback and next-step goals
  • helping teachers use and learn from systems of assessment
  • preparing teachers to teach units of study in reading and/or writing
  • helping teachers support students with particular needs.

Options for leadership support include large-scale implementation, establishing assess-ments across the school or district, learning from walk-throughs, designing in-house staff development, and instituting cross-grade alignment.

Contact Laurie Pessah, Senior Deputy Director

Phone: (212) 678-8226

At Teachers College

Multi-Day Institutes at Teachers College

Teachers College offers eight institutes each year. Each of these is led by teacher-educators from the project, with other world-renowned experts joining as well. Institutes include keynotes, small- and large-group sections, and sometimes work in exemplar schools.

  • Summer Institutes on the Teaching of Reading and Writing
  • Literacy Coaching Institutes on the Teaching of Reading and Writing
  • Content Area Institute
  • Argumentation Institute

Details

One-Day Events

The Project offers several different types of day long events across the year. Our ever-growing-in-attendance, free-to-all, twice-a-year Saturday Reunions take place at Teachers College and include more than a 140 open enrollment, one-hour workshops designed to support educators' teaching of literacy for grades K-8 as well as keynotes and closings given by favorite authors of children's and professional literature. The Project also offers a series of over 150 one-day workshops for teachers and administrators held at Teachers College which focus on topics such as reading, writing, phonics, content-area literacy, data-based assessments and so forth. These TCRWP workshops are tailored to specific grade levels, K-8 and are staffed by TCRWP leader as well as national literacy leaders. TCRWP workshops are available to schools who receive our on-site staff development.

Details