Lit Lab REVIEWED

After procedures have been established, move forward with the workshop model! Use your student data to plan mini-lessons, pull appropriate small groups, and apply interventions. What is working BEST for you?

Lit Lab REVISITED

We are re-energized to implement a full-blown workshop model as we experienced reading and writing workshop as it might look on the first few days of school. Routines and procedures must be in place. The initial investment is ALWAYS worth our time and energy! "How's that workin' for ya?" Post your ideas here>

Teaching Grammar in Context

Jeff Anderson delighted us as he equipped us to weave grammar instruction and editing into the context of everyday writing making the process meaningful, interactive, and fun! Now, you can share your classroom experiences (and mentor sentences) with us!

HYIS: Summarizing and Notetaking

In Classroom Instruction the Works, Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock reveal the nine most effective instructional strategies for increasing student achievement. As an alternative to "assign and assess," teachers learn strategies with which to provide students a systematic process to taking notes and writing summaries.

Writing-to-learn: Low-stakes Writing

Writing is an effective method to teach content as well as to test knowledge and can be combined with collabortive learning structures. Low-stakes writing helps students think and learn about the course content while staying engaged on a day-to-day basis. When students write, they are obliged to organize concetps, place thougths in their own language, and connent those thoughts with their own analogies.

Writer's Notebook Mini-lessons

We designed and created our own Writer's Notebooks as we determined the importance of authentic use of a notebook to ignite ideas for writing. Using Ralph Fletcher's and JoAnn Portalupi's Lessons for the Writer's Notebook, participants were euqipped with the knowledge and experience required to implement each mini-lesson with his/her own classroom. Aimee Buckner's Notebook Know-how is a great resource for a PLC or team to continue to build notebook ideas/lessons.

Lit Lab Year II - Vocabulary & Word Study Overview

Lit Lab Participants experienced several games and activities associated with Academic Vocabulary Instruction as defined by Robert Marzano's six-step process. During the afternoon, Kathy Ganske's Word Study/Mindful of Words was introduced. Follow-up trainings are availabe through the coop, and onsite support will be provided by request.