Transitioning to a New Reading Curriculum +

New curriculum is exciting and challenging. We navigate the transition by:

• Analyzing instructional shifts and their impact on student achievement
• Making connections to current practices
• Developing daily and weekly schedules
• Creating planning protocols for grade teams
• Engaging in lesson study to examine and refine lessons that address achievement gaps
• Planning coaching cycles to provide teachers with support as they implement the new curriculum
• Studying school data to see the impact of the new curriculum on student achievement

Creating Thematic Units +

Knowledge is an essential part of reading. It helps readers comprehend more quickly, accumulate information more easily, reread less often, and make better inferences. We analyze the role of knowledge in reading comprehension, explore the different types of knowledge that help students create meaning in texts, and design conceptual, thematic units that support knowledge transfer. When planning units, we identify big ideas and enduring understandings, develop collaborative and culminating projects, build content-rich text sets with engaging, complex, and diverse resources, and plan meaningful learning experiences and instruction.

Teaching Explicitly +

Explicit instruction is a structured, systematic, and effective methodology for teaching academic skills. We begin our study by thinking about instructional design—determining the critical content to teach, breaking it down into attainable pieces, and organizing lessons in an I Do, We Do, You Do structure. Then, we consider the delivery of lessons, practicing perky pacing, engaging demonstrations, and providing immediate affirmative and corrective feedback.

Discussing & Debating Texts +

Engaging in text-based discussion is a high-impact literacy practice that promotes the Big 6, critical thinking, knowledge building, and perspective taking. Learners need to discuss and debate what they read; they need to be explicitly taught how to discuss and debate. We:

• Define discussion and debate
• Analyze a progression of debate
• Study protocols, routines and games that explicitly teach students how to engage in different types of academic discourse
• Consider how to group students to foster an inclusive learning environment in which students feel safe to share and take risks in their text-based discussions

Academic discourse lives in our literacy block and throughout our day. We study strategies that can be used across content areas.

Using a Generative Approach to Teach Vocabulary +

Vocabulary is a crucial aspect of language development; it plays a significant role in academic success and effective communication. We explore research-based techniques for teaching words explicitly, teaching context clues, and teaching morphological analyses. We delve into the importance of utilizing a generative approach to vocabulary instruction to help students learn words, features, and functions of language.

Teaching Critical Reading & Argumentation +

Messaging surrounds us. It’s important to empower students with the skills to be discerning consumers and powerful contributors. We:

• Explore the definition of texts and examine the texts we use in our teaching
• Think about social identities and how the identities we hold shape our understanding and ideas about a topic
• Build text sets that include BIPOC voices
• Study strategies for critically reading and evaluating arguments
• Analyze a variety of debate protocols
• Craft lessons for developing arguments
• Consider different forms of arguments and ways to use them as mentor texts

We incorporate this work into multiple parts of the school day so students use their skills in reading, writing, social studies and beyond.

Developing Strong Writers +

To develop strong writers, we need to develop strong instructional practices. Our writers need instruction, practice and feedback as they practice. As a school, we:

• Analyze diverse mentor texts for qualities of good writing
• Examine writing standards and align our progression of work from one grade to the next
• Develop explicit lessons on structure, development, and craft
• Consider ways to use mentor texts as teachers in our classrooms
• Establish partnerships to support collaborative learning
• Connect word study and writing, supporting transfer of foundational skills
• Investigate different approaches to teaching grammar and their impact on student achievement
• Research student work, identifying growth and next steps

In addition to our meetings, we work together in classrooms. We practice our teaching methods, including whole class lessons, conferences and small groups.

Leading Powerful, Doable Small Group Work +

Small group work provides meaningful, targeted feedback to students and drives growth. We focus on practical tips for launching and maintaining small groups across subject areas. As part of this study, we:

• Gather and analyze relevant data
• Explore different methods of small group work and the purpose behind each one
• Develop cycles of small group work to accelerate growth
• Watch and practice small groups with students