In July, the district hosted its inaugural Summer Literacy Institute, a series of literacy-based workshops for teachers, administrators and teaching assistants.
The three-day program, attended by more than 100 staff members, featured internationally recognized authors and educational experts Carl Anderson, Amy Benjamin and Matt Glover as keynote speakers; they led discussions on The Writing Conference, Infusing Grammar & Vocabulary Instruction, and Engaging Young Readers and Writers, respectively. Workshops included Pass the Poetry Please, Learning and the Brain, Set the Stage to Engage, Thinking Maps, Never Too Old for Picture Books, How to Grow a Reader and Adapting Writing Workshop for Special Education.
In his keynote address, Anderson spoke about the importance of conferring among teachers and students of writing.
"Conferring is individualized differentiated instruction," he said. "It's the hardest and most important part of teaching writing; it's a structure that allows us to work with kids one-on-one. We're not there to make the writing better, we're there to make the writers better; we are the master writers that are sharing what we know with the apprentice writers. The success of a conference isn't what happens that day. The success of it is if what you taught shows up later in their writing."
Summer Literacy Institute was a supplement to the professional development throughout the school year as well as the summer months.
