Are you responsible for planning professional learning experiences related to decision-making about Common Core Standards and capacity building?
NCTE offers
onsite consulting services on a range of topics:
- Effective literacy instruction
- Decision-making about Common Core State Standards
- Capacity building
Our highly-skilled and trained consultants are ready to lead customized workshops on the topics that matter most to your teachers and school leaders. We will work with you to plan professional learning experiences that are customized to meet your specific goals and challenges.
Effective Strategies for Using Informational Texts (K-8)
Informational texts present readers with distinctly different text structures and features than those of narrative texts. The purpose of this workshop is to explore the ways in which teachers can use features of informational texts as a comprehension strategy to help students identify key ideas and details and integrate knowledge within and across texts. We will also explore ways that teachers can use formative tools and strategies to monitor student learning during reading.
Teaching & Assessing Synthesis of Informational Texts (3-8)
How can interactively reading aloud informational texts to students be a powerful experience for deepening students’ understanding of what it means to synthesize? The purpose of this workshop is to examine teaching students how to identify an author’s central ideas and the key details the author has chosen to convey those ideas. Instructional methods that will be explored include explicitly introducing synthesis, reading aloud nonfiction texts interactively, modeling written responses, and assessing students’ written responses.
Argumentative Writing Across the Disciplines (6-12)
What is argumentation and why should we teach it? What are the key elements in argumentation that we should explicitly teach? How can we support students in developing the academic language needed for argumentation? Beyond templates or language supports, what other kinds of scaffolds can we put in place to support student learning? How can the use of the Socratic Seminar Method support the skills of argumentation? This workshop explores these questions to help participants build their knowledge of teaching argumentative writing in any discipline.
Common Core Standards and the Shift to Content Literacy (6-12)
The Common Core Standards make it clear that teachers from all content areas must share responsibility for students' successful use of literacy as a tool for learning. In this workshop teachers learn ways to help students successfully use literacy skills (reading, writing, speaking, thinking, and listening) in order to learn the complex content of your discipline. We also explore the ways our instruction must shift to meet the demands of the new standards in all disciplines.
Using Formative Assessment Data to Inform Instruction (6-12)
Effective teachers analyze for patterns within and across classes to make instructional decisions. But this requires purposeful data collection and analysis. In this workshop, we will explore the ways in which feedback data can be leveraged to ensure that it also feeds forward to inform future instruction. By analyzing for patterns, teachers can teach for precision because they know who would benefit from re-teaching and when a group is ready for new content.
As with all NCTE professional development resources and services, our consulting program was designed based on the NCTE Principles for Professional Development, valuing sustained learning activities, engagement with both teachers and administrators, and community-based learning.
Tell us about your needs! Complete the Online Request Form, call 800-369-6283, or email us today with your school’s needs and goals. We will recommend a professional learning plan to help you meet those needs.