Isoke Titilayo Nia taught many years in New York City’s independent and public schools before becoming the Director of Research and Development for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Currently she is the founding director of All Write Literacy Consultants in Brooklyn, New York. Isoke is known for her dynamic keynote speeches and engaging workshops. She presents on poetry, reading and the African American child, lifting the barriers to loving the language, and literature in the writing workshop.
View Isoke Titilayo Nia's Resume/Vita, Publications and Workshops.
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Level: K-12
- Writing Workshop
- Reading Workshop
- Developing Curriculum in the Reading and Writing Workshop
- Multicultural Literature
- Making Systemic Change Within a School/District
- Organizing your Library
- Curriculum Mapping
- Curriculum Audits
Chapter in NCTE book, Literacy as Social Practice
The Writing of Fiction
Participants in this course will develop strategies to plan and teach inside of a Unit of Study of Fiction. Teachers of grades 3-5 who presently have a writing workshop will plan mini-lessons, locate Touchstone texts, write a short fiction piece themselves, and leave with a clear understanding of several types of fiction writing, their appropriateness for each grade, and why this is such an important genre for students to master.
At this four day session, participants will learn and discuss:
- The concept that Fiction is a narrative/story most times
- Five essential story elements (plus tension or conflict)
- New Ways of developing a Unit of Study for particular groups of students.
- Ways of developing strings of mini-lessons around single teaching points.
- Touchstone Texts that are grade and level appropriate.
- The difference between Touchstone Texts and Mentor Text and why both are essential in the upper grade classroom.
- How to assist students in choosing appropriate Mentor Texts.
- The role of Literary Devices (such as Flashback, inner thinking, dialogue, etc.)
- How to develop student centered assessments for this unit and others.
Seeing the Sky: Visions for the Struggling Reader and Writer in the Process Classroom
For many teachers the idea of a reading and writing workshop is a challenge. They do not see their students as being able to participate fully in such a community. In classrooms where teachers try to make literacy authentic, to respect children' intentions, and to create joyful learning environments, we are sometimes dismayed to know that we are still not reaching our struggling readers and writers in the way that they need to be taught.
This work is based on the premise that, if our goal is for students to read and write for their entire lives, inside and outside the classroom, then part of our focus as teachers has to be on rigorous teaching within the independent reading workshop (defined as the time in the day when students choose their own reading for their own purposes) and writing workshop. Once we give kids the chance to choose what they will read and write and how they will respond, we can, through our conferring, small group, and whole-class work, teach actively and assertively onto and into what they have chosen.
The purpose of this workshop is to help teachers gather strategies to assist these students. We will look at many ways in which learners struggle, and then we will think together about strategies for observing and identifying the nature of their struggle. We will also consider whole-school and classroom structures and contexts which might best serve these struggling students.