Current Focus: NCTE Supports Teacher Teams
Teacher Learning Communities ...
Teacher Teams ...
Communities of Practice ...
no matter what name it is given, NCTE recognizes the importance of professional learning groups as places where teachers can grow in their instructional skills, develop creative, effective teaching strategies, and collaborate with colleagues.
Teachers Organizing for Change
Author: Cathy Fleischer
This book offers teachers and teacher educators a practical, hands-on guide to effecting positive change in their own learning communities and in the larger social community.
Teacher Study Groups
Authors: Barbara Birchak, Clayton Connor, Kathleen Crawford-McKinney, Leslie Kahn, Sandy Kaser, Susan Ropp, Kathy Short
Includes many practical suggestions for organizing, facilitating, and dealing with group dynamics within a study group.
Research shows that teacher learning communities enhance teacher quality, and teacher quality is the most important factor in enhancing student achievement.
NCTE Policy Research Brief, 2010 “Teacher Learning Communities”
Pathways Professional Development Program
Pathways is a powerful resource to support teachers and learning communities committed to continuous improvement in response to students' learning. Focusing on hot-topic issues such as Adolescent Literacy and 21st Century Literacies, the programs provide affordable professional development that advances student achievement in every subject by focusing on teachers' instructional practices and questions.
NCTE Journals
"Collaborative Learning Communities: Building Leadership in a High School English Department," English Journal, November 2005
"Creating a Circle of Learning: Teachers Taking Ownership through Professional Communities," Voices from the Middle, May 2009
"Teacher Research and Learning Communities: A Failure to Theorize Power Relations?," Language Arts, May 2008
NCTE members enjoy online access to ALL journals published more than two years ago! Search to find articles and share with your teaching team today!
Our Annual Convention and other meetings allow for gatherings of large communities.
Join us in the Windy City for our Centennial Celebration at our Annual Convention, Nov. 17-22, 2011 in Chicago Illinois.
Our Constituent groups (CCCC, CEE, CEL, TYCA, WLU) and Affiliates allow for English language arts professionals to join communities of practice based on their geographical proximity, their level of interest (elementary, middle, secondary, college), or their professional philosophy.
“As [we] have mentioned … planning and teaching are collaborative processes strengthened by the support of colleagues. … [Y]our ability to positively affect student learning is largely influenced by the relationships you foster with colleagues, as well.”
2010-11 Teacher of the Year, Sarah Brown Wessling, Supporting Students in a Time of Core Standards: Grades 9-12, by Sarah Brown Wessling, with Danielle Lillge and Crystal VanKooten.
Don’t forget to round-out your NCTE Membership Experience by getting involved in our social networking sites where literacy educators from around the world meet and interact on topics that you care about every day.
Don’t forget to round-out your NCTE Membership Experience by getting involved in our where literacy educators from around the world meet and interact on topics that you care about every day.
For me, my membership in NCTE made the difference between having a job that I got up and went to everyday, and having a career that I thrived in and loved!
Sandy Hayes, NCTE Member, Middle Level Section
Experience Membership for yourself. Join today!