English+Language+Arts

=English Language Arts (ELA)=

Tuesday, September 21, 2010 //Facilitated by Christine Cutler, Staff Development Specialist// The National Core Curriculum Standards have been developed to ensure that students have the skills and knowledge needed to be successful by providing clear goals for student learning. This workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to examine and discuss the document, anticipated to be adopted by NYSED in July//.// For registration information**,** [|click here.]
 * Examining the National Core Curriculum Document for ELA Grades K-5**

Tuesday, October 26, 201 //Facilitated by Kimberlee Texter, Staff Development Specialist// What is RTI and what are Tier 1 interventions? What are my responsibilities as a K-8 teacher? How do I keep track of my interventions? All of these questions and more will be answered during this workshop. For registration information, [|click here.] Wednesday, October 13, 2010 //Facilitated by Christine Cutler, Staff Development Specialist// Would you like to differentiate instruction in your classroom? Teach children in small groups? Confer individually with students and do all of this while the rest of your class is fully engaged in independent reading and writing activities? This is it! The Daily Five is a literacy structure that allows for differentiation in the classroom and provides consistency. It is an integrated literacy instruction and classroom management system for use in reading and writing workshops and uses a systemic approach to literacy tasks that teach students independence! For registration information,[|click here.]
 * RTI: Tier One Interventions: What does this look like in my classroom?**
 * The Daily Five: Differentiated Literacy Blocks**

Thursday, October 14, 2010 //Facilitated by Dennis Atkinson, Staff Development Specialist// The Common Core State Standards have been developed to ensure that students have the skills and knowledge needed to be successful by providing clear goals for student learning. This workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to examine and discuss the document, click here.
 * Examining the Common Core State Standards Document for ELA Grades 6-12**

Thursady October 21, 2010 //Facilitated by Christine Cutler, Staff Development Specialist// How do we present strategies so that students can access them when needed and practice them until they are proficient? How can we keep track of each child’s strengths and goals so we can maximize our time with him/her? What about flexible groups? Is there really a way to make them flexible? Finally, how can we organize all of our assessment data so we can make it work for us? CAFÉ is the answer to the many issues teachers face when making literacy blocks effective in a simple framework of conferring, coaching and tracking growth while fostering student independence. Come join us and learn how to assist students in becoming independent readers! For registration information,[|click here]. Wednesday, October 27, 2010 //Facilitated by Christine Cutler, Staff Development Specialist// Step Up To Writing is an effective, multisensory and structured approach to teaching writing strategies to improve all aspects of student literacy. Through explicit, direct teaching and modeling of the small steps and sub skills involved in develop writing skills, participants will learn several Step-Up strategies and apply them to their own writing workshops. Primary teachers will learn the basic color coded approach to the structure as well as ways to support students as they compose sentences, acquire vocabulary and plan for paragraph writing. For registration information, [|click here].
 * CAFÉ: Engaging All Students in Daily Literacy Assessment & Instruction**
 * Step-Up to Writing K-5: A Scaffold Approach to Expository Writing**

Monday, November 8, 2010 //Facilitated by Christine Cutler, Staff Development Specialist// Have you looked around your classroom from the perspective of your students learning styles? Do you wonder if there is a better way to organize your classroom library or literacy work spaces to support differentiated and flexible groups? This workshop will leave you with dozens of ideas for redesigning learning spaces to support literacy learning! For registration information, [|click here]. Thursday, November 18, 2010 //Facilitated by Dennis Atkinson, Staff Development Specialist//Teachers and administrators alike must be aware of the legal and ethical ramifications of the misuse of copyrighted work. The ease of copying material from the Internet has made it more important than ever that we explicitly instruct students on their responsibilities with respect to the use of the work of others, click here. Friday, December 17, 2010 //Facilitated by Christine Cutler, Staff Development Specialist// Step Up To Writing is an effective, multisensory and structured approach to teaching writing strategies to improve all aspects of student literacy. Through explicit, direct teaching and modeling of the small steps and sub skills involved in develop writing skills, participants will learn several Step-Up strategies and apply them to their own writing workshops. Primary teachers will learn the basic color- coded approach to the structure as well as ways to support students as they compose sentences, acquire vocabulary and plan for paragraph writing. For registration information,[|click here].
 * Classroom Design: Supporting Literacy Learning with Brain Compatible Learning Theory**
 * Copyright, Plagiarism, & Digital Rights**
 * Digital Storytelling**Tuesday, December 14, 2010   //Facilitated by Dennis Atkinson, Staff Development Specialist//   Give every student the opportunity to demonstrate understanding and enhance their 21st century literacy skills. Digital storytelling allows teachers to develop lessons and assessments that include digital photos, audio, video, and Internet resources, click here.
 * Step-Up to Writing 6-12: A Scaffold Approach to Expository Writing**

Tuesday, January 11, 2011 //Facilitated by Christine Cutler, Staff Development Specialist// Teaching primary students the art of creating a well planned, interesting and voice-infused story or narrative is an important part of writing fluency. Using the Step Up to Writing narrative approach supports students’ ability to distinguish between story elements and terminology through explicit instruction, modeled practice opportunities and specific strategies to meet the needs of developing writers! For registration information, [|click here.]
 * Step-Up to Writing K-5: Narrative Writing Strategies**

Tuesday, January 26, 2011 //Facilitated by Theresa Gray, Coordinator// Step Up to Writing is a writing program of practical strategies for reading, writing, listening and speaking. Adopted by many districts in the region, this workshop will take the components of the program and teach them in the setting of a social studies classroom. Participants do not need previous training in Step Up to Writing to attend. For registration information, click here.
 * Step Up to Writing in Social Studies**

Wednesday, February 9, 2011 //Facilitated by Kimberlee Texter, Staff Development Specialist// Take your existing lessons and give them a charge by incorporating the SMART Board and SMART software. For registration information, [|click here.]
 * Using the SMART Board to Enhance Your Lessons**

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Tuesday, February 15, 2011 //Facilitated by Kimberlee Texter, Staff Development Specialist// How do you know if your students understand the new concept you just taught them? How am I going to grade all of this homework? What is an easy way for me to get data on my students? All of these questions can be answered with one word: CLICKERS! For registration information, [|click here.] <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Friday, March 4, 2011 //Facilitated by Christine Cutler, Staff Development Specialist// Teaching middle level and secondary students the art of creating a well planned, interesting and voice infused story or narrative is an important part of writing fluency. Using the Step Up to Writing narrative approach supports students’ ability to distinguish between story elements and terminology through explicit instruction, modeled practice opportunities and specific strategies to meet the needs of all developing writers! For registration information,[|click here.]
 * Using the Senteo Smart Response System to Create Assessments**
 * Step-Up to Writing 6-12: Narrative Writing Strategies**

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Tuesday, March 1, 2011 //Facilitated by Dennis Atkinson, Staff Development Specialist// It’s not enough to teach the three Rs. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has identified a number of specific skill sets crucial for future success. The skills for each of the core academic subjects are mapped for multiple grade levels showing desired student outcomes. This session will familiarize you with the document and assist you as you begin to develop 21st century proficiencies in your students. click here
 * Developing Your Students’ 21st Century Literacy Skills**

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">February 7, 201 //Facilitated by Theresa Gray, Coordinator// Making good notes is essential to academic success in the secondary classroom. But how to we help students to do this? Notemaking is an active process that requires students to identify important details, analyze big ideas, raise questions, note personal reactions and make connections to their prior knowledge and experience. For registration information, click here.
 * From Note-Taking to Note-Making**

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Thursday, March 31, 2011 //Facilitated by Dennis Atkinson, Staff Development Specialist// All teachers are teachers of literacy. Internet tools can help develop reading and writing skills by offering students access to interesting, timely information and by providing a more public forum in which students can share their ideas and present their work. click here
 * Internet Tools for Improving Literacy Skills in the Secondary Classroom**

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Wednesday, April 13, 2011 //Facilitated by Christine Cutler, Staff Development Specialist// Today, as in years past, the most common vocabulary activity in classrooms consists of having students look up words, copy definitions, put words in sentences, and learn the words for the vocabulary test. When asked, most of us acknowledge that these traditional vocabulary activities probably don't accomplish much. But what is the alternative?" We know children are naturally curious about words so join us in this workshop as we explore many alternatives that really do impact the acquisition of vocabulary for our students. For registration information, [|click here.]
 * Expanded Vocabulary: Working on Words**