A prolific and voracious future with Workshop expert Erin Kent
Erin Kent is a lifelong learner who is passionate about literacy. She has been an educator for close to 15 years and has taught students from second to tenth grade in the U.S., Chile and China. Erin spent her first four years at Concordia as a classroom teacher and the past five years as Elementary School Instructional Coach, focusing on literacy from preschool to grade four. She works closely with students and teachers using techniques developed by Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop. For the 2015-16 school year Erin will move to the post of P-12 Curriculum Director. In this episode, Erin shares her journey with the Reading and Writing Workshop and provides a road map for how you can transform instruction to impact your students for a lifetime.
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Show Notes
Intro to the Reading and Writing Workshop
The Reading and Writing Workshop approach has been around for over 20 years. Workshop encourages teachers to sees their students as readers and writers and help them develop their reading and writing skills through practice. The program takes into account student interest and is structured to allow teachers to meet the diverse needs of their students. There are mental frameworks for lesson planning that weave in all best-practice research into a tight model. Reading Writing Workshop is a curriculum that was built for intelligent and mindful educators who live what they teach.
Workshop goals
The aim of Workshop is to help students develop into excellent readers and writers and become students who LOVE to read and write.
A measurable student impact
- Students become are forever readers and writers.
- Students develop an insatiable desire for reading and writing.
- Students see their lives as fodder for stories – like authors.
Impact on the greater community
- Common vision as a teaching community
- Keeps us ever-evolving
- Common language of best-practice philosophy
- Elevates conversation between peers and practice with our students
- Teacher improvement and development is passed down to the students’ experience in our classrooms.
Class set up
- Throughout the school day, provide at least one hour for reading, one for writing
- Also make time for word study and reading aloud
- Multiple leveled-books, based on assessments
Must-haves to ensure success
- Give time for students to read and write with choice
- Regular teacher collaboration is encouraged
- Classroom library
- Paper and pencil!
Wish list items
- Accessibility to ‘real-life’ entrepreneurs (social or otherwise)
- Potential for ongoing relationship
- Product with distinct the seasonality
Personal preparation
- Books!
- Your own writing notebook
Your next step
Read. Familiarize with the methods and practices from the Teachers College.
Resource Links
Books
- Units of Study for Teaching Writing K-5 by Lucy Calkins et. al (2013)
- Units of Study for Teaching Reading 3-5 by Lucy Calkins and Kathleen Tolan (2010)
Connecting with Erin
Email howto@concordiashanghai.org, Attention: Erin Kent and we’ll make sure Erin receives your message.
