Professional Development Topics and Learning

Using Decodable Books to Support Phonics Instruction

Ensuring that students have adequate access to authentic practice with phonics skills is an integral component of high-quality phonics instruction.

This workshop provides educators with:

• High quality phonics instruction strategies.
• Strategies to support instruction using decodable books.

The Science of Reading in Your Classroom: Pedagogy to Practice

Discover engaging ways to take the science of reading into the classroom. TCM’s professional development team is ready to support schools using transformational professional development that highlights the enormous body of research and how this research can truly impact instruction and achievement.

From understanding what the brain does during the process of reading to developing a breadth of knowledge about supporting students with challenging texts, choose from a range of professional development offerings rooted in several seminal theoretical models including the Simple View of Reading and Scarborough’s Reading Rope.

Each professional development is supported by a Professional Development resource that highlights the practices. Develop a series of professional development from the suggested ‘courses’ below. Each course will highlight research and pedagogy and provide relevant and timely instructional practices and strategies that enhance instruction.

What the Science Says About...

• Phonological awareness
• Phonics Instruction
• Advanced Phonics Instruction
• Word Analysis Skills
• Building Knowledge and Vocabulary
• Comprehension Strategies
• Complexities of Text
• Writing in Response to Text
• The Writing Process
• Language Skills in Writing

Everyday Strategies for Building Vocabulary through Greek & Latin Roots

Teach students independent word learning strategies so that they understand what words mean and ultimately read more effectively.

In this session, learners will:

• Empower students with a powerful step-by-step strategy to effectively uncover the meaning of words using Greek and Latin prefixes, bases and suffixes
• Discover key steps to engage students in meaningful conversations that promote oral language
• Reinforce the importance of word learning and word play in the classroom through fun activities and games
• Compile practical instructional tools to make academic vocabulary strategies a priority to ensure college and career readiness

Phonics: Systematic and Explicit Instruction

Ensuring that all students have foundational literacy skills that support decoding and fluent reading includes a deep understanding of phonics instruction.

In this session, learners will:

• Identify the research that showcases the Science of Reading and Writing to support systematic and explicit phonics instruction.
• Develop understanding to plan phonics lessons that are systematic and explicit.
• Practice strategies, including the use of decodable text, to support phonics instruction.

Phonological Awareness: Supporting Foundational Literacy

Research has indicated the critical need for explicit instruction to ensure all students have foundational literacy skills.

In this session, learners will:

• Identify the research that indicates the importance of phonological awareness.
• Develop understanding to plan effective phonological awareness instruction.
• Practice engaging strategies to develop phonological awareness.

Authentically Building Fluency

Moving beyond the understanding of fluency as a speed-reading concept, a clear definition of fluency includes accuracy, automaticity, and prosody.

In this session, learners will:

• Identify the research that demonstrates that fluency is critical to reading comprehension.
• Develop understanding of effective assessment and instructional methods to develop fluency.
• Practice strategies and discover tools to support fluency development.

Untold Stories: Using Powerful Texts to Build Literacy Skills

Inspire students to read and analyze short texts that focus on ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

In this session, learners will:

• Explore how to use short texts to provide powerful teaching opportunities that support a variety of instructional needs, content areas, and reading levels.
• Discover ways to add relevancy and purpose to any literacy curriculum with fascinating stories about real people and real events throughout history.
• Learn how to support collaboration and focus on active listening and strong speaking skills as they read, write about, and discuss the untold stories.
• Discover strategies that empower students to explore and share their own untold stories.

Building Knowledge and Vocabulary through Rich Informational Text

College and career-ready standards emphasize the importance of student reading grade-level complex text. Informational text provides unique challenges and a plethora of advantages in building knowledge and vocabulary to support grade-level reading.

In this session, learners will:

• Discover tools to identify rich text (text sets) for the purpose of building knowledge and vocabulary
• Explore the range of learning goals that can be addressed through instruction using rich, informational text
• Reflect on how scaffolds and supports can make challenging text accessible to all students

Building an Inquiry-Based Learning Environment

Teaching and learning using the inquiry-based instructional framework is beneficial for students in multiple content areas and increases student engagement.

In this session, learners will:

• Be instructed on how to construct an environment to promote inquiry-based teaching and learning across multiple content areas.
• Learn strategies that allow students to deeply analyze instructional sources as well as using documents that support inquiry practices.
• Practice strategies that develop students’ thinking processes to analyze and inquire about information in and out of the classroom.

Building Knowledge & Vocabulary: Reading Complex Text Across the Content Areas

Students need to access rich, challenging text to develop knowledge, build vocabulary, and improve comprehension across the content areas.

In this session, learners will:

• Discover nuances within text that make it difficult and uncover student-centered ways to support knowledge and vocabulary development.
• Encounter and practice strategies to empower students to conquer complex text
• Learn new ways to engage students with rich, powerful vocabulary and proven strategies to help students learn those words as well as how those new words work.

Write Now! Effective Strategies for Writing Instruction

Writing is an essential and vital part of every classroom. However, teaching writing can be challenging and overwhelming for students.

In this session, learners will:

• Review best practices in writing instruction.
• Explore ideas for creating writing activities within any content area.
• Discover innovative ways to help students master the four main categories of writing including Informative/Explanation, Opinion/Argument, Narrative Fiction, and Narrative Nonfiction.

Get the Picture: Visual Literacy in Content-Area Instruction

Literacy learning is no longer limited to reading, writing, listening, and speaking; we must include visual communication and expand our definition of what it means to be literate.

In this session, learners will:

• Examine ways to incorporate visual texts into instruction, including what visual literacy lessons look like in the primary grades
• Practice instructional strategies and develop sample lessons for teaching students to read visual texts for understanding
• Practice and discover instructional strategies for guiding students to visually illustrate understanding, specifically targeting support for improving reading and writing