Developing Literacy Leadership

Professor Catherine Compton Lilly and the LCLI Fellows will be working to develop school level literacy leaders in Wisconsin elementary schools. The premise of this collaborative project is to train teachers to become literacy leaders. The project will focus on developing expertise in the teaching of reading and writing rather than the implementation of particular programs. The literacy leaders then would have to be available to work with other teachers to pass on the knowledge and skills learned. Each district would be assigned an outside mentor/coach, either Heidi Walter or Sharon Toellner and they would support each team by helping present and/or model the literacy strategies to staff.

We have funding for 6 schools to participate. The program would require 6 days of summer training and three monthly follow-up sessions during Fall 2013.

 Each participating teacher would receive $300.00 for attending the summer professional development sessions and sharing their knowledge and skills with the rest of the staff in 2013-14; monthly follow-up sessions will be held in September, October and November; a $50 stipend will be paid to teachers for each of these sessions. We envision school-level professional development as taking many forms - late starts, early releases, mini lessons at a staff meeting, modeling in classrooms with observers etc.

The topics for the summer training sessions will be selected by participating teams in consultation with their school administration. These must be identified by a survey we will send out after registration. 

Each participant would be asked to give feedback on the content and structure.

In addition to this unique literacy professional development opportunity, teams of literacy educators will be invited to attend the LCLI Conference on November 1 & 2 on the UW Madison Campus. This conference is free and open to all area schools.

This project requires the support of school principals. Team members could include teachers, reading specialists, Title I teachers, special education teachers, reading coaches and/or ESL/bilingual specialists

In applying to participate in this project, school administrators agree to the following:

• Support project participants by enabling them to attend summer and fall professional development sessions,
• Provide opportunities for the team members to present information to teachers at their school,
• Support team members in working in classrooms with teachers to share their literacy expertise, and
• Allow participants to implement the strategies learned through the Literacy Expertise Seminars in their schools and classrooms.

Team members agree to the following:
• Attending all summer and fall professional development sessions,
• Providing information to teachers at their school,
• Working in classrooms with teachers to share literacy expertise, and
• Implementing the strategies learned through the Literacy Expertise Seminars in their schools and classrooms.
 

Cancellation Policy: Registered participants will receive a full refund if they cancel before 10 working days before an event, minus any material costs that have already been incurred. Because of our commitment to the trainer and the food vendor, participants who cancel less than 10 working days or do not attend, will be billed the full fee. CESA 5 reserves the right to cancel any event. Registered participants will be notified via email if a cancellation occurs and will receive a full refund. Inclement weather policy: Every effort will be made to hold an event. CESA 5 will notify participants via email as soon as possible if an event has been canceled due to weather conditions.