The North Carolina Center for Advancement in Teaching (NCCAT) will host this four-day professional development series on middle grade literacy (5-8). Registrants are expected to attend all four sessions, please add the following dates to your calendar:
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Wednesday, March 25, 2020 Make-up day to be determined
Registration link below session descriptions.
Middle School Literacy
As our students transition to Reading to Learn, we are often unsure how to support those who struggle with comprehension. Knowing how to identify reading needs and provide necessary interventions is unknown territory for many late elementary and middle school teachers. Learn how to drill down and assess individual gaps in reading skills and the intervention strategies to help students become better readers. Focus on vocabulary strategies for building students’ word knowledge and access to difficult texts. Explore close reading and comprehension strategies for empowering students to think deeply about text.
Teachers will:
- investigate why some students struggle to comprehend text and discover methods for supporting reading comprehension.
- examine best practices for vocabulary instruction and design meaningful vocabulary activities in their content area.
- explore close reading and comprehension strategies to support student content learning.
- investigate other factors that impact comprehension like fluency, decoding, and motivation.
Feb 11: Comprehension
Core Reading in Secondary School
Participants will explore the components of reading and determine how each impacts comprehension.
The Architecture of Comprehension
Participants will discuss how comprehension structures support students in core instruction.
Monitoring Comprehension
Participants practice monitoring comprehension strategies to support adolescent readers.
Text Coding
Participants will dig deeper into the multiple ways text codes can be adapted to support reading.
Feb 25: Supporting Struggling Readers
Text Coding
Participants will dig deeper into the multiple ways text codes can be adapted to support reading.
Supporting Struggling Readers
Participants will shift their focus to additional assessment and scaffolds for struggling readers.
Scaffolding for Text Complexity
Participants will learn the qualities of complex texts and specific strategies for each type of complexity.
Attending to Motivation
Participants will learn about the elements that impact reading motivation – especially for male readers.
March 10: Vocabulary
Approaches to Vocabulary Learning
Participants will learn overarching principles that influence vocabulary instruction.
Morphology Instruction and Context Clues
Participants will learn how to support strategies that empower students to unlock word meanings.
Teaching Discipline Specific Words
Participants will learn a variety of strategies to support content-specific vocabulary.
March 25: Fluency and Writing
Supporting Fluency and Decoding
Participants will learn specific tools and strategies to support students with greater needs.
Writing to Learn
Participants will learn how writing to learn supports comprehension and the reading-writing connection.