Course: C&T 844: The Reading Program: Coordination and Supervision

Title: Two-Year Literacy Professional Development Plan for Elementary School’s

In C&T 844: The Reading Program: Coordination and Supervision, I developed a two-year school plan for literacy specifically focusing on the literacy curriculum implemented in my school. My plan included goals for teachers and parents/guardians and included methods of how to reach those goals. I provided a budget for materials and resources that could be bought and used in order to support teachers with their learning of our literacy curriculum, which is called Benchmark Universe. The two-year plan also includes activities and how and why to gather data to support teachers' growth.

Learning Outcome 3 emphases on professional growth and leadership by documenting a candidate's current or future role in facilitating and/or participating in collaborative professional activities with others in the candidate’s school or community. C&T 844: The Reading Program: Coordination and Supervision, focused on professional learning and preparing teachers to become literacy leaders at the school and/or district level.

The two-year plan I created was a way for us to practice thinking and planning like a reading specialist. It focused on creating goals for teachers to better understand and use the literacy curriculum called Benchmark Universe which my school recently implemented in the 2020-2021 fiscal school year. The plan included the reading specialist working alongside teachers in each grade level during their collaborative planning but also providing opportunities for teachers to cross-grade level plan with other teachers in the school. In addition, teachers would be able to peer-observe other teachers in their grade level, in a different grade level, or different school to gather ideas and strategies of how to teach the curriculum to scholars. I also included professional development literacy sessions for teachers to encourage family literacy. These literacy sessions would help teachers generate ideas to share with parents/guardians and other family members so they could support their children at home using strategies used in the classroom. Getting parents involved in their child’s educational journey can have a positive effect on the child’s behavior, attendance, and student achievement (Reading Rockets) which is what we strive for.

For teachers to improve their literacy teaching skills, they need to listen, read, observe and practice how to teach literacy. My two-year plan includes the goal of buying books from Benchmark Education Company on how to co-teach, collaborate with other teachers, teach whole group and small group instruction, and differentiate literacy lessons for each grade level to have and read will support teachers’ growth. We would also have book clubs or professional learning communities to discuss new methods worth implementing and share the results of methods we have implemented in our classrooms.

The two-year plan was created with the teachers, scholars, and family members in mind to provide an engaging and rigorous learning experience for scholars. To involve families, teachers and administrators need to improve their communication. In this case, in order to help teachers, improve their communication with families, they need to be given the proper guidance on how to do so and families need to be guided as well.

Although I have not been able to implement any part of my two-year plan, creating it took a lot of thinking and research to propose a beneficial and manageable plan. It was helpful to get a glimpse of how to think like a reading specialist. Although it is a lot of work and requires an enormous amount of responsibility, I believe it would be worth the time and effort. The organization, support, and guidance from a prepared and caring reading specialist, which I plan to be, will help the staff, families, and scholars from the school.

My two-year plan relates to Learning Outcome 3 because it indicates how I would organize, schedule, and provide reading support for staff, scholars, and families through professional learning sessions. As a reading specialist, I would be in charge of implementing this plan, receiving feedback, and updating sessions to meet the needs of those I am working with in order to help our scholars improve their reading skills.

References

Honigsfeld, A., & Dove, M. (2015). ELLs: Co-Teaching and Collaboration. National Professional Resources, Inc.

Klein, A.F., & Afflerbach, P. (n.d). Whole-Group Reading Instruction. Benchmark Education Company, LLC

Klein, A.F., Andrews, B., & Afflerbach, P. (n.d). Small-Group Reading Instruction. Benchmark Education Company, LLC

Kuykendall, A., & Jones, T. (n.d.). Using Leveled Texts to Differentiate Instruction, Professional Development Book. Benchmark Education Company, LLC.

The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement. (n.d.) Getting Parents Involved in Schools. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/getting- parents-involved-schools