Professional Development

Content Literacy

Grade Levels

  • 5-12
  • Special Education 5-12

Approved Areas of Professional Development

  • Cognitive research
  • Instructional strategies
  • Principles of learning/developmental stages
  • Standards/frameworks/curriculum alignment

Description

Content Literacy Professional Development is a group of literacy offerings for academic content area teachers and special education teachers of grades 5-12. These offerings are aligned to the Common Core State Standards for literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Each workshop is designed to provide evidence-based instructional strategies to support students’ reading and writing in the academic disciplines. Educators may choose workshops specifically designed for their content area and/or grade band.

Professional Development Workshops
Title/Description  Content Area  Grade Band  Hours
Arkansas History explores the topic of the Arkansas home front during World War I through the use of evidence-based literacy strategies aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  History/Social Studies
Literacy		 5-12 3
History/Social Studies Literacy integrates social studies content with specific, research-based literacy strategies to enhance content learning and meet the CCSS goals for literacy in the disciplines.  This training is offered in two, six-hour sessions, with one day emphasizing vocabulary and questioning strategies, and the other day emphasizing summarizing and writing to learn.   History/Social Studies
Literacy		 5-8
Social Studies Teachers and Instructional Facilitators		 12 
History/Social Studies Literacy integrates social studies content with specific, research-based literacy strategies to enhance content learning and meet the CCSS goals for literacy in the disciplines.  This training is offered in two, six-hour sessions, with one day emphasizing vocabulary and questioning strategies, and the other day emphasizing summarizing and writing to learn.   History/Social Studies
Literacy		 9-12
Social Studies Teachers and Instructional Facilitators		 12
Science Literacy integrates science content with specific, research-based literacy strategies to enhance content learning and meet the CCSS goals for literacy in the disciplines.  This training is offered in two, six-hour sessions, with one day emphasizing vocabulary and questioning strategies, and the other day emphasizing summarizing and writing to learn.   Science
Literacy		 5-8
Science Teachers and Instructional Facilitators		 12
Science Literacy integrates science content with specific, research-based literacy strategies to enhance content learning and meet the CCSS goals for literacy in the disciplines.  This training is offered in two, six-hour sessions, with one day emphasizing vocabulary and questioning strategies, and the other day emphasizing summarizing and writing to learn.   Science 
Literacy		 9-12
Science Teachers and Instructional Facilitators		 12


Research

  • Biancarosa,C. & Snow, C. E. (2006). Reading next — A vision for action and research in middle and high school literacy: A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.
  • Graham, S. & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools — A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.
  • Graham, S., & Hebert, M. A. (2010). Writing to read: Evidence for how writing can improve reading. A Carnegie Corporation Time to Act Report. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.
  • Kamil, M. L., Boreman, G. D., Dole, J., Kral, C. C., Salinger, T., & Torgesen, J. (2008). Improving adolescent literacy: Effective classroom and intervention practices: A Practice Guide (NCEE #2008-4027). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc.

For more information please contact:

Literacy specialists at your local education service cooperative.