Planning Professional Learning Opportunities

Providing professional learning opportunities is a key workplace skill for reading/literacy specialists. Designing effective professional learning experiences takes planning and practice. By following guidelines for developing, leading, and evaluating the effectiveness of professional learning programs, the reading/literacy specialist can provide general education teachers and other audiences with valuable learning that can improve student literacy skills and outcomes. Part 1: Professional Learning Session Agenda Review the “Guidelines for Developing, Leading, and Evaluating an Effective Professional Learning Program” from Chapter 5 of the textbook. Select an evidence-based literacy instructional practice. Using this as a framework, create an agenda for a professional learning session designed for an audience of general education teachers at the school where you currently work or are most interested in working. The agenda should include the following: Name and description of the session Explanation of how the session supports the school’s literacy goals Interactive activities to engage participants Video examples and/or the use of technology to facilitate participant learning Supporting research and opportunities for participants to ask questions about session content and student learning Opportunities for participant reflection on current classroom practices Post-session participant evaluation questionnaire Part 2: Teacher Coaching Session Outline Opportunities Review “Coaching Activities With Individual Teachers” located in Chapter 7 of the textbook. To ensure participants have ample opportunities to practice the skills taught in the professional learning session, create an outline for providing individual teacher coaching based on the textbook content. The outline should address the following: Description of how you will model the lesson for teachers Explanation of the co-planning processes that will be used for individual classroom observations, including discussion of specific data that should be reviewed as part of the instructional decision-making process Observation checklist or open-ended observation protocols form Description of analysis and reflection activities that will be completed Description of feedback methods that will be employed Part 3: Supporting Research and Resources Create a Padlet or other digital resource that provides a minimum of five supporting research articles and five supporting resources (websites, blogs, digital tools, and applications, etc.) relevant to the professional learning session and subsequent individual teacher coaching you will provide. Submit the session agenda, coaching activities outline, and link to the supporting research and resources digital deliverable as a single Word document.