SEARCY -- Lake Hamilton Intermediate School fourth-grade teacher Brittany Wilson and Lake Hamilton Junior High teacher Ashley Kincannon recently attended the Literacy Lab at Harding University in Searcy.
The Literacy Lab Project is a 14-day staff development designed for all teachers, media specialists and principals of students in grades 4-12. The training covers a two-year period.
"Although I have only attended the first three days of Literacy Lab, I already know that I am forever changed as a teacher," Kincannon said. "My experience at literacy lab helped me realize that reading is the key to lifelong learning."
Seven days in the first year covers the material and research needed for teachers to implement a reading workshop environment in their classrooms that aligns with Common Core State Standards. The lab addressed the need to create engaging literate environments in classrooms, as well as instruction in motivating fluency and comprehension strategies.
"One of the most important ideas that I gained from the first session of Year One Lit Lab is the major need for educators, administrators, faculty and staff to demonstrate active reading in their school districts," Wilson said. "If we are expecting our students to become lifelong readers, it is our responsibility to model and talk about reading as a social activity."
Seven days in the second year are designed to instruct teachers to use assessment as the driver of instruction and to implement writing workshops aligned with Common Core standards in their classrooms, along with vocabulary and word study instruction. An additional benefit of the project is the ability of participants to acquire graduate degree credit.
The goal of the project is to fully implement a model of instruction that is effective in developing teaching that supports student learning and Common Core. It is not to be used as an "addition to" piece for teachers.
Though no controlled quantitative experimental study has been conducted, evidence from the observation of the large number of fully implementing schools and classrooms shows significant increases in student achievement in the areas of fluency, comprehension, motivation and vocabulary development as measured by the state.
"If our students are not lifelong readers, then they will not be lifelong learners," Kincannon said. "It is our job as educators to make reading fun, engaging, and desirable. Parents and educators need to take an active role in both engaging themselves as readers and in engaging our students as readers, for reading is the doorway to opportunity and success."
School on 08/02/2015