Summer ER&D classes
Foundations of Effective Teaching 1: Organizing the Classroom Environment for Teaching and Learning
This core ER&D course addresses the fundamental aspects of teaching and learning that are relevant for teachers and classroom educational support professionals in all grade levels and subject areas. It examines proven practices for establishing and maintaining classroom management, maximizing use of learning time, questioning and feedback skills, homework, interactive guided instruction strategies and scaffolding techniques. Covering core topics critical to successful classroom practice, Foundations of Effective Teaching 1 is recommended as the primary offering for all ER&D local sites. It is frequently used as the basis for induction, mentor and peer assistance programs.
Reading Comprehension Instruction
This course focuses on the research and exemplary practices that help students acquire strong reading comprehension skills. It provides participants with a synthesis of the research base on reading comprehension instruction and vocabulary development. Participants examine, discuss, and evaluate the appropriate application of a range of instructional strategies from explicit to implicit teaching of comprehension skills. Strategies are presented for increasing student comprehension of both narrative and expository texts — including content area textbooks. In addition, approaches are presented to help students monitor their own comprehension and apply appropriate “fix-up” strategies when comprehension is not achieved. Practice in using these instructional strategies and examples of student work are embedded in each unit.
This course is appropriate for all K-12 teachers who need to help increase their students’ comprehension of text — whether that text is a literature selection or a subject area textbook.
Instructional Strategies That Work for All Disciplines
This course provides practical applications of instructional strategies that are outlined in the research base on effective instruction and have been proven to support student learning. At the center of this course are cognitive strategies that foster critical thinking and the transferability of skills learned. Course participants will learn how to evaluate curriculum materials for any content areas, organize content for learning, and develop or evaluate scoring guides for student tasks. These strategies can be applied in K-12 settings and are particularly helpful for students with special needs.
Thinking Mathematics for Middle School: Journey to Algebra
This course is built on the premise that students who are struggling with mathematics when they get to middle school have missed some fundamental concepts that must be learned before they can be successful with middle school curriculum. Thus the course includes core concepts from other Thinking Math courses and looks at them for middle school youngsters. The culminating unit is on beginning algebra. Each unit covers its topic starting with whole numbers and progressing through fractions, providing insight into what students might need as they build skills.
Managing Student Behavior for Support Staff
This course is designed for educational support professionals who have contact with and/or are responsible for overseeing the behavior and safety of large numbers of students outside of the classroom setting, whether that setting is the cafeteria, the school bus, the office, the playground or the school corridors. The course will teach ESPs about how to manage large groups of students as well as difficult and disruptive students.
May 07, 2009