- Instructor: ies
Course Provider: Erin Kent Consulting (EKC)
| 399USD | Flexible | Flexible | Self-paced | Certificate available |
My kids are reading and writing, but sometimes it feels more about quantity than quality. Foundational skills are lacking. How might I engage my students in a continuous, joyful exploration of words, grammar, and how language works? And where might that fit across my busy day? Week?
Course Agenda
● Session 1: The What and Why of Word Study
● Session 2: Conferring Through a Word Study Lens
● Session 3: Cultivating a Word-curious Stance
● Session 4: Studying Grammar in a Meaningful Way
● Session 5: Structures of Impactful Passages
● Wondering 1: Finding the Balance Between Composition and Conventions
● Wondering 2: Should We Be Teaching Separate Word Study Lessons?
● Wondering 3: What Might Conferring Look Like for EAL Teachers?
● Session 6: Research into Vocabulary Instruction
● Session 7: Systematic, Explicit Vocabulary Instruction
● Wondering 4: How Can Grammar Inquiry be Fit Into a 50-Minute Class Period?
● Wondering 5: How Might We Get Started with Invitations/Inquiry for Emergent Bilinguals?
● Session 8: The Role of Meaning in Spelling
● Session 9: Teaching Morphology to Children
● Wondering 6: How Might We Teach Words With Multiple Meanings?
● Wondering 7: How Might We Incorporate a Reasonable Amount of Unit Vocabulary?
● Wondering 8: How Might We Challenge Kids Already Familiar with the Unit Vocabulary?
● Session 10: Scheduling Our Time
● Session 11: Tools for Supporting Word Study Instruction
● Session 12: Wrap-up
● Wondering 9: How Might We Incorporate Word Investigations into a Weekly Schedule?
● Wondering 10: How Might We Decide What Word Patterns to Study?
● Wondering 11: What Else Might We Do to Assess Spelling Beyond Traditional Spelling Tests?
● Wondering 12: Does Word Inquiry Provide a Linear Progression?
● Wondering 13: How Might We Schedule Everything When Using Units of Study?
Learning Outcomes
Participants will:
● Leave with experiences and information around
– grammar instruction that is purposeful, relevant, and authentic
– practical ways to incorporate multi-modal vocabulary study across our units
– amplifying morphology as a key to efficient, powerful word inquiry
– how to leverage the power of metalinguistic awareness for our multilingual learners
– ways to transfer best practices around word study into online and blended learning environments
Course Commitment
● Fully Asynchronous
● About 5 hours of video content to access for 6 months and a padlet of resources
Schedule
Flexible Schedule / Self-paced
Erin Kent Consulting (EKC) is a collaborative of literacy strategists specialized in working with international schools. We provide customized professional learning experiences for K-12 educators that fit a school’s unique context and hold tight to research-based essentials. We’ve worked with over 100 international schools on six continents to grow joyful, responsive literacy learning. Trainings are offered in English, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. We offer a variety of online options for staff development: administrative consults on K-10 literacy reform or refinement, coach or lead teacher mentorship programs, live or recorded workshops on literacy topics, live Q&A sessions with grade level teams or an entire faculty, action research mentorship around a unique topic of interest for your school/country context, etc. Digital learning shrinks our already small world of international education. Reach out when you need us; you’ve got literacy experts ready to answer your questions on K-10 Readers Workshop, Writers Workshop and Word Study in international schools.
Director
Erin Kent
Erin Kent consults with international schools around the world. She helps teachers and administrators grow customized approaches to K-10 balanced literacy that fit an international school’s unique context. Erin taught literacy for many years in urban, independent, and international schools before becoming a literacy coach and then P-12 Director of Curriculum and Instruction where she led a team of 13 instructional coaches and advised K-12 administrators on establishing data-based educational initiatives. Erin has spoken many times at Columbia University Teachers College in New York City and at international conferences on Readers/ Writers Workshop methodology, literacy coaching, curriculum development, and literacy leadership.
Tonya Gilchrist
Tonya Gilchrist is an internationally experienced educator, presenter, instructional coach, and curriculum specialist. Tonya earned her Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from Hong Kong University. She also holds an IB Certificate in Leadership Practice and an IB Advanced Certificate in Leadership Research. Tonya currently serves as a senior strategist for Erin Kent Consulting where she specializes in helping schools around the world amplify inquiry and honor agency across all components of balanced literacy—including reading and writing workshops. She also works with schools to support them in enhancing disciplinary literacy and in effectively utilizing the workshop model across languages.
Vanessa Reid
It was truly astounding how positive the feedback was…, even from some of our most skeptical members of staff! Everyone gained a huge amount of knowledge and understanding… Not only were teachers upskilled, but there was also a sense of renewed motivation and energy for literacy teaching… It is nearly two years on, and we are still drawing on this energy! Administrators were equally impressed with the work and on a personal note, as Leader of Literacy, Erin’s coaching was some of the best PD I have ever had.
Patience Montgomery
Thank you for everything; such a wonderful and uplifting course! I truly enjoyed every minute. It was so well put together, informative, and helpful in all respects!
Olivia Montero Petraglia
These sessions have been some of the best professional learning I’ve had in my twenty-three years in education. (EKC) understands hardworking teachers, the constraints of international school schedules, and the necessity of differentiation, and the workshops keep all learners in mind. I know that after a course, I feel inspired and have ready-to-use tools and strategies to apply right away.
