The Impact of an On-Site Literacy Strategies Course at a Local GNETS

Location

Walsh A

Proposal Track

Practice Report

Session Format

Presentation

Abstract

School-university partnerships have been among the most frequently recommended approaches to educational reform. From the university perspective, the goal of these partnerships is to bridge the disconnect between what teacher candidates are taught in campus courses and what they implement in P-12 settings with students. This session involves research on an on-site literacy strategies course taught at a local Georgia Network of Educational and Therapeutic Support (GNETS) campus. Within the framework of the course, every student at GNETS participated and received 30 minutes of small group literacy instruction from our teacher candidates each week as they implemented instructional strategies taught in the course. Each teacher in the school also received professional development on the literacy strategies covered so that they could be reinforced outside of our small group sessions. The resulting data includes student growth on curriculum-based measures of student reading comprehension conducted by the teacher candidates throughout the semester and the results of a questionnaire given to teacher candidates at the conclusion of the semester. Overall, not only did student reading comprehension increase, the course allowed teacher candidates to move from theory to practice working with actual students instead of abstractly as is usually the case in traditional classes.

Keywords

Professional Development Schools, On-Site Courses, Literacy Strategies, EBD

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Oct 7th, 9:00 AM Oct 7th, 10:15 AM

The Impact of an On-Site Literacy Strategies Course at a Local GNETS

Walsh A

School-university partnerships have been among the most frequently recommended approaches to educational reform. From the university perspective, the goal of these partnerships is to bridge the disconnect between what teacher candidates are taught in campus courses and what they implement in P-12 settings with students. This session involves research on an on-site literacy strategies course taught at a local Georgia Network of Educational and Therapeutic Support (GNETS) campus. Within the framework of the course, every student at GNETS participated and received 30 minutes of small group literacy instruction from our teacher candidates each week as they implemented instructional strategies taught in the course. Each teacher in the school also received professional development on the literacy strategies covered so that they could be reinforced outside of our small group sessions. The resulting data includes student growth on curriculum-based measures of student reading comprehension conducted by the teacher candidates throughout the semester and the results of a questionnaire given to teacher candidates at the conclusion of the semester. Overall, not only did student reading comprehension increase, the course allowed teacher candidates to move from theory to practice working with actual students instead of abstractly as is usually the case in traditional classes.