Studio Course Summer Institute 2005

1
Studio CourseSummer Institute 2005

• Denver Public Sch5oolsSecondary Literacy Project

2
Introductions

• Coaches
• Middle school teachers
• High school teachers
• Area specialists
• Coordinators
• Special guests

3

• Once a teacher is aware of herself as one person
  in a classroom of meaning makers, her teaching
  takes on a transparencyIt is now a commonplace
  among reading and writing workshop teachers that
  you know youre doing something right when a
  visitor enters looking for the teacher and they
  cant find him.
• Randy Bomer, 1995

4
Welcome to Studio Course

• Main components
• Rigorous, research-based curriculum
• Intensive daily writing and reading
• Classroom libraries
• Independent reading
• Shared reading
• Magazines
• Investigations and units of study
• Rituals and routines
• Consistent district curriculum

5
Buzz for a Minute

• What are the strongest factors going on in your
  school or class to support student learning and
  achievement?
• What are the challenges you face in supporting
  students and their learning?

6
Three DPS District Goals

• Set high expectations
• Improve the performance of all students
• Close the gap between better and poorer
  performing students

7
Institute for Learning (IFL)

• DPS partnered with IFL from the University of
  Pittsburgh to use their extensive research about
  how people learn.
• IFL lends ongoing support and training to
  district leaders and educators.
• Our goal is to improve and enhance student
  achievement.

8
Principles of Learning (POLs)

• POLs were developed from 25 years of research at
  the ILF that demonstrate how people learn best
  and how to replicate those principles in an
  academic setting.
• We have started our work with three of the nine
  total POLs.

9
Studio Course Institute Structure

• Interactive
• Course content
• Considerations of
• Research TheoryInstitute for Learning
• Principles of Learning (POLs)

10
District Principles of Learning Focus

• In service of the apprenticeship idea, Studio
  Course focuses on
• Accountable Talk
• Clear Expectations
• Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum

11
Buzz

• In triads, each person reads a section of the
  Principles of Learning
• A. Accountable Talk
• B. Clear Expectations
• C. Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum
• After you read your section with your triad,
  discuss your understanding of the principle.
• During the week, reflect on how the POLs are
  used in the Studio Course.

12
Nested Learning Communities Help Build Capacity
for Improvement

• One-on-one
• Coach conferring
• Small group
• Weekly team meetings
• Study groups
• Large group
• Institutes

13
What Studio Teachers Do

• Participate in teacher literacy professional
  development
• Maintain the integrity of the curriculum
• Read professional and young adult literature
• Take a learner stance as they read and implement
  the curriculum
• Become collaborative partners in their learning
  community
• Develop and practice modeling skills and
  strategies in literacy
• Participate in lab classrooms

14

• Intelligence is learnable. People can become
  more intelligent by living and working every day
  in a particular kind of environment one that
  coaches them in using problem-solving skills and
  praises them for using the skills one that holds
  them accountable for using them well because it
  assumes they are smart and capable. This kind of
  learning environment can create the beliefs and
  dispositions that constitute intelligence.
• Principles of Learning for Effort-Based Education
  Lauren Resnick and Megan Williams Hall