Staff & Curriculum Development
Support and Solutions - Issue 20
About the Newsletter
The Madison-Oneida BOCES Staff and Curriculum Development Newsletter is a platform that we use to provide you with curated resources, things to know, tools to use, and ideas to explore.
If we share them, it's because we have looked at them and we think they might be worthy of your limited time! Click on the things that you think will help you and skip the things that won't. And remember, we are here if you need us!
A little fun: I Don't Want to Read...
*****
CONTENT & PEDAGOGY
Seal of Civic Readiness
The intent behind the seal is to support students as they learn to use civic knowledge, skills, and mindsets in making decisions and taking action in their communities and in society as a whole.
Districts must apply to the state in order to offer the Seal of Civic Readiness. We will be hosting a virtual overview of the SCR and the application process on March 30th from 3:30 to 4:30. The suggested audience for any interested district includes secondary social studies teachers, guidance counselors, and administrators. Look for a registration flyer in the next week!
Workshop Highlight -- Using Socratic Seminar
In this introductory workshop to the Socratic Method, participants will learn the basic structure and intent of this model of engagement. They will then have the opportunity to experience a Socratic Seminar as students. The end of the workshop will provide some time to begin planning the use of this model in your own classroom.
The workshop will be held at the TriPlexus on April 26th from 12:00 - 3:00.
Co-teaching and You
Up and Coming...
Coming up in the next month:
- The Science of Reading
- Differentiated Instruction
- Regional Band PLC
- Socratic Seminar
- Family & Consumer Science PLC
- Tell Me So I Can Hear You
- Book Talk & Take (High School Librarians and Teachers)
- Art PLC
Access the SCD Professional Development Opportunities webpage for more details about each of the workshops and to see what else we are offering!
Instructional Minutes
Maria Papa has designed these quick videos for our current reality: when we have limited time but want to keep learning professionally! Enjoy!
*****
RESOURCES AND IDEAS
Women's History Month
And with a SNAP, the Media Library Has Transitioned!
*****
THE READING CORNER
The Science of Reading
If a student is struggling with reading a sentence and “lifting” unknown words off the page, we often try to help them by using a comprehension strategy such as looking at the context of the sentence. When we do, though, we (and our students) are really just spinning our wheels. Comprehension is a by-product of reading. It is the outcome.
If a student can’t comprehend what they are reading, we need to go back to fluency. If a student can’t read fluently we need to go back to decoding and phonics. And, if a student can’t decode, we need to go back to phonemic awareness. It doesn’t matter how old the student is because learning to read with the ears first is where phonemic awareness, and eventually phoneme proficiency, stems from! BOTH decoding and language comprehension must be in place in order to create readers. (Click on the graphic to the right for a closer exploration.)
If you are interested in a quick introduction into the Science of Reading, check out this free e-book from The Reading League.
*****
Engagement and Connection
Teachers taking More Engaging Strategies earlier this month "broke out" and explored new ways to draw students into the learning. (And they had a lot of fun doing it!)
Interested in learning some of these strategies? Join us for our summer conference, Together, We've Got This. In addition to yet another engagement strategy workshop (so even those who have taken them in the past will walk away with new structures), the conference will have workshops with Cornelius Minor and Brian Mendler!
You don't want to miss this, so set aside August 3rd and 4th, and look for the brochure in the your mailboxes in early April!
*****
Looking for support? Have an idea to share? Have a video that we should add? Reach out to us at scd@moboces.org. Also, check out our webpages by clicking on the logos below!
March 17, 2022
Center for Instructional Support /
School Library Services