Educators Advocating for Literacy

[Leigh Hall]

I'm working with a great group of teachers who are in the process of getting their M.ED. at the University of North Carolina.  As part of their capstone class, we decided to take a look at how literacy policy at the local, state, and national level impact how students' develop as readers and writer (in ways that are positive and negative).

 

From our work we have developed a ning, "Realistic Educators Advocating for Literacy" (http://realadvocatesforliteracy.ning.com/). Our ning is in its infancy stages, but it's public and we hope that you will take a look at our work and contribute your own thoughts and questions. While the teachers are putting up information connected to our class project, anyone can come in and contribute to the ning to share their own insights about policy and its influence on literacy instruction and development in school. It's my hope that this ning will allow educators to network around policy issues and, as a result, find ways to have a stronger voice that will result in a positive impact on the kinds of educational policies that effect us all on a daily basis.

 

Some examples of the work we have been doing include:

1. Free Choice Reading in Schools (http://realadvocatesforliteracy.ning.com/group/ssrsuperheroes). This group has spent over a year working on how schools can make space to have their students read more and give them choice in what they read. This group has just begun putting up their work, but they have deep knowledge in this area and would welcome your thoughts and questions.

 

2. A recent post on the Reading 3D program has sparked a range of comments where people have challenged the idea that this is acceptable curriculum: http://realadvocatesforliteracy.ning.com/profiles/blogs/reading-3d#...

 

3. Others are working to understand Professional Learning Teams and how schools/districts can best facilitate professional development: http://realadvocatesforliteracy.ning.com/profiles/blogs/plt-survey

 

We're just getting off the ground and are hoping many teachers from all grades, backgrounds, experience levels, etc...will join us in looking at how policy is influencing the literacy instruction we can provide to our students and work to make changes! Hope to see you over there.