NUA & Beacon Public Schools

NUA/BEACON CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT
LITERACY INITIATIVE 2005-2006

The NUA/Beacon Literacy Initiative for the 2005-2006 school year built upon the success of the two professional learning communities (PLC) established during the 2004-2005 school year:

• The mathematics PLC consisted of Rombout Middle School’s 24 mathematics teachers, both general and special education. They engaged in seminars, site visits, intervisitations and peer coaching. Each site visit provided demonstration lessons/intervisitations, pre and post discussions/seminars. Initial demonstration lessons will be presented by NUA.
  
  Intervisitations focused on the delivery of the Units of Instruction created during the prior year. Units address objectives derived from the New York State Mathematics Standards. Each one contains initiation strategies; lesson sequences; closure and assessment activities. Teachers were encouraged to provide demonstration lessons during intervisitations and between visits. Coaching strategies were incorporated into each visit. Ten site visits were scheduled over the course of the year. There were also full day and half day seminars to develop additional Units of Instruction for the teachers’ resource guide.
  
• The district’s elementary level reading and early literacy PLC extended its learning by engaging in both seminars and site visits during which classroom-based demonstration lessons were be provided. The district’s reading and early literacy teachers explored various approaches to the delivery of services. NUA provided demonstration lessons and reflective discussions in three of the district’s four elementary schools that combine instructional strategy development and classroom-based practices. Using the pre-post discussion format, teachers explored applications of the strategies presented during seminars and demonstration lessons. Teachers were encouraged to engage in peer coaching.
  
  Previous work in Beacon

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