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Beacon, New York Director: Howard Gollub Beacon Project Overview NUA & Beacon Public Schools All participants will engage in activities that enable them to
Writing will be used as a curriculum unifier. Participants will learn how to teach writing across the curriculum in an organized, developmental approach that fosters rich vocabulary and reflects advanced thinking. Participants will be (re)introduced to a set of basic strategies for thinking about and practicing reading, writing and higher level thinking. The strategies help students gather words and organize their ideas, and the goal is to write fluent, organized, thoughtful text that says something worthwhile about a particular topic. Each new strategy will be introduced and reviewed, building on what was introduced earlier. Over the course of the school year, participants will apply the strategies to a specific topic or area of study. They will be introduced and reviewed in workshops and at on-site (school building) meetings with administrators and their participating faculty. All participants will receive copies of Writing as Learning (WAL) and Teaching with the Brain in Mind (BIM) to use as references and resources to support the professional development activities. In addition, they will be provided composition books to create their own personal resource guide.
Definition format focuses attention on precision in concept development and forms the basis for analogical thinking. (WAL) Profiles, Frames and "Who's Who " structure and support biographical and autobiographical writing. (WAL) Reasons, Causes, Results help writers to express and support opinions and respond to open ended questions. (WAL) Interactions and Personifications help students compose and appreciate writing from a new or imaginary point of view. (WAL) Read-Talk-Write and Think-Pair-Share are precursors to summarizing and foster note taking and metacognitive reflection. (BIM) One Sentence Summaries help students identify significant details and relationships for note taking and summaries. (BIM) Thinking Maps provide a common visual language for organization and structured note taking, pre-writing and assessment. (TM) (BIM) In order to minimize the substitute burden on a school when the strategy sessions are scheduled, NUA consultants will work with one half of the participating teachers at a time.
Principals, Assistant Principals and Team Leaders will meet as a group with NUA consultants at least during the school year: before the program begins, twice during the fall semester and at least four times during the spring semester, to identify target teachers and classes, familiarize themselves with the instructional strategies, and develop action plans and procedures for support and on-going evaluation of the project. District office Personnel and Consultants will meet at least four times during the year: before the program begins, twice during the fall semester and at least once during the spring semester, to anticipate and address issues of organization and program support. Service Delivery: On Site Professional Development Consultants will conduct faculty seminars, model strategies in selected classrooms, encourage team building, help participants to coach each other and to assess progress in application of the strategies and program development. When and where appropriate, they will participate in faculty and department meetings. The NUA consultants will also coach the individual Team Leaders in their instructional leadership roles, and help them to develop agendas for department meetings that focus on modeling, demonstration and sharing of instructional issues and application of teaming and writing across the curriculum. All of the Team Leader, Assistant Principals and Principals will meet as a large a group on four occasions to address strategies and implementation issues; to present updates and strengthen communication networks. Service Delivery: Specialty Consultants
Collaboration: Participants will become familiar with strategies to work in a collaborative, productive setting. Teaming: Participants will learn strategies to assist them in functioning as productive instructional teams. Knowledge: All participants will become familiar with strategies listed below. These strategies encourage thinking, reading and writing in the content areas. Teachers will be expected to apply at least 5 of the strategies in their classrooms.
Teachers' classrooms will reflect evidence of student writing and the use of the thinking strategies.  Activities: Building Adminsitrators - Leadership TeamPrincipals and Assistant Principals will determine the leadership team within each school and schedule common planning times for AM and PM cohorts of teachers. This leadership team will plan all on-site meetings, address the logistics of these meetings (schedules, supplies and equipment, distribution and duplication of materials, directions, parking and lunch for the consultant) Principals and Assistant Principals will arrange for substitute coverage, plan schedules for sub coverage and ensure that subs are properly deployed during the day of an on-site visit. Principals and Assistant Principals will keep up to date regarding the content, purpose and structure of each of the NUA meetings, and the general approach reflected in each of the strategies. They will ensure that copies of Writing as Learning (WAL),Teaching with the Brain in Mind (BIM), and composition books are available for teachers to use on site, as references and resources to support planning, instruction and reflection.Principals and Assistant Principals will look for evidence of application of the strategies. They will publicly recognize the efforts of teachers and Team Leaders as they incorporate these strategies into their plans and lessons. Team Leaders will develop and distribute a systematic plan for actively supporting the use of writing strategies by the target teachers within their department. Participating Teachers with the participating teachers in their departments, :
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