The 5th annual Suzanne W. Cole Reading Recovery® and Early Literacy Institute, hosted by the University Training Center for Reading Recovery and Maine Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy, will be held Thursday, May 20 via Zoom.

In previous years, the event has attracted more than 100 Reading Recovery teachers, literacy coaches and other professionals from across Maine.

This year’s conference, which runs 9 a.m.–3 p.m., will feature a keynote address by former University Training Center Reading Recovery trainer, Dr. Lori Taylor. Now trainer emeritus, Taylor’s talk is titled, “Forever Changed: Lessons From Reading Recovery.”

“Teachers who have completed training in Reading Recovery often say it was the most rigorous and life-changing learning year of their career,” says Taylor. “Together, we will examine research findings and personal experiences that describe the influence of Reading Recovery on us as teachers and learners.”

Taylor’s professional areas of interest include emergent literacy curriculum, teacher professional development and nonverbal communication in teaching and learning. In addition to her work as a trainer with the University Training Center, she has worked as a special education teacher, classroom teacher, literacy specialist and literacy coach during her 35 years as an educator. She recently returned to the classroom at Camden-Rockport Elementary School.

The University Training Center provides professional development to teacher leaders, who train Reading Recovery teachers in nearly 60 school districts statewide. The program helps students in first grade who struggle with reading and writing, by offering 12 to 20 weeks of individualized instruction. Over more than two decades, Reading Recovery has served more than 100,000 Maine children, helping them improve their literacy skills.

The Suzanne W. Cole Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Institute is named for Suzanne Cole, matriarch of the Cole family of Bangor. For more than 20 years, the Galen Cole Family Foundation has provided financial support to school districts in Maine that offer Reading Recovery, and the conference is held in recognition of their extraordinary contribution to teacher education and the literacy success of young children in Maine.

In addition to the keynote, the conference will include several morning and afternoon sessions.

For more information or to request a reasonable accommodation, contact Kathie Wing, katherine.wing@maine.edu. Download the conference flyer and registration form below.

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Ongoing professional development is key to the comprehensive literacy model that schools and districts across Maine have implemented with the help of the UTC. The model provides for continuous school improvement through powerful classroom instruction along with a broad range of literacy interventions, providing multiple layers of differentiated instruction for learners in kindergarten through grade 12. Improved student learning outcomes result from high quality expert teaching in a collaborative team approach in supporting each and every student.

This year, UTC will offer three remote, synchronous professional development modules open to educators in Maine Reading Recovery and MPCL schools. Tiffany Twitchell, Reading Recovery teacher leader for southern Maine, will lead modules for elementary classroom teachers, coaches, Reading Recovery teachers and interventionists on “Social and Emotional Aspects of Literacy Learning” and “A Team Approach for Supporting Struggling Learners in the Elementary School Setting.” 91���� MPCL trainer Debra Hogate will lead a module for administrators on “Administrative Leadership: Examining a Comprehensive Model of Instruction.”

The modules consist of eight, two-hour Zoom sessions, and educators will earn two continuing education units (CEUs) for each one they complete.

In addition, the UTC will offer conference or seminar-style professional development events this year. Those include:

• Creating a Community of Joyful Readers, Writers and Thinkers
  Presenter: Dr. Gravity Goldberg
  Date/Time: 10.15.20, 9-11 a.m.
  Location: Zoom
  Audience: MPCL coaches, teacher leaders, classroom teachers
• Digging Into Data with the IDEC On-Demand and Annual Reports
  Presenter: Jeff Brymer-Bashore
  Date/Time: 04.02.21, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
  Location: Virtual, Zoom
  Audience: Reading Recovery teachers, teacher leaders
• Student-Centered Coaching
  Presenter: Diane Sweeney
  Date/Time: 04.14.21, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
  Location: Virtual, Zoom
  Audience: MPCL coaches, instructional coaches, administrators
• 5th Annual Suzanne W. Cole Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Institute
  Presenter: Dr. Lori Taylor, Keynote address; Maine Teacher Leader Team, Conference sessions
  Date/Time: 05.20.21
  Location: Virtual, Zoom
  Audience: Reading Recovery teachers, interventionists, other early childhood educators

For more information download a flyer below, or contact: Kathie Wing, katherine.wing@maine.edu, 207.581.2493.

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The 5th annual Suzanne W. Cole Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Institute, hosted by the University Training Center for Reading Recovery and Maine Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy, will be held Thursday May 21 at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast.

In previous years, the event has attracted more than 100 Reading Recovery teachers, literacy coaches and other professionals from across Maine.

The university center provides professional development to teacher leaders, who train Reading Recovery teachers in nearly 60 school districts statewide. The program helps students in first grade who struggle with reading and writing, by offering 12 to 20 weeks of individualized instruction. Over more than two decades, Reading Recovery has served more than 100,000 Maine children, helping them improve their literacy skills.

This year’s conference, which runs 8 a.m.–3:30 p.m., will feature a keynote address by K. Journey Swafford, Reading Recovery trainer a Georgia State University. Swafford is also associate project director for the Paths to Literacy Initiatives at Georgia State’s Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education. Her areas of interest include teacher professional development, literacy coaching, reading intervention and social emotional learning. Her talk, “Making the Most of Coaching Conversations in Reading Recovery,” will ask participants to consider settings within Reading Recovery for collaboration and coaching conversations, the language of coaching interactions and how to make the most of coaching opportunities.

The Suzanne W. Cole Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Institute is named for Suzanne Cole, matriarch of the Cole family of Bangor. For more than 20 years, the Galen Cole Family Foundation has provided financial support to school districts in Maine that offer Reading Recovery, and the conference is held in recognition of their extraordinary contribution to teacher education and the literacy success of young children in Maine.

In addition to the keynote, the conference will include several morning and afternoon sessions.

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On Tuesday, March 24, 2020, the University Training Center for Reading Recovery and Maine Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy will host a professional development seminar with Dr. Nancy Boyles. The seminar is titled, “Closer Reading for Deeper Understanding.” Dr. Boyles was a classroom teacher for many years, and is now professor emerita at Southern Connecticut State University, as well as an author and independent literacy consultant. Her books on close reading include, Reading, Writing, and Rigor: Helping Students Achieve Depth of Knowledge in Literacy and Classroom Reading to Engage the Heart and Mind: 200+ Picture Books to Start SEL Conversations.

Recommended audience: Reading Recovery teachers and teacher leaders; classroom teachers; interventionists; special education teachers; coaches; administrators who support learners in grades K-8 with application to high school language arts teachers.

More about this program:
How do we support intermediate grade students during close reading to build independence, deeper thinking, and skill, and what kinds of tasks after reading measure depth of knowledge at all levels of complexity? This hands-on institute will answer these questions and more as you learn strategies that engage all readers, even English learners and those reading below level. Take home a handout that includes a sample mini-lesson, streamlined annotation sheet, list of standards-based skill priorities, answer frame and rubric for constructed response, and more.

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On Tuesday, April 28, 2020, the University Training Center for Reading Recovery and Maine Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy will welcome Diane Sweeney, author of Student-Centered Coaching: The Moves (Corwin, 2016) and Leading Student-Centered Coaching (Corwin, 2018) for a workshop on implementing an evidence-based instructional coaching model that focuses on collaborating with teachers to increase student outcomes. Taking a data-driven approach increases the efficacy of teachers, coaches, and most importantly our students. To get there, we must not only create a culture for coaching, but also establish clarity around the principal and coach partnership. For this reason, we recommend for school leaders and coaches to attend as a team.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn the core practices for Student-Centered Coaching
• Understand how to measure the impact of coaching on teacher and student learning
• Build principal and coach partnerships to increase the impact of an instructional coaching program

Recommended Audience: 

K-12 Instructional Coaches (released to coach at least 50% of the time), School Leaders, and District Leaders

DIANE SWEENEY has been an author and educational consultant since 1999.  The author of Leading Student-Centered Coaching  (Corwin, 2018), Student-Centered Coaching: The Moves (Corwin, 2016), Student-Centered Coaching at the Secondary Level  (Corwin Press, 2013), and Student-Centered Coaching: A Guide for K-8 Coaches and Principals (Corwin Press, 2011), Diane holds a longstanding interest in how adult learning translates to learning in the classroom. Diane holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Denver and a Master’s in Bilingual and Multicultural Education from the University of Colorado, Boulder. After teaching and coaching in the Denver Public Schools, Diane served as a program officer at the Public Education & Business Coalition (PEBC) in Denver. Since then she has become a respected voice in the field of coaching and professional development.

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[Download the Registration Form/Flier]

91���� the trainer: With a background in teaching and teacher education, Julia Douetil became one of the first European trainers for Reading Recovery in 1992. For 25 years she has worked to establish, promote and support Reading Recovery in the four countries of the UK, in the Republic of Ireland and in Denmark. She established and was the first Director of the International Literacy Centre at the University College London Institute of Education. Her work on the real cost of literacy difficulties helped to persuade the UK government to fund a national roll out of Every Child a Reader, a layered approach to literacy intervention with Reading Recovery at its heart. Since her retirement in December 2016 Julia has continued to work closely with and to write for Reading Recovery teacher leaders and teachers around the world.

91���� the training: In Reading Recovery we often talk about the children we teach needing to be prepared to take risks if they are to achieve accelerated progress, but what do we mean by risk, and how will it help a struggling reader? In her guidance for teachers Clay often talks about teachers taking risks, so what risks must we be prepared to take to enable every child to become a reader and writer? Join me to explore ideas around risk, self-efficacy and resilience as we reflect on the role of risk in learning and teaching.

We will track a Reading Recovery lesson series to think about how our way of working at different points in the child’s learning journey can enable them to develop the emotional and attitudinal skills they need, alongside practical skills and knowledge, if they are to be successful and enthusiastic readers and writers for life.

And we will take a long hard look at the challenges we must face as teachers if we are to make it happen. Go on, I dare you!

Please bring your copy of Clay’s ‘Literacy Lessons Designed for Individuals, 2nd Edition,’ and ‘An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement’ (2013).

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[Download the flyer to register]

To be a good writer you must first be able to read deeply and understand author’s intent. In this workshop, Lester Laminack will show that the key to successful writing is harnessing the power of close reading. You will learn how your students can transfer what they know about reading structures and strategies into practices that will hone their writing skills and help them become more focused writers.

Digging into Detail
We often hear ourselves suggesting to young writers, “add some details.” That suggestion may lead to a loss of focus or confusion. We will explore a collection of texts including narratives, fiction, poetry and an assortment of nonfiction formats to examine the critical role of detail. Digging into details will lead us to deeper understanding of the power of specificity in all writing.

One Book/Many Visits
Explore the potential of revisiting one carefully selected book through focused read aloud experiences across time. Imagine slowing down to explore one book in layers, one layer at a time with a clear focus for each read aloud experience. Lester will take you through the potential of two picture books to demonstrate what can be done with numerous well-­‐loved books from your own classroom library.

91���� Lester Laminack
Lester L. Laminack is Professor Emeritus at Western Carolina University in North
Carolina where he received two awards for excellence in teaching: The Botner Superior Teaching Award and the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Lester is now a full-time writer and consultant working with schools throughout the United States. He is an active member of the National Council of Teachers of English and served three years as co-­editor of the NCTE journal Primary Voices and as editor of the Children’s Book Review Department of the NCTE journal Language Arts (2003-2006). He also served as a teaching editor for the magazine Teaching K-­8 and wrote the “Parent Connection” column (2000-­2002). He is a former member of the Whole Language Umbrella Governing Board, a former member of the governing board and secretary of the North Carolina Association for the Education of Young Children, and a former member of the board of directors for the Center for the Expansion of Language and Thinking. He served as the basic reading consultant to Literacy Volunteers of America from 1987 through 2001. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of .

His academic publications include several books including “Learning with Zachary” (Scholastic), “Spelling in Use” (NCTE), “Volunteers Working with Young Readers” (NCTE), and his contributions to “The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts” (NCTE), “Learning Under the Influence of Language and Literature” (Heinemann) “Reading Aloud Across the Curriculum” (Heinemann), “Cracking Open the Author’s Craft” (Scholastic) and “Unwrapping the Read Aloud” (Scholastic). In addition he has several articles published in journals such as The Reading Teacher, Early Years, Science and Children, Language Arts,��Teaching PreK-8, Primary Voices, and Young Children. Lester is also the author of six children’s books: “The Sunsets of Miss Olivia Wiggins,” “Trevor’s Wiggly-­Wobbly Tooth,” “Saturdays and Tea Cakes,” “Jake’s 100th Day of School,” “Snow Day,” and “Three Hens and a Peacock” all from Peachtree Publishers. Lester’s most recent book is “Writers ARE Readers: Use Reading Structures and Strategies to Nurture More Powerful Writers” from Heinemann Publishers.

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