Professional Learning

We are trying to teach children to read. That's our goal. It is to read, and so whatever we need to do in order to teach reading, we do. But we want to do it in a way that affirms, respects, and understands the child's home language system.

We have to respect and affirm the expertise of children when they come through the door and recognize that they are not blank slates. They know a lot when they walk through the door. And if we recognize, affirm it, and learn about it, we could actually integrate it into our teaching in a way that would support them - Julie Washington

Explicit and Systematic Foundational Literacy Skills Instruction w/ Benchmark

These sessions focus on the word recognition strand of Scarborough’s Reading Rope referred to as foundational literacy skills instruction in our Hayward Literacy Block Guidance Documents.  In grades K-2, we allocate 30 to 35 min per day for this work and, in grades 3-6, approximately 30 minutes daily. We  want to emphasize the importance of foundational literacy skills instruction to comprehension. The more automatic students become, the quicker they can recognize words automatically which helps free up brain thinking for comprehension.  Many of our multilingual students are learning a second language while building fluency and automaticity.  It is important to uplift the connection between learning to decode in a second language while also making meaning of words and reading.

Grades K, 1st, 2nd: K-2 Foundational Skills Video Link  Handout: K-2 Explicit and Systematic Foundational Literacy Skills

Grades 3rd - 6th: 3-6 Foundational Skills Video Link  Handout: 3-6 Explicit and Systematic Foundational Skills/Word Study

Explicit and Systematic Text-Based Comprehension w/Benchmark

These sessions focus on building knowledge, developing vocabulary, introducing students to different types of text and engaging students in critical thinking, vitally important in the development of skilled readers.  Here, we are building a puzzle over time. For every unit in grades K-6, students learn about a topic through a different lens in each academic year.  In this way, we build onto the knowledge that they have gained from prior years in earlier grades.  Why is this important?  Background knowledge is a strong contributor to strong comprehension. The importance of vocabulary is embedded within this work.  While we know knowledge is important, having the words to describe that knowledge is equally important, so we will be investigating vocabulary support throughout these sessions as well. Suggested daily time allocations for daily instruction - Grades K-1: 15-20 minutes, Grades 2-6: 30-40 minutes.

Grades K-1st: K-1 Text-Based Comprehension Video Link   Handout:  K-1 Text Based Comprehension

Grades 2nd - 6th: 2-6 Text-Based Comprehension 101 (new users) Video Link   Handout: 2-6 Text-Based Comp 101         For NEW Implementers  (“I have not been using Benchmark to support text based comprehension.”)

Grades 2nd - 6th:  2-6 Text-Based Comprehension 201(experienced users) Video Link  
Handout:  2-6 Text-Based Comprehension Experienced Users  For Experienced Implementers (“I have been using Benchmark; I have attended the PD sessions and/or coaching sessions and am ready to move to the next level of instruction.”)