3-credit courses: $350
Comprehending Nonfiction
Comprehending nonfiction text is essential for student success in elementary school, middle school, high school, and beyond. This online course provides research-based strategies to improve students’ abilities to comprehend nonfiction text in reading and other content areas. At the end of the course, participants will understand why children struggle with informational texts and will acquire a collection of useful strategies to help students successfully read, understand and enjoy nonfiction text.
Independent Reading
Research shows that students who have the opportunity to read independently in the classroom become better readers and perform better on state assessments and reading tests. This course is designed for teachers who conduct or would like to conduct independent reading in their classrooms. This course addresses creating a classroom library, independent reading procedures, independent reading schedules and assessments, student conferences, integrating technology, procedural and/or literary strategies, reading responses and aligning standards. At the end of the course participants will have the skills and resources to effectively conduct independent reading in the classroom.
Instructor– Judy Kvaale
Literature Circles: Book Club for Kids
Would you like your students enthusiastic about reading? Then it's time to learn how to successfully implement literature circles in your curriculum. Literature circles provide a technique where students strengthen their reading skills by meeting and discussing books with peers. Recent research has linked literature circles with improved student achievement scores. This course is designed for 1st – 12th grade educators. Components of the course include book selection, student roles, strategies for conducting successful literature circles, book projects, managing groups, student assessment and aligning standards.
Instructor– Judy Kvaale
Math and Literature: Making a Connection
Enrich any math program with exciting math and literature lessons. Students can learn mathematics through the many children's books that relate to math concepts. Literature-based math instruction is beneficial to the students in that it involves them and provides a familiar structure to explore mathematics. This course will examine ways to use literature to teach Numbers and Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, Data Analysis and Probability, Problem Solving and Process Standards.
Instructor– Judy Kvaale
Science and Literature: Making a Connection
Enrich any science program with exciting science and literature lessons. Students can learn science through the many children’s books related to science concepts. Literature-based science instruction engages students and provides a familiar structure to explore science concepts. This course will examine ways to use literature to teach standards and expectations in science. At the end of this course, participants will be equipped with lessons to incorporate into their science instruction.
Instructor– Judy Kvaale
Student-Led Conferences: A New Approach to Parent Teacher Conferences
Student-led conferences are an alternative to the traditional parent-teacher conference. They are a forum where students take an active role in planning, implementing and evaluating their learning. The course is designed for K-12th grade teachers and specialists who conduct parent-teacher conferences. Participants will read Implementing Student-Led Conferences by Baily and Guskey, reflect on readings and devise a plan to incorporate student-led conferences in the classroom.
