Rochelle Lee Teacher Award Study Groups are school-based professional learning communities. Study groups develop a goal to guide their learning throughout the school year, and meet monthly to discuss instruction and push their practice to reach their goal. Learn more about Ogden Elementary School’s study group and increasing students’ writing skills.
School: Ogden Elementary School
Text: Understanding Texts & Readers: Responsive Comprehension Instruction with Leveled Texts by Jennifer Serravallo
Study Group Leader: Sue Stone
Study Group Members: Debbie Sheriff, David Ablao, Joseph Pekarek, Brianna Duniec, Sarah Chang, Kim Albrecht
Goal: Increasing students’ writing skills as well as their self-awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses as writers in a post-pandemic learning loss world.
At our school, we use the writing workshop for our main writing curriculum, therefore, we were able to integrate our learning about small group instruction with the workshop model. We found that some of the different small group styles worked well with the different writing units. Because we had representation from each grade level, we were able to see vertical alignment which made us reflect on preparing students for the next grade level. Each teacher felt that participating in the book club helped to focus their writing instruction.
Parents have seen the results of our work throughout the year during writing celebrations, and similarly, many grade-level peers ask about the work being done in the group which leads to rich discussions about writing instruction. Several teachers have observed others as they have implemented the strategies learned. Students have benefited the most from our book club experience. What was a struggle at the beginning of the year after two years of virtual instruction is now a time of joy and accomplishment.
