ROCHELLE LEE TEACHER AWARD
Study Groups
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. Study Groups allow teachers to have a school-wide impact on student literacy instruction. The application is open from mid-December through mid-March. Awardees are announced late April of each year.
SUMMER INSTITUTE
Tailored to your needs
WITS Summer Institute is one of the many benefits of the RLTA program. Over the summer, more than 100 Chicago Public Schools teachers come together to improve their literacy instructional practices at Rochelle Lee Teacher Award Summer Institute. Awardees receive access to over 200 hours of teacher-led professional development, and are given the opportunity to tailor their experience to gain the resources and techniques that are most applicable to the needs of their classrooms and students. In Summer 2022, all CPS teachers may participate in elective workshops. Non awardees may participate in elective workshops at no charge and earn CPDUs toward ISBE recertification.
Summer Institute Highlights
- The Becoming Readers Institute – a two-day workshop that explores one’s self as a reader through in-depth discussions and activities around a pre-selected novel
- Elective workshops that cover topics such as guided reading, using literature to teach math, incorporating technology to teach literacy, engaging middle school boys in writing workshop, and more
Keep in touch
RLTA RESOURCES
WITS Library Materials
- Professional texts available to use in the WITS library (select "professional texts" from drop-down menu). This resource is for RLTA awardees only.
- Booksource’s Classroom Organizer - a free, online tool to catalog your classroom library books, create class check-out rosters, manage usage reports, and more. This resource is available for all teachers.
Lending Library (for awardees only)
- The WITS Lending Library contains more than 350 sets of children and young adult books. Titles are available in whole class sets and smaller group sets. Current and former WITS educators may borrow books from our lending library.
- View the Rochelle Lee Lending Library catalog and availability online via LibraryThing.
- WITS Lending Library/LibraryThing reference guide.
- Contact Daphne Robinson in advance to borrow books from the lending library for your students. This will ensure that the desired books are available, and that a specific time can be scheduled to pick up the books.
THE ROCHELLE LEE TEACHER AWARD PROGRAM IS MADE POSSIBLE BY:
Teachers and Children as Readers BOOK CLUB
Teachers and Children as Readers (TACAR) Book Club is a monthly book discussion group where Rochelle Lee Teacher Awardees read adult literature and discuss it with peers. Through TACAR, teachers will read books that invite investigation, set reading goals, meet new teacher-friends, continuing to stay engage with their reading-life while earning CPDUs. Teachers and Children as Readers (TACAR) Book Club is for Rochelle Lee Teacher Awardees and Alumni ONLY.
The October 2022 selection is Good Talk by Mira Jacob
