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±¬ÁĎ 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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Lori L. Taylor, Ph.D., 91±¬ÁĎ
Reading Recovery Trainer of Teacher Leaders

“The good news is that a teacher can prevent or reverse students’ reading failure. Research shows that the teacher—not methods or programs—is the most important factor in a student’s reading success” (Dorn & Jones, 2012, p. 5). These words encapsulate the overarching goals of the University Training Center (UTC) for Reading Recovery® and Comprehensive Literacy, a professional development unit embedded within the literacy program in the School of Learning and Teaching in the College of Education and Human Development at the 91±¬ÁĎ. The UTC supports schools in systemic implementation of effective literacy instruction and intervention for children in Maine schools through high quality professional development for teachers.

The University Training Center for Reading Recovery was established in 1993-1994 and has expanded to include a Comprehensive Intervention Model (CIM) for grades K-12 as well as Maine Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy (MPCL), a model for school improvement targeting classroom instruction. Each initiative follows a train-the-trainer paradigm following Marie Clay’s Reading Recovery model (Gaffney & Askew, 1999), in which university trainers provide initial training and ongoing professional development for teacher leaders and literacy coaches. Teacher leaders and coaches then provide initial and ongoing training for teachers in schools. Districts and schools partner with university trainers, literacy coaches and teacher leaders in ongoing efforts to develop systems of comprehensive literacy for children, by supporting teacher expertise.

Experts on the topic (Darling-Hammond, Hyler & Gardner, 2017) describe high quality professional development as content-focused, collaborative, job-embedded reflective practice that includes ongoing expert support. Improved practice in teaching is an ongoing process, “renewed through continued work with students and ongoing professional development” (Lyons, Pinnell & DeFord, 1993, p. 180). The University Training Center currently partners with 128 schools in 62 school systems across the state of Maine investing in teacher professional development for systemic improvement in student outcomes. The ongoing goal of the UTC is to offer trainings for teachers that incorporate the elements of effective professional development.

A recent study exploring the relationship of offerings by the University Training Center for Reading Recovery and Comprehensive Literacy with teacher professional development in Maine, reported that teachers value high quality professional development, especially when offered on-site in schools and embedded in their daily work. Also of importance to the practitioners partnering with the UTC is the opportunity for networking, collaborating, and learning from and with colleagues (Taylor, 2018). Studying theory and research, and working together to apply new learning to practice (Elmore, 2004; Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2010) within and across schools and districts is critical to ongoing support for teaching, and for meeting the needs of every student.

Systemic school improvement efforts, such as the Comprehensive Literacy Model of the UTC, require cohesive goals and curriculum, coordinated, sustained efforts among administration and teaching staff, and congruency between general classroom instruction and intervention supports. School/university partnerships, including in-house literacy coaches and site-based teacher leaders, can help to build collaborative learning communities that develop expertise among all teachers and improve student literacy. In fact, student achievement in reading and writing has been shown to increase as early as the first year of implementation of a comprehensive literacy model (Biancarosa, Bryk, & Dexter, 2010; Dorn, Forbes, Poparad, & Schubert, 2015, Chapter 15).

Maine school systems are encouraged to think critically about a comprehensive design for sustainable processes that support ongoing professional development for all teachers. A cohesive and comprehensive model includes powerful classroom instruction along with a broad range of literacy interventions, providing multiple layers of differentiated instruction for all learners. In considering a comprehensive literacy model, here are some questions to consider:

• Does your school or district engage in a comprehensive literacy system that embeds levels and layers of intervention within high quality classroom instruction?
• Are all teachers provided intensive professional development and ongoing in-school support from knowledgeable persons in literacy theory and practice?
• Do all teachers have scheduled opportunity to collaborate with colleagues to build expertise?

Information about the University Training Center for Reading Recovery and Comprehensive Literacy can be found at our website: umaine.edu/maineliteracy.

References

Biancarosa, G., Bryk, A., & Dexter, E. (2010). Assessing the value-added effects of Literacy Collaborative professional development on student learning. Elementary School Journal, 111((1), 7-34.

Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.

Dorn, L. J., Forbes, S., Poparad, M. A., & Schubert, B. (Eds.). (2015). Changing minds, changing schools, changing systems: A comprehensive literacy design for school improvement. Los Angeles, CA: Hameray Publishing Group.

Dorn, L. J., & Jones, T. (2012). Apprenticeship in literacy: Transitions in reading and writing (2nd ed.). Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Elmore, R. F. (2004). School reform from the inside out: Policy, practice, and performance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Gaffney, J. S., & Askew, B. J. (Eds.). (1999). Stirring the waters: The influence of Marie Clay. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2010). The first decade of community of inquiry Framework: A retrospective. Internet and Higher Education (13), 5-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.iheduc.2009.10.003

Lyons, C. A., Pinnell, G. S., & DeFord, D. E. (1993). Partners in learning: Teachers and children in Reading Recovery. New York: Teachers College Press.

Taylor, L. L. (2018). Exploring the relationship between University Training Center for Reading Recovery and Comprehensive Literacy offerings and teacher professional development. (Research Study Report). Orono: 91±¬ÁĎ.

Any opinions, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the Maine Schools in Focus briefs are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect institutional positions or views of the College of Education and Human Development or the 91±¬ÁĎ.

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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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Taylor has worked at the 91±¬ÁĎ since 2013 following a nearly 30-year career in public education that included stints as a special education teacher, kindergarten and first through third grade teacher, as well as an advanced literacy coach and Reading Recovery teacher leader. She earned her Master of Education degree from 91±¬ÁĎ in 2005 and a Ph.D. in literacy education in 2016.

As a trainer, Taylor works with Reading Recovery teacher leaders throughout Maine. The University Training Center provides the initial training and ongoing professional development to these teacher leaders and literacy coaches, who support teachers and students in schools statewide.

The is a not-for-profit association of Reading Recovery professionals, partners and advocates. The council provides programs and services, including publications and annual conferences, to advance Reading Recovery in North America. Members include Reading Recovery teachers, teacher leaders, university trainers, site coordinators, and partners such as classroom teachers, early literacy educators, school and district administrators, researchers, parents and community members.

University trainers involved in Reading Recovery oversee implementation of Reading Recovery in affiliated sites, evaluate outcomes and engage in continuous research for improvement. Reading Recovery trainers, members of the NATG, represent an advisory board to the Ohio State University, where the trademark for North America is held. The NATG includes a standing committee structure to guide ongoing development and research.

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NOTE: This story originally appeared in .

Emma Hargreaves recently graduated as valedictorian of her class at Old Town High School, and was named one of just two Maine students in the 2019 class of U.S. Presidential Scholars.

While she will tell you how hard she worked to keep up with all of her Advanced Placement classes, she also credits some one-on-one time with a teacher way back in first grade for her academic success. Back then, Hargreaves was struggling to learn to read, impacting her confidence in the classroom. Her teacher called Hargreaves’s mom and recommended that her daughter take advantage of Reading Recovery, an internationally recognized early literacy intervention program for first-grade students who struggle to learn to read and write.

Literacy is the foundation of learning across all content areas, which makes this work critically important. It’s challenging to learn science, history, or even math if you struggle to read. Through Reading Recovery, students receive individualized instruction over a 12 to 20 week period until they achieve average proficiency for their age. That’s precisely what happened with Hargreaves: the one-to-one guidance she received elevated her literacy skills to an above-average level. Over time she was placed in her school’s gifted and talented program

Hargreaves credits her Reading Recovery teacher as a difference-maker. “She made me feel really capable, and I think that was part of the reason I got better at reading so fast, that she made me feel I could do it.”

Hargreaves’s instructor, along with most Reading Recovery teachers in Maine, received her training through the University Training Center for Reading Recovery (UTC), started in 1993 by 91±¬ÁĎ’s College of Education and Human Development. UTC trains the Reading Recovery teachers and teacher leaders through graduate-level coursework and ongoing professional development. Currently Reading Recovery instruction is available in more than 100 elementary schools across the state. More than 37,000 first-grade children throughout Maine have participated in the program.

91±¬ÁĎ’s Mary Rosser, who has been UTC’s director over the last decade and a half, says Reading Recovery works because it addresses a student’s individual needs. The program acknowledges that every student learns differently and that sometimes in order to progress as literacy learners, students need additional, focused instruction to support classroom instruction.

Anne Fortin Wortman ’89 was one of the first teachers in the state to be trained in Reading Recovery practices by UTC. She has been a Reading Recovery teacher ever since and says she loves her work.

“I continue to be energized with every student because they begin the year as struggling literacy learners,” Wortman says, “and within 20 weeks of intense, individualized instruction, they are most often able to read and write at or above the average level in their classroom.”

That seems to be the case for most students who participate in Reading Recovery. According to UTC data, more than 1,000 Maine students participated in Reading Recovery during the 2017-18 school year. By the end of the year, 70 percent of them were reading as well or even better than the average of their peers. Those students who continue to struggle were referred to more intense intervention.

Reading Recovery teachers continually work to optimize their skills with support from the experts at UTC. The center also includes a Comprehensive Intervention model for grades K through 12 as well as the Maine Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy.

Timothy Reagan, dean of the College of Education and Human Development, sees the work at the UTC as essential to the university’s mission. He points out that it is research-based, theoretically valid, and has impacted a lot of lives.

“There are a huge number of us who believe in it both academically and programmatically, but who also have a personal commitment because our children have been touched.” He noted that his own daughter fell behind in reading as a first-grader, even though she was raised in a literacy-rich home environment. He says Reading Recovery turned her into a reader.

Josh Curtis ’02 says the same about his son who was experiencing learning problems in the first grade. “I know that without support, the gap between him and his peers would have grown. My son is a success, and the support he received helped to make his future bright.”

Experts say that early intervention is essential. It can prevent years of struggle and failure, and send students on a positive trajectory in their academic careers.

That’s part of the reason the Galen Cole Family Foundation was motivated to support UTC’s work. Gary Cole ’72 says his parents, Galen and Suzanne, always valued reading and knew that helping children to learn boosts their confidence. For years the family foundation hosted a gathering of Reading Recovery graduates at Cole Land Transportation Museum in Bangor. Those graduates would take turns reading aloud to the family matriarch, Suzanne Cole.

“The pride each child felt and the twinkle in her eye told me everything I needed to know about the significance of Reading Recovery and why we stay involved year after year,” the younger Cole says of his late mother, who passed away in 2017.

The true impact of this work on students, families, and schools might be difficult to measure, but program graduate Hargreaves knows how it’s affected her.

“It might be a sweeping statement, but I would say almost every opportunity I’ve had since Reading Recovery has in some way been in thanks to the confidence that I built there.

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Wellman-Little will discuss how picture books engage readers’ heads, hearts and minds, as well as how critical literacy can be taught to help students move beyond passively accepting the message of text to questioning, examining or disputing the power relations that exist between readers and authors. This workshop is designed for Reading Recovery teachers and teacher leaders, classroom teachers, art teachers, interventionists, special educators, and coaches and administrators who support students in grades K-8.

Wellman-Little has more than 40 years’ experience as a teacher and administrator in public and private schools, and as a faculty member at 91±¬ÁĎ. For more information and to register for this event, download the flyer below.

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Hargreaves will lead the session, titled Collaborative Professionalism: Transforming Learning Within and Across Schools, which draws on his research on the different ways of collaborating in five countries, including the U.S. and Canada. Hargreaves shows how to effectively collaborate with depth, focus, boldness and purpose.

This highly interactive workshop is geared toward Reading Recovery teachers and teacher leaders, classroom teachers, interventionists, special educators, coaches, and administrators for grades K-12. For more information and to register, please download the flyer below.

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