Establish core values and beliefs about literacy teaching and learning that will be the foundation for your visionary leadership.

Learn how to develop a vibrant school culture that supports teamwork and continuous professional learning to get swift improvement in student outcomes. With a strong foundation in comprehensive evidence-based literacy assessment and instruction, you will be able to support instructional coherence for every child in every classroom, at every grade level.

In addition, you will learn how to promote shared ownership of data on student outcomes and address systemic structures that limit the learning of some students in the educational system. 

Specifically, you will learn the essential elements of a variety of evidence-based instructional practices:

• Explicit and systematic phonics, spelling, and word study 
• Knowledge-building and comprehension through interactive read-aloud text sets
• Building foundational skills and fluency through shared and performance reading
• Small group instruction including:
  • book clubs 
  • guided reading 
  • guided writing
• Independent reading and writing
• Teaching encoding and decoding through interactive/shared writing
• The structured readers’ workshop
• The structured writers’ workshop

You will use observation tools for instructional practices, so you can observe, discuss, and support specific elements of high-quality teaching. You will analyze and identify areas of strength and need in school interventions using principles of effective intervention. You will expand your use of precise language to support reflective teacher practice by analyzing videos of teaching to understand decision-making instructional practices that result in improvement of student competencies. 

You will receive a variety of professional texts and materials, including the book, Leading for Literacy: What Every School Leader Needs to Know, The Comprehensive Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Guide, The Literacy Continuum, and The Literacy Quick Guide.