Nellie Edge Seminars and Workshops may be taken with a follow-up Practicum for 1, 2 or 3 semester credits (4.5 quarter credits). The registration form and fee of $62.00 per credit is payable to the University of the Pacific. You will fill out the form and attach your check on the day of our workshop. This requires a 15-hour “teacher-friendly” practicum follow-up project for each credit. The projects will support you in implementing the strategies shared during our professional development day. You will have up to 4 months to complete the practicum and extensions are available upon request. Submit course work to: Dr. Allan H. Lifson, Nellie Edge Seminar Follow-up, 729 W 16th St., Ste. B-3, Costa Mesa, CA 92627, 800-479-1995. See www.teacherfriendly.com for the most frequently asked questions about practicum follow-up.
As in the past, we offer participants the opportunity to meet the practicum requirements with professional reading. Read the seminar manual or any of the professional books listed in the resource book bibliography. Write a three-page response paper to the book. Discuss how the research will affect your practices as an educator or include at least 3 new concepts or strategies that you will implement in your classroom as a result of your reading. This would qualify for one unit of practicum credit.
How will you systematically integrate more authentic writing activities across the curriculum?
video clips with Julie Lay.You may choose to begin with a photo of yourself and a one-page personal philosophy statement about your teaching beliefs. Follow it up with at least 20 photos of children in your classroom actively involved in learning with concise captions under each photo. These pages can be kept in clear plastic sleeves in a 3-ring binder and shared with parents. You will see excellent models as you peruse www.nellieedge.com and websites from some of our Kindergarten Literacy Award teachers. See guidelines, philosophy and sample captions on our website (www.nellieedge.com) and in Parents as Partners in Kindergarten and Early Literacy: Family Connections that Multiply Our Teaching Effectiveness, by Nellie Edge, updated 2012.
What songs, poems, rhymes, chants, story excerpts and quality literature will you share with your children? Which ones will they memorize, recite and perform? How will you develop phonemic awareness and connect oral language to print? (Remember, it is the familiarity of the English language that allows a child’s decoding to be error-free, their reading to be fluent and with comprehension.) See The Power of Poetry articles.
Write your “community of learners” plan for the first day of school. How will you greet the children and bring them together? What will you do to bring closure at the end of the day? What memorable literacy rituals will you implement? See excerpts from The Heart of Kindergarten: Memorable Rituals, Traditions and Celebrations.
“Community is more important to learning than any teaching strategy.”
Reread Celebrate Language and Accelerate Literacy, by Nellie Edge, ©2012. What new engaging activities and multisensory teaching strategies will you use to accelerate literacy and reach high Common Core State Standards? How are these practices supported by literacy research, “best practices” research and the science of how the young child’s brain learns best?
Teach ABC Phonics: Sing, Sign, and Read!, monitor progress. What did you notice?
What do you notice when you begin singing and signing a favorite song? How are your children responding? Are they teaching each other? How do parents respond? How do you systematically use the signing of songs to accelerate literacy? Refer to our Magic of Signing Songs DVD and literacy manuals. Download complementary e-Book “Discover the Magic of Singing Songs”
See ASL instructional Video Clips to practice.
Begin the process of certification through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Locate state resources for funding and dialog with kindergarten teachers who have gone through the process. (Teachers say it is an awesome personal and professional experience!)
10. Develop Your “Parents as Partners” ProgramWe have a covenant that says, “We jointly share responsibility for educating your child.”
Develop lesson plans incorporating in-depth comprehension strategies. Teach children about schema and metacognition: activate background knowledge, create sensory images, engage in grand conversations, draw inferences, synthesize ideas, etc. (See resource books including Teach Comprehension Strategies in Kindergarten by Andie Cunningham and Ruth Shagoury.)
12. Understand and Use the Common Core State Standards for Curriculum Mapping. Plan how you will share these high international standards with families. See Common Core Standards.
The above projects are only suggestions; you are always encouraged to design a practicum to meet your specific needs. Dr. Lifson wants this assignment to be meaningful for you.
