Regional Literacy Training Centers
Promote Literacy Across Michigan
Centers Offer Professional Development, Resources, Technical Assistance, and Community Awareness
by Faith Stevens, Reading First Coordinator, Michigan Department of Education
Michigan’s School Report Card reveals that too many of Michigan’s school children struggle with learning to read and write. While there are no easy answers or quick fixes, the eight Regional Literacy Training Centers (RLTCs) across Michigan help educators acquire the skills they need to help students learn to read and write well.
Professional Development Is Key to Teaching Literacy
Research shows that ongoing professional development for teachers is key to an effective literacy program. Michigan’s RLTCs and their partners make literacy training a major focus—for ALL Michigan’s K-3 classroom teachers and K-12 special education teachers.
Two integral parts of RLTC training include the Michigan Literacy Progress Profile (MLPP) and Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) (see page 11). These initiatives include practices based on research, assessments that guide instruction, and resources for classroom teachers to improve teaching strategies.
Over the past three years, more than 24,139 kindergarten through third-grade teachers, 1,232 administrators, and 1,034 trainers have undergone training in balanced literacy; MLPP; LETRS; and other related topics such as reading comprehension, vocabulary development, oral reading fluency, and explicit phonics instruction and phonemic awareness.
RLTCs Bring Professional Development to All Michigan Schools
The RLTC network reaches all of Michigan’s 57 intermediate school districts (ISDs). In some rural areas, this can create a pretty big service area (see map). As one of the eight RLTCs in Michigan, for example, Charlevoix-Emmet ISD serves as the fiscal agent for ten other ISDs in the northwest Lower Peninsula. Collectively, these ISDs educate approximately 110,000 students attending schools in the region. Collaborative efforts of the ISDs bring together educators to learn research-based practices to help students learn to read and write well.
Contact a Regional Literacy Training Center Near You:
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RLTCs at Work
In addition to professional development, many RLTCs offer extended learning opportunities to
students during the school year and summer. Following are examples of initiatives offered by RLTCs throughout the state.
Providing Professional Development
Wayne RLTC Literacy Conference
In June 2003, approximately 120 fourth- and fifth-grade teachers learned new MLPP techniques and strategies to help students read and write better. The hands-on learning conference drew educators from the Hillsdale, Jackson, Lenawee, Monroe, and Washtenaw ISDs and Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA).
Charlevoix-Emmet ISD Summer Institute
For the past seven summers, the Charlevoix-Emmet ISD Summer Institute has helped teachers enhance their collaboration skills and instructional methods to improve student learning. More than 700 educators have attended the weeklong workshops each year.
Wexford-Missaukee ISD Trainer-of-Trainers Model
Wexford-Missaukee ISD offers a trainer-of-trainers model to help districts build learning communities. RLTC trainers teach facilitation skills to some 55 educators to help them develop ongoing opportunities in their school buildings for teachers to learn and receive support daily.
Cheboygan-Otsego-Presque Isle Educational Service District (ESD) MLPP Training and Classroom Support
Full-day workshops feature hands-on learning opportunities focused on a wide range of topics such as comprehension strategies, writing in response to reading, and developing oral language skills. Literacy consultants modeled grade-level classroom strategies that work. Literacy consultants also visited classrooms to model activities such as literature circles and book clubs.
Mid-Michigan Regional Literacy Training Center Literacy in 3D
Trainers and teachers in mid-Michigan will receive training in the first three LETRS modules this year. MLPP training for K-3 teachers continues, enhanced with a session focused on the needs of special education teachers and students. The RLTC continues to offer Playful Literacy and You (PLaY) training (addressing ages birth through five) and MLPP 4-5 as well (see page 11). Plans for an August 2004 summer literacy day, “Literacy in the Valley,” are also underway .
Creating Rich Environments for Teaching Children to Read
Charlevoix-Emmet ISD Camp Read
Camp Read is a four-to six-week instructional summer school program for elementary students performing below grade level in the areas of reading and writing. Students meet daily with certified teachers to focus on reading comprehension instruction, phonemic awareness, explicit phonics instruction, oral reading fluency, and vocabulary
development integrated in a balanced literacy approach.
Wayne RESA Family FUNdamentals
Wayne RESA offers Family FUNdamentals, a partnership that unites teachers, researchers, reading specialists, administrators, and parents to improve students’ literacy. Aligned to the Michigan Curriculum Framework, Family FUNdamentals provides a variety of home activities that complement students’ literacy work at school, based on the student’s strengths and weaknesses as identified by the MLPP assessment.
Oakland Regional Literacy Training Center
The Oakland Regional Center has developed the MLPP Assistant, a Web-based scoring and reporting system for MLPP data. The MLPP Assistant makes it easier to maintain student records, organize data, and allow records to move with students from district to district. In fall 2003, the system was being used throughout the Bay-Arenac ISD area as well as in the city of Cassopolis. The center is experimenting with using distance learning to serve the training needs of these geographically diverse areas.
Reading First Expands Regional Literacy Training Center Efforts
The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) first established eight Regional Literacy Training Centers (RLTCs) during the 1990s to train teachers how to use research-based literacy practices. In those days, the work of the RLTCs primarily prepared teachers to use the Michigan Literacy Progress Profile (MLPP) (see page 11).
The RLTCs still offer training in MLPP, but now, with the state’s participation in Reading First (Title I, Subpart B of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001), the RLTCs have broadened their services. They are charged with providing training opportunities and literacy resources in using scientifically-based research and best practices, data-driven decision making, and differentiated instruction to ALL pre-K through third grade teachers and ALL K-12 special educators. The goal is to have all students, with the exception of students with severe cognitive delays, read at grade level by the end of third grade.
Some significant changes to literacy efforts in Michigan:
- RLTCs focus on training all K-3 teachers
and K-12 special education teachers
so that the essential components of
reading instruction are embedded
directly into all classroom curricula.
- RLTCs focus professional development
and/or training on five research-based“essential components of reading
instruction”: phonemic awareness,
explicit phonics, vocabulary develop
ment, oral reading fluency, and reading
comprehension instruction.
- RLTCs are charged with preparing all
Michigan’s classroom teachers (not just
reading “specialists”) to use assessment
to plan reading instruction or intervention
for ALL students, including English
language learners, struggling readers,
students with language disabilities, and
students from all racial and ethnic
populations.
- RLTCs now have access to national
Reading First research and are prepared
to provide ongoing support over a signif
icant time period, making it more likely
that schools will improve over time.
- RLTCs make it possible for teachers
across Michigan to receive consistent
training and professional development
opportunities in the area of literacy
development.
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For more information about any of these or other initiatives taking place within a Regional Literacy Training Center, contact your local RLTC director or Faith Stevens at (517) 241-2479 or StevensF@michigan.gov.
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