Academics / Professional Development / District and Infancy Programs

Language and Literacy Partners

Professional Development
Classroom Coaching
Leadership and Administrative Support

A Prekindergarten Through 3rd Grade Professional Development Initiative

Language and Literacy Partners (LLP) support teachers and administrators in adopting and refining instructional practices that cultivate young children’s literacy skills.

Our Balanced Literacy Framework is specifically designed to support PreK – 3rd grade teams through an in-depth study of literacy practices that supports:

Listening and speaking
Reading and writing
Home language and dialect and the academic language of school
Skill learning and high-level thinking
Whole group and small group instruction with individual conferring and conversation
School and home partnerships

All services can be offered in-person, online, or as a hybrid delivery format.

Contact Language and Literacy Partners

Current Professional Development Opportunities

Writing in PreK-3rd Grade Classrooms Storytelling, Drawing, and Writing

Online Series through April 2022

This four-part online professional development series includes instructional strategies behind storytelling, drawing and writing. Learn how to guide young children to expand their story ideas from pretend play to paper with writing, drawing and dictation. We explore how drawing, dictation, and storytelling support children’s reading development as well as their understanding of concepts across the curriculum. We model how to use culturally responsive text sets to motivate and guide children’s development as writers.

The fully online PD series is comprised of:

Four teacher learning labs that meet once a month from 4-7pm CST
- Oral Language Foundations and Storytelling | April 7, 2022
- Basic Skills in Writing | April 26, 2022
- Marking Growth in Writing Through Assessments | May 10, 2022
- Developing as a Writer with Help from Others | May 24, 2022
Two 1-hour Administrator learning labs
- Wed April 13, 2022; 10:30-11:30am CST
- Wed May 18, 2022; 10:30-11:30am CST

REGISTER FOR ONLINE PDF

How We Work

Professional development is offered through a series of 3-hour learning labs on targeted instructional routines.

Each professional development series consists of 3 to 10 learning labs with coaching customized to fit the goals of your school or district
Learning labs are data-informed through evaluation of teaching practices, goal setting, and ongoing monitoring of student data
LLP staff assist with curriculum alignment and resource development within and across grade level teams

See our PreK – Kindergarten and Kindergarten – 3rd Grade Learning Lab offerings for a full list of topics.

Services We Provide

All services can be offered in-person, online, or as hybrid delivery format.

Professional Development

Half-day, full-day, and multi-day professional development learning labs covering a range of topics focusing on oral language and literacy development

Classroom Coaching

Expert coaching on implementing balanced literacy best practices with teachers and school administrators

Leadership and Administrator Support

Half-day, full-day, and multi-day professional development
Paired walk-throughs to observe classrooms
Consultation

We will customize a series to fit the needs of your school or district.

Gillian Dowley McNamee, PhD

Professor; Director, Teacher Education Program; Director, Language and Literacy Partners

“ Gillian McNamee is a professor of child development and director of teacher education at Erikson Institute in Chicago, IL. She works closely with early childhood teacher candidates during their preparation for teaching as well as long term with teachers in schools, particularly children growing up in challenging social and economic situations. Her most recent book is The High Performing Preschool, Story Acting in Head Start Classrooms, University of Chicago Press, 2015. ”

PreK – Kindergarten Learning Labs

Our Prekindergarten and Kindergarten balanced literacy framework is specifically designed to support young children’s growing proficiencies in speaking and listening while immersing them in print-rich encounters with books and opportunities to draw, dictate and represent ideas on paper. Each of the high impact literacy practices in our framework have a long tradition and extensive research base. Each learning lab deepens teachers’ knowledge on the connection between oral language and reading and writing. We will customize a series to fit the needs of your school or district.

See our PreK – Kindergarten Learning Lab offerings for a full list of topics.

Kindergarten – 3rd Grade Learning Labs

Our K-3rd grade balanced literacy framework is specifically designed to support teachers in an in-depth study of high impact literacy practices with a long tradition and strong research base. Late kindergarten and early first grade are times of rapid development as children make significant leaps in reading and writing skills. During this time instruction shifts to allow longer periods of time for print based reading and writing. Each learning lab deepens knowledge about an individual instructional routine and the developmental continuum of reading and writing. We will customize a series to fit the needs of your school or district.

See our Kindergarten – 3rd Grade Learning Lab offerings for a full list of topics.

2021 – 2022 PD Series In-Person, Online, or Hybrid Format

Responding to Critical Issues

Language and Literacy Partners has developed and designed the following series to respond to current needs of the PreK – 3rd grade landscape. Each series supports teachers and administrators in achieving the goals of the series.

These series can be customized to meet the needs of your school or district as in-person, online or hybrid format.