Center for School, Family, and Community

Literacy Training of Trainer Modules

Introduction

These afterschool staff development modules on this site address the six key promising practices for literacy in afterschool, identified as part of the online Afterschool Training Toolkit. NWREL served as the literacy content partner in the development of the Toolkit and subsequently provided training in these practices. The staff development sessions that appear on this site have evolved from presentations about the Afterschool Training Toolkit at regional and national conferences.

Each professional development session provides:

  • Facilitator's script describing training activities
  • PowerPoint framework
  • Participant handout packets

Some sessions include additional handouts, posted separately in PDF form. We ask that you credit the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory and the funding partners, maintaining the information posted on the initial 3-4 PowerPoint slides as you begin the training.

Each session requires between one and two hours of staff time, but the agenda can be subdivided and presented over several brief meetings in 15-30 minute segments. Each session also begins with an introduction to the online Afterschool Training Toolkit. Once this task is accomplished with your staff, you can omit this activity and allow more time for staff discussion, reflection, and planning.

We welcome your feedback as you download and use these resources. Please contact us with comments and/or questions by emailing Randi Douglas.

MODULE 1: Book Discussion Groups and Literature Circles

Book discussion groups are encouraged in adult culture by celebrities like Oprah, online forums, book vendors and public libraries. Now many educational programs are organizing student groups to cultivate a youth culture of independent learning.

Book discussion groups can address many important literacy outcomes, such as improvements in student engagement, comprehension, vocabulary, study skills, social interaction and communication.

This staff development session introduces basic strategies for launching and monitoring book discussion groups in afterschool settings. This allows participants to:

  • Review book discussion models and research
  • Help students define expectations for good interaction and discussion
  • Provide guideposts to focus thinking and learning
  • Work with students to monitor individual growth in social and literacy skills

MODULE 2: Reading Aloud in Afterschool Settings

Research indicates that reading aloud is the single most important activity for early reading success. It builds a child's interest in reading, helps develop comprehension skills, and exposes all readers to great books. Parents, siblings, grandparents, afterschool staff and volunteers can all be trained and effective readers to our youngest literacy learners.

This staff development session introduces basic strategies for reading aloud to children, with emphasis on comprehension skills. Participants learn to:

  • Engage students at the beginning of a read-aloud session
  • Keep them engaged and thinking throughout the story
  • Share understanding in fun and creative ways as the story ends

MODULE 3: Storybuilding in Afterschool Settings

Storybuilding—a spontaneous process of constructing stories through lively and interactive group activities—provides afterschool practitioners with a flexible teaching strategy that can be adapted to literature, nonfiction, and across curricular themes. Storybuilding is active, creative, and democratic, inviting all participants to exercise their imaginations as they learn:

In this introductory staff development session about storybuilding, participants will:

  • Encounter dramatization resources at the Web-based Afterschool Literacy Toolkit
  • Review learning research that supports the storybuilding approach
  • Learn about and experience storybuilding strategies
  • Understand basic techniques for constructing activities
  • Receive additional resources on storybuilding in afterschool

MODULE 4: Developing Writing Skills in Afterschool

Nationwide data show that barely 30 percent of students demonstrate writing at levels described as "proficient" or above. To address a critical need for improved writing skills, the National Commission on Writing recommends that:

  • Student writing time double and occur daily
  • Out-of-school time is used more for writing
  • Students write more across the curriculum
  • Technology is used to support the development of student writing

This staff development session introduces ways to incorporate writing activities in afterschool settings. Participants will learn to:

  • Locate resources for afterschool writing in the online Afterschool Training Toolkit
  • Respond to key points from research on writing instruction, K-12
  • Use journaling, free-writing, writing to specific models, and cross-curricular writing projects to increase writing practice in afterschool
  • Consult and use additional resources focused on writing in afterschool

MODULE V: Planning Family Literacy Events

Federal funding for afterschool sites (the 21st CCLC initiative) identifies family literacy as one of three primary program goals. Program sites can respond to this goal with many strategies that support adult and child literacy practice, connecting home environments with the literacy expectations of both school and work settings.

This training provides an opportunity for participants to:

  • Review research supporting the connection between well-implemented family literacy programs and student achievement
  • Consider a range of promising practices in family literacy
  • Review some family literacy program models
  • Apply new knowledge to the map out family literacy objectives over a school year
  • Follow-up this session with a family literacy event

MODULE VI: One-on-One and Small Group Tutoring

Well-trained literacy tutors can help students achieve greater academic success in school and improve their future prospects as well, especially in the workplace. There are many sources for literacy tutors in an afterschool program – parents, college and high school students, senior citizen volunteers, nonprofit community organizations, faith-based organizations, and even cross-age tutors.

This staff development session provides an important initial training for tutors who work with children on the development of basic reading and decoding skills. The session introduces strategies for tutoring, targeting elementary age students grades K-5, and includes:

  • The five components of reading instruction
  • Coaching strategies to integrate skills and knowledge
  • Developmental stages of writing and the reading-writing connection
  • Record-keeping strategies and resources
  • Additional learning resources for tutors, including videos and online instruction