Professional Development Opportunities

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Our mission is to support educators and their growing need for curricula that is relevant, engaging, and accessible. We offer a variety of opportunities that support teaching critical thinking, assessing students’ acquisition of analysis skills, designing rich learning environments, aligning curriculum with an assessment system, and differentiating instruction to meet students’ diverse learning needs. To accommodate educators’ busy schedules, we offer a variety of formats and depth of coverage, ranging from small workshops to full graduate-credit courses.


Click below for more information about our 3 levels of professional development opportunities

Professional Development Resources

 Introduction to Instruction and Assessment Skills with Informational Sources

EwE-lntro-Thumbnail.pngIn this video, I introduce the analysis skills found in new state and national standards and how these apply to instruction and assessment with informational sources.

         

Introducción a la Instrucción y Evaluación de Habilidades con Fuentes de Información

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En este video les presento una introducción al análisis de abilidades reflejadas en los nuevos estándares nacionales y estatales. Adicionalmente hago una introducción sobre cómo estos estándares estan relacionados con la enseñanza y evaluación de fuentes informacionales.

  

Introduction to Assessment Systems

EwE-Intro-Assess-Thumbnail.pngIn this video, I use several examples to introduce the concept of an assessment system. This approach offers educators an opportunity to access more timely and relevant information about their students’ learning.

Introducción a los Sistemas de Evaluación

EwE-Intro-Assess-Thumbnail.pngEn este video les presento varios ejemplos para ilustrar el concepto de un sistema de evaluación. Esto ofrecerá a los educadores el acceso a información de manera más actualizada y relevante en cuanto al desempeño académico de cada estudiante.

         

Finding Sources at the Library of Congress

LoC.pngIn this video, you will see four simple ways you can search for informational sources on the Library of Congress website.

  

Encontrando Fuentes en la Biblioteca del Congreso

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En este video tu observarás cuatro formas simples de buscar fuentes de información en la Biblioteca del Congreso.

  

Approaches to Using Informational Sources

B-Buillder.pngThis handout highlights different ways the website docstteach.org uses informational sources and offers similar suggestions for UDL Book Builder.

         

Enfoques de Uso de las Fuentes de Información

B-Buillder.pngEste documento enfoca las distintas maneras en que el sitio web docstteach.org usa fuentes de informacion y ofrece otras sugerencias similares para UDL Book Builder.

  

Introduction to Book Builder

Book-B.pngIn this video, I show you features in a free online tool called Book Builder. This program allows you to build digital modules with scaffolds that are accessible for students with diverse learning needs.


Introduction to Book Builder

Book-B.pngEn este video les muestro las caraterísticas principales de una herramienta gratuita del Internet llamada Book Builder.Este programa te permite crear módulos digitales que son accesibles para estudiantes con diversas necesidades de aprendizaje.

Video   Sitio Web   Ejemplo     Folleto 
  

 Developing 3D-Printed Artifacts Activities

EwE-Artifacts-Thumbnail.jpgIn this video, I offer tips to consider when helping students cite evidence to support their claims about a source or artifact from the past. 

 

Creando Actividades con Materiales 3D

EwE-Artifacts-Thumbnail.jpgEn este video presento algunas indicaciones para ayudar a los estudiantes a obtener la habilidad de citar evidencia para apoyar sus afirmaciones sobre una fuente o artefactos del pasado 

 


Building Assessments

EwE-Assessment-Thumbnail.jpgIn this video, I provide an overview of the different parts of the two-page assessments you can create with two multiple-choice items. Use the guides provided for assessments item sentence starters.  

 

Creando Instrumentos de Evaluación

EwE-Assessment-Thumbnail.jpgEn este video presento un resúmen sobre las diferentes partes de los instrumentos evaluativos que tu puedes crear. Usa la guía como modelos de los inicios de preguntas que puedes usar en los instrumentos de evaluación..  

Workshops (2-3 HRS)

Assessment and Instruction with Informational Sources

How can educators assess the critical reading demands found in the Common Core State Standards? This workshop introduces educators to how to develop assessment systems and assessments that evaluate students’ acquisition of these skills. Teachers also get the opportunity to work with examples of student work samples that use free primary sources from the Library of Congress.

Differentiating Instruction with Informational Sources

The critical reading and writing demands of the Common Core State Standards are rigorous, especially for students with diverse learning needs. This workshop introduces educators to ways they can increase their curricula’s accessibility using the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Specific attention will be given to free sources from the Library of Congress and ways to design flexible learning environments that support positive student learning.

Media Literacy with Informational Sources

Who created this message? What creative techniques are used to inform or persuade the intended audience? Can students use the same questions to analyze a commercial, a news article in social media, and primary sources such as the Declaration of Independence? Yes! This workshop introduces educators to the media literacy skills found in the Common Core State Standards with activities, materials and assessments that support media literacy in the classroom.

Place-Based Education with Informational Sources

Help students find their place in the world and locate their home in history. This workshop introduces educators to ways they can use free sources available at the Library of Congress and local collections to develop curriculum that emphasizes the significance of local history. Educators will see examples of activities that scaffold the analysis skills found in the Common Core State Standards and enhance the relevance and value of history for their students.

Institutes (1-3 DAYS)

The design for our institutes is flexible so that we can address the educators' needs we are serving. In the past, our focus has ranged from the New Illinois Social Science Standards (adapted from the C3 Framework) to offering and intensive hands-on focus on any combination of the topics we offer in our workshops listed in the previous section.

Courses (4-16 WKS)

CI469: Teaching Social Sciences in the Secondary School

Designed for preservice social science teachers, this course emphasizes the analysis and evaluation of the social sciences with focus on instructional strategies and curricular designs in the teaching of history, geography, political science, economics, and sociology, as well as content reading for the social sciences

CI470: Teaching and Learning Non-Fiction Sources for Adolescent and Adult Learners

Designed for preservice and current classroom teachers, this course helps educators develop instructional materials and curricular designs using non-fiction resources for classrooms at the secondary level. Students will also have an opportunity to gather, analyze, corroborate, and synthesize student data for the purposes of planning instruction with an emphasis on informational sources such as written documents, images, and multimedia available through the Library of Congress. Integrating technology for differentiating instruction, assessment, and content reading for the disciplines (with a specific focus on the social sciences) will also be emphasized

EDUC550: Teaching with Primary Sources

Designed for classroom teachers, this summer course offers opportunities for educators to design assessments and instruction that are aligned with curricula that emphasizes the critical thinking skills found in the Common Core State Standards. We also offer field-based experiences for teachers to explore local history and how to incorporate these topics in their curriculum. Our goal for this course is to help teachers become instructional leaders for curriculum development with information (or non-fiction) sources accessible through the Library of Congress and beyond.