FFF eNews - January 2007

The Director's Corner

Happy New Year!

We at FOR-PD are excited about the upcoming semester. As you are aware, we are a learning project. This means that each semester, we analyze collected data and decide on improvements to the project, course, and facilitation. We are continuously looking to see how we can improve all aspects of our project. By now, you should be familiar with the changes in store for both facilitators and participants this coming semester. If you are not, please read the FFF, the updated Facilitators Manual, the chat transcripts, or the summary of changes that will be posted in the announcement's area of the discussion board in the For Facilitators Only course. It is important that you understand these changes and follow FOR-PD protocol.

Registration closed on January 8, 2006, and we are pleased to provide an update on our spring registration.

Section Type	Number of Sections	Number of Participants
University	6	118
Community College	5	121
District	33	816
Open Enrollment	45	1101
TOTAL	89	2156

At the beginning of a semester your main responsibility is to develop your online learning environment. We have learned that a sense of community does not just occur, but must be developed and nurtured. In an online learning community people learn together beyond the content. The facilitator plays a crucial role in developing this environment and encouraging the participants to become active members. The facilitator's role in an online learning community includes:

Facilitating productive conversation—s/he acts as a moderator linking users and content, providing information, resources, exercises, and monitoring course activities.
Managing the pace of conversation—e.g., starting new topics, reviving discussions, and initiating conversations.
Clarifying issues, framing a problem, or summarizing a discussion.
Handling conflict resolution via mediating and adjudicating.
Establishing trust through reliability, helpfulness, respect, and encouragement.
Encouraging relationships by initiating chats and linking comments.
Seeding conversation with content and activities.
Bringing attention to community elements—i.e., who contributes, who doesn’t, what are their styles- personalize as needed.

We look forward to working with each of you this semester. Please feel free to contact the FOR-PD office if you have any questions or comments.

Best wishes and continued success,

Catherine Glass

Project Director, FOR-PD

407-207-7294

cglass@mail.ucf.edu

Introducing "What's New"
As many of you already know there are several exciting changes occurring at FOR-PD this spring, which includes the look and feel of the FFF. Beyond that, there are or will be changes in policy, procedures, the course, and our website. Below you will find a listing of those changes. Please read this edition of the FFF carefully as it will provide you with further information.

We are looking forward to a great year,and as always, appreciate your support of the project.

New FFF
The FFF has a brand new name and a new look! We are a professional organization with a talented team of staff and facilitators who provide a service to a noble profession. We at FOR-PD want to reflect that professionalism and hope the changes in our public face, accomplsh that goal.

The sections included in this month's FFF will either be regular monthly or regularly recurring sections. For example, nearly every semester we need to make changes of some sort, to the course or the project. When this happens you will see the What's New section, while every month you will see the Housekeeping section with details on procedures and calendars. This month you can read more about each section in the introductory paragraph under their specific headings.

Domain Change
We have a new web address! It should make remembering our address and finding us easier for all!
If you head to our old address, you should be redirected. However, now is the time to change your bookmarks to the new address:
http://forpd.ucf.edu
You can reach the WebCT login page by going to http://webct.forpd.ucf.edu

Course Content Location
All course content has been moved inside WebCT for protection purposes. In previous semesters our content has been outside of WebCT and vulnerable to those who wish to "borrow" it without permission.

The lesson pages will look the same. The grade book and all other aspects will function as always. Facilitators should be familiar with these processes, as the content for Facilitator Training Course and certification is all housed inside WebCT.

Lesson Due Dates and Grading Schedule:
FOR-PD feels very strongly that a large part of the benefit of the course comes from the communication within the course. FOR-PD, while online, is not intended to be an independent study. For this reason we are scheduling very specific due dates. We will strongly encourage participants to keep to that schedule and expect you to do the same. We are also providing grading deadlines that are intended to keep everyone up to date.

Grade book:
We often hear that the procedure for review and documentation of the Literacy Logs is cumbersome. In order to streamline this, FOR-PD is adding columns by each Lit Log for comments. This will help both the facilitator and participant see at a glance that the log has been reviewed and the status of that entry.

These columns will be titled LL #_c, so for example Lit Log 2 will have these columns: LL2 & LL2_c. In the first you will see the 0 grade as always. The second column is for you to put one of the following comments after you have reviewed submissions. Please do not modify these comments, as we will be explaining to participants what they mean, as well.

Grading Requirements:
Current policy states that facilitators are not required to grade assignments for participants who fall 7 or more lessons behind, but the facilitator is in control of that choice. This policy is changing. FOR-PD feels strongly that any participant who falls this far behind has clearly missed the point and benefits of communication within the course. As of now, these participants will not be allowed to continue, period. Facilitators will be required to notify FOR-PD, deny the participant access and notify the participant who is being dropped. Faciliators might suggest they enroll in a future course.

Quizzes:
Currently participants in sections other than college or university sections are allowed to take the quizzes as many times as needed to reach mastery. Beginning in the spring participants will now only be allowed to take the quiz three times. Facilitators should not reset quizzes, but rather notify FOR-PD if they have a participant who has taken the quiz three times and still has not received a mastery score. Facilitators need to encourage participants to look at the feedback given after the quiz has been taken.

Course Calendar:
We continue to have issues with required dates being added to the course calendar or being posted on the wrong dates. In order to keep all courses on the same schedule FOR-PD will be adding dates to the courses as they begin. You may need to add additional dates that will be unique to your course.

"Welcome" & "Meet Me Here" Messages:
FOR-PD will be posting a "Welcome Message." However, facilitators will still be required to post a "Welcome Message" and a "Meet Me Here" prior to the course opening. What this means is that the facilitator's "Welcome Message" should be more personal and make the participant feel welcomed, yet at the same time be very specific regarding course requirements and availability. It should include information regarding format that is preferred for posting, the best time to be reached, etc. This is addressed more specifically in the Faciltiators Manual.

QAC Process
As our project evolves, so does our QAC process. Quality Assurance Checks will continue to be done twice during the semester but there will be a few changes to the process. This is the process for the spring semester:

First Check: At the first check we will no longer be looking at the calendar dates as FOR-PD has added those for you. We will continue to look to see that the you have completed the following:

FOR-PD will no longer automatically contact lagging participants at the QAC checks. We are changing this to avoid repetitive contact, which often makes participants irritated or confuses them regarding who to contact if they are falling behind. Of course their faciltator should be the first point of contact. FOR-PD will be sending other regular, encouraging communications to the participants. We feel that those communications will help to encourage participants without sending the same "you are lagging behind" messages. We will however, send you a report with laggers and non-starters listed as always. The difference is this: On this report will be two questions that we expect you to respond to directly on the report document and send back to us. ALL facilitators are expected to return this report within seven calendar days. This will be part of our Facilitator Expectations.
Those questions are listed below:

We will be happy to support you by contacting those you feel will benefit from our extra communication, after you have made the expected attempts.

Second Check: The second check will look very much the same as always, with the exception of the expectation that you will return the report with comments regarding contact with laggers. We will look to see that you are doing the following:

If you have any questions regarding the QAC process, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our intention is to help and support you.

Facilitator Manual Updated
The above changes are specifically addressed in the newly updated Facilitator's Manual, which is now available through the For Facilitators Only (faconly 2) section. You will notice that the manual has a new and improved look as well. Please read the manual carefully and make note of any important changes. You can download a PDF of the manual for easy reference, as well.

Sample Discussion Postings:
New sample discussion postings for each lesson will be included in the spring facilitator manual. Please remember that these are only samples. You may choose to use them or one of your own.

Literacy Log Submissions Pilot:
We have been listening carefully regarding issues surrounding the Literacy Logs. So in the spring we will have five courses that will pilot a new submission process for the Literacy Logs that will maintain the integrity of the graphic organizers. Hopefully this will make reviewing and grading easier for facilitators, with less confusion for the participants. If this goes as expected, we will launch the new Literacy Logs during the summer.

Upcoming Facilitator Course Revisions:
The facilitator course will be revised this spring to address course changes. We intend to have registration open for those interested in becoming facilitators by April. If you know of anyone who is interested in becoming a facilitator, they can review the requirements on our website.

Our New Look:
The FOR-PD website is getting a makeover! The new website will be sleek and professional with easy to use navigation, making access to the content and resources quick and easy. Look for that sometime in February or March.

Newsletters:
The newsletters will also be getting makeovers. What you see this month in the FFF is only the beginning! What won't change is our intent to support facilitators and our participants through these publications.

Participant Expectations and Communication:
The Participant Expectations Document has been updated to clearly explain to participants what is expected of them throughout the course. A link to this document will be emailed to all participants prior to the start of the course. The project will also increase communication with participants, sending them regular email to keep them apprised of where they should be at certain points during the course. This should have positive effects on their participation, assisting facilitators in keeping participants on track.

Introducing "Facilitation Fundamentals"
This section of the FFF will have a dual purpose. The focus will be on improving your facilitation skills and additionally offer help with the process of teaching the content.

Under the Professional Development heading you will find the monthly resource. You will also find information on the professional development for each semester, when needed. This information will include sign up information, start dates, summaries etc. The resource offered monthly in the FFF will correlate with the topics in our full professional development, offering various levels of study of the same topics.

Under the How do I teach that? heading, you will find information on lessons from the course and ways you might approach either summarizing lesson content, pointing out the critical points in a lesson, or responding to a particular type of posting.

Professional Development

Spring Professional Development:
Beginning in the spring the design and implementation of our professional development will not only focus on skills facilitators need to be effective, but it will also be more directly related to the content of our courses.

The topic for spring will be Teacher Presence in an Online Environment with a focus on how to use questions to elicit different types of responses. The professional development will run for four weeks from February 26th through March 25th.

We encourage you to visit: http://www.stenhouse.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=0&idproduct=9034 Here you can currently download each chapter of the book "Asking Better Questions" written by Norah Morgan and Juliana Saxton in PDF form at no cost. We intend to use this book as a resource for the PD so if you think you may be interested in participating, plan ahead. Even if you do not plan to participate in the PD this book is worth reading! We will focus on Chapters 2, 3 & 5.

Bi-Monthly:
The Bi-Monthly discussions will be discontinued. As the intention is to narrow the focus of professional development to a central topic each semester, topics will no longer be posted in this section. Facilitators will be expected to participate in the full professional development offered each semester or respond to the monthly resource offered in the FFF.

Monthly Resource:
As we begin the semester thinking about and discussing Teacher Presence in Online Learning we offer the following three resources. While normally we only offer one resource, we felt that these are easy to read with the information offered in a concise and to the point manner and may create some thoughtful reflection on teaching and listening in the online environment.

1. For a general overview of the challenges teachers face in online environments please read: http://www.fp.ucalgary.ca/maclachlan/teaching_presence/theme_tp.htm

This is one page from the Calgary Board of Education's Teaching and Learning Online e-PD course, which references a lengthy definition of Teaching Presence: "Teaching presence, the first theme of online learning, is the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes." (Rourke, Anderson, Garrison and Archer, 2000). The site contains an interesting presentation with comments from those teaching online and informative links that explore that topic further and attempt to explain the definition.

This guide lists specific facilitator roles and offers valuable implementation strategies to help facilitators. The roles listed include:

This resource offers a wonderful discussion on "listening" online including Ms. Fawcett's "poetic response on Active Listening Online."

Other topics she touches on are questioning and feedback. In addressing the role of feedback online she asks these questions: How do we make online feedback effective? What are the characteristics of effective online feedback? Can we identify top tips on good practice feedback online?

While you are reading these resources, think about your online practice. What do you do to create a strong teacher presence? What do you think about "listening" online? How important is that skill? Did these resources help you learn any new strategies you might like to implement that will help you better fulfill the role of facilitator?

Please respond to these or any other questions regarding teacher presence that came to mind while you were reading on the discussion board FFF Discussions section in the For Facilitators Only course. We look forward to reading your responses.

How do I teach that?
Since we believe strongly in collaboration, we would also like to highlight from time to time the work any of our facilitators would like to share. For example, if you have lesson summaries you have found useful to your participants and/or great sample discussion postings you would like to share, or if you had a situation where you felt you could have used some feedback or would like to see how someone else would have responded, feel free to submit those to forpdfac@mail.ucf.edu. Naturally, any participant postings you submit must come with permission to use it from the participant, even if we don't use their name.

For this month we are going to focus on Lesson 2. In reading the major goals for the lesson you will see the word summarize several times. This lesson is an overview of the reading theory, research and instruction and factors that affect the students' learning to read. While the lesson introduction provides the goals and a task list, it may help participants to focus if you provide a summary of the important points from the lesson. Here is an example that uses highlights from the content. Remember, it is just an example and what you try to focus attention on might vary depending upon the background of the participants.

Reading refers to the process of constructing meaning from text. It is a problem-solving activity in which the reader interacts with text and context in an effort to construct meaning.

Literacy refers to the abilities and skills students need in preK-12 grades to read, write, think, speak, listen, and view what they need to learn in school and in life.

In order to prevent reading failure in early grades, we must increase the quality and consistency of reading instruction. We need to assess systematically to identify students who struggle in reading, monitor the growth of all, and provide intensive interventions to help striving readers progress.

There are various theoretical models that have influenced the understanding of the reading process. They include the schema theory, interactive theory of reading, and reading as a social process.

It is important to understand that reading is multifaceted. It is a combination of processes; language, cognitive, affective, social, physiological, and developmental. The developmental process has stages that begin at birth.

There are specific factors that act as predictors of success that fall into categories. These categories include: physical and clinical factors, predictors of school entry, acquired knowledge of literacy, family-based risk factors, and neighborhood, community, and school-based factors.

For students to be good readers, they must have knowledgeable teachers, and they must be taught:

In the secondary grades, we deal with adolescent literacy which refers to the abilities and skills students need in grades four through 12 to read, write, listen, and think about what they need to learn and demonstrate that learning in school and in life.

The content area teacher's responsibility is to help students read their textbooks and additional materials in order to understand and learn the content effectively. All students need quality reading instruction and support to continue developing their literacy skills.

Although there is not a "silver-bullet" to take care of all students' challenges, there are certain research-based best practices that help create effective literacy instruction. Differentiated Instruction is one of those best practices that helps meet each student's need.

Read the chapter carefully and think about these major points as you read. You will find more specific information including references to the research as you read.

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Housekeeping

Introducing "Housekeeping"
In this section of the FFF you will find information on all the daily kinds of things that facilitators might need to stay on track and keep things running smoothly! These will include information regarding schedules, calendars, task lists, reminders about procedures you should follow (like course opening or closing information), forms needed, step-by-step directions for technical information that may be helpful, deadlines, Call for Facilitators etc. If you have an idea of other items you would like to see here, just let us know.

Course Opening Procedures
Our spring courses will begin Monday, January 22nd, and all facilitators should have access to their courses by now. Once you have the contact information for your participants, remember to send them a personalized welcome to their email outside of the course. You can find a sample in the Facilitator's Manual in the For Facilitators Only courses.

Also in the Facilitator's Manual is a task list for Course Opening. A version of it is included here, but you should read the full version in the manual.

1. Welcome Message in Facilitator Announcement Discussion Area:
Within the course, you should post a "Welcome Message" to participants in the Facilitator Announcement Area. This message should clearly delineate your expectations. You can anticipate a number of their questions and answer those questions in this posting. Typical questions include:

How can I get in touch with the facilitator?
When will assignments be graded?
How will I receive feedback?
If I must revise an assignment, how long do I have?

2. "Meet Me Here" Discussion Message in "Meet Me Here" Discussion Area:
Be sure to introduce yourself in the Lesson 1 "Meet Me Here" discussion area. This will not only give you a chance to introduce yourself to the participants in your section, but will provide the participants with a model for this first discussion assignment – Be sure you follow the rubric and set a good example by posting a 20-point discussion!

3. Course Schedule in Course Calendar:
A course calendar is included in the FOR-PD course. Prior to the course opening, FOR-PD posts a Course Schedule on the course calendar. It includes the course start date, the course end date, and the date participants will be denied access to the course as well as lesson due dates. It will also include the dates for FOR-PD Technology Chats. You should add to this calendar any additional dates that your participants might need. Other important dates would include scheduled chats for your course, office hours, dates you may be out of town, etc.

One way to ensure a good semester is to get off on the right foot! Good luck!

FOR-PD Course Schedule Spring 2007

**Spring Course Calendar 2007 - 14 week Courses**
Week 1	Jan 22 - Jan 27	Week 8	March 11 - March 17
Week 2	Jan 28 - Feb 3	Week 9	March 18 - March 24
Week 3	Feb 4 - Feb 10	Week 10	March 25 - March 31
Week 4	Feb 11 - Feb 17	Week 11	April 1 - April 7
Week 5	Feb 18 - Feb 24	Week 12	April 8 - April 14
Week 6	Feb 25 - March 3	Week 13	April 15 - April 21
Week 7	March 4 - March 10	Week 14	April 22 - April 30
Participants Denied Access: May 1 Course Closing Info: May 14 Facilitators Denied Access: May 15

Up Close

Introducing "Up Close"
This is the most personal section of the new FFF. It is here that we will highlight any personal achievements, events, celebrations about our FOR-PD team and facilitators. This project takes extreme teamwork from some fine people. In the online environment the personal touch takes a little extra effort. We have given consideration to the fact that while the FFF is informative, it could be more personal, highlighting those fine people. So in this section, we really want to highlight you! Send us your triumphs, bios, information on great trips you took, newly born family members, or any other milestone event that you would like to share with the FOR-PD group. Please send all items you would like included to forpdfac@ucf.edu by the 10th of the month to be included in the FFF.

Congratulations to those facilitators who achieved a completion rate of 80% or above in their fall sections!

Claire Osetek
Cynthia Vanderpool
Deanne Nelson
Deborah Beck
Diana Paulson

Dorothy Zablotsky
Gail Choice
Hayley MacDonald
Inga Smith
Joanna Durst

Karen Lindsey
Karen Young Linda Janney
Lisa Crayton
Lynn Yribarren
Mary Bishop

Matthew Wiggins
Michelle Clark
Patricia Allegar
Sharon Feinblatt
Susan Phillips

An extra special round of applause goes to those who had a 100% completion rate!

Anne Bishop

Montez Hollins

Leona Hunt

Jayna Snyder

Excellent job! We have truly wonderful and dedicated facilitators! Thank you for your efforts to support and motivate your participants during the course. Your hard work contributes largely to the success of your participants and FOR-PD!
Our overall completion rate for the fall term was 72.06%.
While lower than last semester, still above the average for online courses.
Keep up the good work!

New Year Resolutions
To kick off this new section we thought what is it that we all do this time of year? Make resolutions! So here is a brief list of some of the resolutions made by the FOR-PD staff!

Travel more
Eat healthy
Meet all my deadlines - OK so the really important ones
Work smarter, not harder
Focus on the "big rocks" – What is really important?
Keep the project evolving in a professional manner
Ride my bike more
It is all about balance - be reasonable about tasks taken on

Events

Introducing "Events"
Here we will post chat schedules, conferences where FOR-PD staff may be presenting, Facilitator Meetings planned, etc. If you have events you think will interest facilitators and would like to have included, then please send them our way.

Chat Schedules

Facilitator Only Chats
Upcoming Facilitator Only Chats: Please remember that 2 Facilitator Chats per semester are MANDATORY! One of these chats will count toward that requirement.

February:
WHEN: Wednesday, February 21.
TIME: 7:30pm - 8:30pm EST
WHERE: For Facilitator Only Course Chat Area, Room 1
WHO: Facilitators
TOPIC: Facilitating Content (with time for technical issue questions)

Content Area Chat

February:
WHEN: Wednesday, February 7.
TIME: 7:00pm - 8:00pm EST
WHERE: For Facilitator Only Course Chat Area, Room 1
WHO: Facilitators & Participants
TOPIC: Reading/Writing Connections
Guest: Dr. Jeffrey Kaplan, Co-director of NWP@UCF

Tech Chats
Please post these dates on your course calendars for your participants.

January:
WHEN: January 30, 2007
TIME: 7:00pm - 8:00pm EST
WHERE: General Chat for all courses
WHO: Participants
TOPIC: Technology Support

February:
WHEN: Thursday February 1, 2007
TIME: 7:30pm - 8:30pm EST
WHERE: General Chat for all courses
WHO: Participants
TOPIC: Technology Support

WHEN: Tuesday February 20, 2007
TIME: 7:00pm - 8:00pm EST
WHERE: General Chat for all courses
WHO: Participants
TOPIC: Technology Support

WHEN: Thursday February 22, 2007
TIME: 7:30pm - 8:30pm EST
WHERE: General Chat for all courses
WHO: Participants
TOPIC: Technology Support

Writers Still Wanted writer

WANTED: Do you enjoy reading the FOR-PD Monthly Literacy Newsletter? Would you like to contribute to the Newsletter with your own thoughts and ideas on specific topics and themes? If so, then we’ve got a spot for you! FOR-PD seeks short, practical summaries (250-500 words) on strategies, techniques, or ideas that match the In Focus topic of the month. We welcome personal examples from the classroom and thoughtful advice on the designated topics. At least one month before the publication date, you can e-mail your summary as an attachment to losmith@mail.ucf.edu. A committee will review all submissions for appropriateness. If your summary is chosen for publication, an email will be sent to you. Your summary should include the following information:

Title
Your name and current position
Intended audience (primary, intermediate, middle, high, all)
Summary of technique, idea, or strategy that relates to In Focus topic
Summary should be edited and proofread

FOR-PD strives to share new and interesting research on hot topics that affect teachers and their students. Read our list of upcoming themes for spring and consider submitting your idea or example summary.

March 2007 Topic: High School Reform Due Date: February 15, 2007 A current focus has risen across the country to improve education for high school students. Many organizations have written proposals and statements on ways that the U.S. Congress can help foster reform that is needed to support our nation's high school students. The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development has focused on five key components:

Determine accountability through multiple measures of assessment.
Increase support and flexibility for comprehensive professional development.
Provide flexibility and resources to support innovative high school reform.
Increase support and resources for school readiness and early development of the whole child.
Increase flexibility for research-based interventions in schools needing improvement.

How do these components effect your classroom instruction? What benefit do you believe will come from them and how will they impact your students?

April 2007 Topic: Informational Text for Younger Students Due Date: March 15, 2007 Informational text is a type of nonfiction that conveys information about the world around us. It can include social or scientific topics and themes. Helping our young readers experience informational text is a great way to prepare them for real-life reading and having success later in school by building up their interaction with expository text structures. What experiences have you had in this area and which strategies or activities work well with your students? If you work with older students, which strategies do you use to help striving readers in your classroom with informational text?

May 2007 Topic: Scripted Programs and Material Fidelity Due Date: April 15, 2007 When a school chooses a core reading program to use in its classrooms, the program should be well-designed and have a solid research-base. Scripted programs are once again seen as the possible answer to cover both of these areas. Overall there has been a large amount of debate over the need and use of scripted programs. Once a school selects a program, whether scripted or otherwise, it is vital that the program be fully implemented with high fidelity. What scripted programs have you used in your own classroom and how does your school help you strive for fidelity in its use? How do you ensure fidelity of the reading programs you use?

Conferences

Florida Educators Technology Conference
Orange County Convention Center
Orlando, Florida
January 24–26, 2007
http://www.fetc.org/fetc2007/index.cfm

E-Educator's Conference
Panama City, Florida
February 12-13, 2007
http://www.e-educatorconference.com/

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January 2007	Issue #48 *Printer friendly version of the FFF eNews**