IN THIS ISSUE:

FOR-PD News

• 2003: A Year in Review
• Stay Out of Hot Water
• Facilitator Statistics
• FOR-PD's Strategy of the Month
• January Chat
• Calling All Lesson Plans
• Open Enrollment Was a Huge Success & will re-open!
• FOR-PD Has Given Me My "Walking Papers"
• FOR-PD'S Newest Team Member

Monthly FOR-PD Tips

• Fine FOR-PD Facilitation
• Dear Felicity
• Share With Us

Awards, Contests, & Conferences

• FETC - Florida Educational Technology Conference
• Artists for Literacy Song lyric Writing Contest

Literacy Resources

• Lots About Reading and Writing
• SEIR*TEC NewsWire

Professional Resources

• Reading Electronically
• Lesson Plans 4 Teachers
• Facilitating Online Learning: Effective Strategies for Moderators

Though the whispering voice in the cornfield of "A Field of Dreams" reassured Kevin Costner "If you build it, they will come," the voice we heard while working under an extremely tight deadline from July to December of 2002 to create and implement the first fully online professional development program for Florida teachers whispered "If we build it, WILL they come?" Well, one year and 6770 teachers later that voice is no longer a whisper, but a roaring "YES!"

Beginning Jan 21, 2003 and continuing throughout the summer, 4570 teachers across the state enrolled in the FOR-PD course. As of September 2003, 2045 participants had successfully completed the course. During the Fall of 2003, an additional 2200 students enrolled in FOR-PD with those sections completing throughout December 2003 and January 2004. Early registration numbers for Spring 2004 sections indicate an even more robust year ahead with over 1300 participants having started the course since Jan 20, 2004 and additional participants beginning daily.

The purpose of FOR-PD project and course has been to provide standards-based and research-based professional development in reading with teachers' and students' needs in mind. As we begin offering our second year of classes on Jan 21, 2004, our mission continues to be to:

• support the Florida Department of Education in its statewide implementation of a reading professional development system using online delivery;
• serve as a model for reading professional development online delivery;
• translate scientifically based research into action, provide support, empower teachers to use innovative, creative, and effective strategies to help all children learn proficiently;
• increase teachers' knowledge base about reading;
• improve curriculum and reading instruction; and
• improve student learning

Judging by enrollment numbers and the 2,000 plus completed end-of-course evaluations we’ve received this year, we have successfully met our objectives this first year. The FOR-PD project has been a collaborative effort from the start, with literacy and technology experts, university faculty, school districts, professional organizations, facilitators and teachers from across the state dedicating their time and expertise. The success of the FOR-PD project and course is a success for each and every professional who has played a part in its creation and implementation- but more importantly, it is a success for Florida’s students. Feedback from those who completed the FOR-PD course in 2003 indicates that the course has provided teachers across the state with instructional tools that they can and will utilize in their classroom reading instruction.

An outside interim report of the first year of the FOR-PD project and course, drawn from various sources including narrative reports from facilitators, surveys of participants at the end of the course, and follow-up telephone interviews with administrators, further indicates the following:

• Over 87% of FOR-PD participants indicated they would make changes and/or additions to classroom reading instruction as a result of FOR-PD.

• Over 90% (93%) of participants indicated that the value of reading strategies introduced in FOR-PD was excellent or good.

• Approximately 97% of participants indicated FOR-PD was excellent or good in covering the state and national reading initiatives, with nearly three-fourths of participants (73%) indicating FOR-PD covered the reading initiatives to an excellent degree.

• Over 90% of participants indicated that FOR-PD has contributed to their knowledge of effective reading theory, research, and instructional practice to an excellent or good extent.

• The extent FOR-PD contributed to understanding student needs and instructional adaptations for struggling readers to an excellent or good extent was 89% with over one-half indicating excellent (52%).

As we rededicate ourselves to our purpose and mission for a second year, we would like to thank everyone who contributed to the successful launch and completion of our first year. The data shows that we ARE making a difference in reading instruction throughout Florida and YOU are a part of that! We ask for your continuing support of the FOR-PD project and course and wish you continuing success in 2004.

The FOR-PD Staff

Now that we've heard from Georgina Long, Director of FOR-PD, let's hear some "words of wisdom" from some of you that have also been with us through the year:

"The FOR-PD year experience was like the unfolding of a flower. With each new course section facilitation I experienced something new either through the participants, the content or my own reflections happened! Now that the flower has opened, the participants can go out like seeds to teach and touch student's lives through the knowledge and skills they have gleaned."
Iveta Maska - Pasco County

"Working as a FOR-PD facilitator this year has given me many delights. It is such a pleasure to see the spark and excitement that teachers get when they learn useful and usable information. As I read through our online discussions, I got a clear sense that teachers wanted to learn these important strategies and techniques so that they could help their students grow as readers. In many ways we grew together by sharing our experiences and reflections on teaching. It was a very powerful year for literacy in Florida."
Lourdes Smith - UCF

"I was honored to be selected as a facilitator and am ecstatic to be a part of such a professional, effective, thorough initiative to provide top quality, researched based instruction for classroom teachers, administrators, and district personnel. I have loved communicating with educational professionals from across the state and districts both huge and tiny. I have learned much from the participants and have made several friends. In addition, I feel I have become not only a more effective teacher but also a more patient one as well."
Claire Osetek - Seminole County

"My base of knowledge expanded dramatically with each experience facilitating three sections for FOR-PD during the first year. In addition to keeping up with the newest trends in literacy instruction, I found myself challenged with all those techno-hurdles. I began a new section as of Jan 2004, more confident in my ability to help others meet the same challenges with success."
Sue Dyess - Santa Rosa County

Please do not comment on or attempt to answer questions from your participants regarding district level decisions or policy. Your only responsibility as a FOR-PD facilitator is to facilitate the FOR-PD course. Keep yourself and us out of hot water by referring participants with comments or questions regarding district level decisions to their district office!

Although we consistently hear wonderful things about our facilitators, we wanted to share some data from the course evaluations with you to show you all just exactly how well you are doing!

The graph below depicts the participants' perception of opportunities for facilitator interaction collected from 5 sections with a total of 100 participants. 90 out of 100 participants felt that the opportunities for facilitator interaction were excellent or good! That really tells us that our facilitators are pro-active in their approach to assisting participants. EXCELLENT JOB!

Remember, the evaluation at the end of the course is a VERY important component for the success of the project. Please encourage your participants to complete the course evaluation before you complete your course wrap-up activities. The information we receive through these evaluations helps us to keep improving the FOR-PD experience for everyone!

In our continuing effort to benefit teacher's needs across the state, FOR-PD has established yet another tool for educators to use. This tool is FOR-PD's Reading Strategy of the Month. Each month we will feature an effective reading strategy, explain the rationale behind the strategy, step-by-step directions on how to use the strategy with students, ideas for assessing the strategy, and, of course, a printable PDF version of the strategy itself that you can share with others and use yourself! This month we're highlighting the ABC Brainstorming strategy. To kick off this month's strategy we've used the ABC Brainstorming strategy ourselves to create our ABC's of effective FOR-PD facilitation and ABC's of effective FOR-PD participation. We certainly hope that you will share this information with your participants and teachers at your school.

• Why is there so much talk about phonics now?
• Phonics and the secondary grades, how can we address that in the classroom for struggling readers?
• What is the difference between phonemic awareness and phonological awareness?
• And, any other topic participants or facilitators may have…

• Seminole
• Orange
• Pasco
• Volusia
• Brevard

• Manatee
• Escambia
• Hamilton
• Taylor
• Dade
• Citrus

• Milwee Middle School
• Lake Mary High School
• Seminole County PDK
• Fox Chapel Middle School

So remember, if you know of any school or district with any of the above criteria interested in having FOR-PD come out for support of the project please have them write to us at fff@orion.itrc.ucf.edu

Lourdes H. Smith will be joining us at FOR-PD as our Reading Specialist for the new year. She holds a B.S. degree in Elementary Education and a M.Ed. in Reading Education K-12. Before coming to us, Lourdes taught first grade in Orange County at Little River Elementary. Lourdes is currently working on her second Master's degree in Educational Media at the University of Central Florida. In her spare time she enjoys reading thriller and suspense novels, traveling, being an adjunct professor at UCF, and spending time with her husband and two pugs, Bert and Ernie.

As a former FOR-PD facilitator herself, Lourdes believes that "knowledgeable teachers have the skills and strategies to prepare their students for a life-long love of reading. Teachers can truly make a difference! "

Each month we have been focusing on great FOR-PD examples of the tips from Lesson 4 of your FOR-PD Facilitator Training and Certification Course. At the same time, we really enjoy giving a big FOR-PD salute to some of the great facilitators who have masterfully demonstrated their ability to be a Fine FOR-PD Facilitator! This month we are highlighting the following:

6. Keep expectations high. And convey them through your comments and discussions.

Last month we focused on "setting the tone". This month we're looking at keeping our expectations high. Whether the course is just starting, in the middle, or approaching completion, expectations should always be kept at a standard. To keep the online community healthy, you (the facilitator) should define participant guidelines and expectations at the beginning of the course. There are no face-to-face encounters for the most part, so the only way to assess a participant's progress is to read the discussions and assignments he or she has posted in the virtual classroom. Let's see how some of the methods our facilitators have used in their sections this month to Keep Expectations High.

Mary Bigwood (Department of Defense, Japan) is keeping her expectations high for participants that not only began the course on the start date, but she is also keeping them high for those starting late:

"Hello! Monday begins the fifth week. By now you all have gotten an idea of how the lessons are formatted and you now know what is expected of you and the amount of time it takes to get the job done. Many of you have come aboard late into the course and are plugging away at catching up. I suspect that with the holiday break just a short time away you will all be caught up by the beginning of the New Year. Keep up the good work."

Another great example of keeping high expectations comes from Lourdes Smith (UCF), with due dates and times for the discussion that week along with a bit of encouragement:

"Wow! Lesson 14 is here and the end of our class is right around the corner. We're just about done! Lesson 13 is due tonight by midnight. Please remember that you will be developing a rubric that you can use in your job to assess literacy or a student product or project that reflects an aspect of literacy."

Catherine Glass (Hillsborough County) knows how to show her expectations for those participants that might be falling behind during the holiday season:

"Please make sure that you keep up with the assignments over the holiday. The completion date for this class is January 12th. By this date you must have everything posted and I must have received your reading log. Please, either clip, staple, or use a rubber band on your reading log. I do not need them in a notebook - makes storage more difficult. If you have any questions you can message me on here or via school mail."

I haven't been asked to facilitate a section yet, and I'm getting nervous that I will not be asked. However, several teachers from my school are signed up for the course and have inquired on how I could become their facilitator. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks for your help!
Neeta Klas

Dear Neeta Klas,

I'm so glad you asked me that. Though open enrollment was a HUGE success, and FOR-PD is really happy about the amount of participation we are getting from our 64 participating districts (recently Martin County came onboard), we still do not have enough sections to accommodate all 190 certified facilitators! However, there a couple of other ways you could increase your chances of facilitating a section of FOR-PD.

First, squeaky wheels get the grease, so speak up and let it be known that you want to facilitate!

Contact Teresa Dahl, our facilitator support specialist, and let her know that you would like to facilitate an upcoming section. We keep a running list of "volunteers" and generally go to that list first when assigning open enrollment sections. Also, be sure to let your FOR-PD district contact know that you are a certified FOR-PD facilitator and would like to facilitate a section. Your district may already be collecting registration and looking for a qualified facilitator.

Second, if your district is not collecting registration, ask permission to collect registration on your own. If you can pull together at least 25 participants from your district, you can create your own section! We have a number of facilitators who have facilitated several sections of FOR-PD by creating their own sections. If your district will allow you to collect your own registration and submit it, you'll need to follow the steps below in order to ensure your section gets off to the right start.

1) Download the Registration file (an MS Excel template) from our website at http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/register/district.html

2) Enter the required information for each participant. Remember you must have a minimum of 25 participants to create a section.

3) Put your name and information in the Facilitator section at the top of the excel document.

4) Include the necessary information on your FOR-PD district contact in the District Contact section.

5) Indicate the preferred beginning and ending dates for your section. Be sure to give us at least 2 weeks from the date you send us the registration file to have your class ready.

6) Email the COMPLETED registration file to us at least 2 weeks prior to the selected course start date at forpd@mail.ucf.edu Please be sure that all information is included, incomplete files will be sent back and your start date could be delayed.

7) Once your section has completed we will send the registration file to your FOR-PD district contact indicating participant scores and successful course completion.

If you have any questions about this process, please call us at (866) 227-7261.

Happy Hunting!

Felicity

Send us your classroom reading success stories and FOR-PD reading strategies you have been implementing. Do you have any "funny" stories from your FOR-PD classes? Send your contributions to fff@orion.itrc.ucf.edu.

A recent participant, Laurie Hays (St. Johns County), wrote to us with her thoughts:

Thanks so much-this material is just unbelievably good. I have sent out an email to our Reading Cadre members at each school with the new sign-up information, and have asked the Cadre folks to really give the course a plug. I am just amazed at not only the content of the basic lessons, but the abundance of excellent resources as well. And I love the practice games as we prepare for quizzes-we need to let our students learn like this!

This one from Michelle Hall (Hardee County):

I just wanted to drop FOR-PD a note and let them know about the GREAT JOB Brian did jumping into our course midstream and facilitating this course for us. He did such an outstanding job of getting the job done, when he also had to juggle a lot of personal events, the holidays, and professional jobs as well. I want to make sure he has the opportunity to facilitate future online courses for you!

 

Florida Educational Technology Conference - FETC 2004 was January 22-24, 2004, at the Orange County Convention Center. The Florida Educational Technology Conference is one of the largest, most successful conferences in the United States devoted to educational technology. Programs allow educators and administrators to integrate different technologies across curriculum – from kindergarten to college – including exposure to the latest hardware, software, and successful strategies on how to use technology with students. FOR-PD was there! Were you?

The Third Annual "Songs Inspired by Literature" Songwriting Competition sponsored by Artists for Literacy has begun and will continue until April 5, 2004. The Artists for Literacy mission is to influence community, public and private sector support for literacy, and to enrich the lives of reading challenged youth and adults by responding to the need for dynamic and innovative learning tools that foster literary and artistic appreciation, critical thinking, increased confidence, curiosity, and life-long learning. So many times we as teachers look for the creative ways to inspire students to dive into literature. And, more importantly, teachers of low achieving students with reading difficulties need an even BIGGER array of resources to be creative. This could very well be one that influences that one reluctant reader!

"No matter what the source, information is only powerful if students know what to do with it. As students are inundated with media messages, the challenge is not to amass more information, but to access, organize, and evaluate useful information from a variety of print and electronic sources." Kathleen Tyler, author, "Literacy in A Digital World"

 

(SouthEast Initiatives Regional Technology in Education Consortium) is a group of organizations dedicated to the idea of assisting teachers in the states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North & South Carolina, and Mississippi to promote their teaching through the use of technology. SEIR-TEC writes a monthly newsletter entitled NewsWire. This months featured article is Technology in Reading Instruction and focuses on roles in which technology can be used to help train teachers in effective practices and to improve reading instruction in the classroom. The entire newsletter this month focuses on reading and literacy.

~ Lots About Reading & Writing~ Mrs. McGowan, a teacher of 1st & 2nd graders in New Jersey has done a lot of work compiling information that builds on the reciprocal process of reading & writing instruction. The information is grouped in categories for the user by topics such as: 5 Big Ideas In Reading, Parent Tips, Book Selections, Reading, Spelling, Writing, Online Activities, and a Teacher's Book Shelf.

Mrs. McGowan begins her site with a very nice quote. "The most important of all the new skills to be learned during first and second grade are reading and writing. One of my goals for the year is to help the children grow as independent readers and writers and to develop a love for books and reading that can last a lifetime!" Check this one out you won't be disappointed!

 

Reading Electronically: Challenges and Responses to the Reading Puzzle in Technologically - Enhanced Environments by Elizabeth Hanson-Smith is an article describing the puzzle pieces that are involved in developing reading skills with a large emphasis on whether or not the electronic delivery enhances or hinders the process. Electronic media is undeniably a huge part of our student's resources in the 21st century. Read this very in-depth article for more details.

Lesson plans for any teacher, whether new to the profession or a veteran of many years, is an essential component to instruction. Lesson Plans 4 Teachers is a site that enables teachers to browse for the template of their choice that best suits their needs. The lesson plans are mapped out for teachers through content area as well as grade level appropriateness. A list of reading lesson plans is given through the Language Arts link. And a teacher can find anything from Johnny Appleseed (K-5), Phonics fun (K), or the KWL - A Reading Comprehension Strategy (K-12) as well as a plethora of other topics on reading. Check this one out; it will be well worth your time!

Facilitating Online Learning: Effective Strategies for Moderators written by George Collison, Bonnie Elbaum, Sarah Haavind, and Robert Tinker is a very easy read aimed at facilitators of online education or training courses. The book's authors guide you in learning the groundbreaking techniques and skills necessary to effectively facilitate online dialogue, community, and education.

Return to the FOR-PD Home Page
Last updated January 28, 2004
Contact us at forpd@mail.ucf.edu

A project of the Instructional Technology Resource Center at the University of Central Florida.
Funded by the Florida Department of Education and Just Read Florida!