FOR-PD Update

March 2007

Latest FOR-PD Numbers

16,116 participants
1,187 sections
67 participating districts
7 participating universities
6 participating community colleges

Registration for Summer 2007

Open Enrollment

Open enrollment allows teachers across the state to register directly with FOR-PD. Teachers are grouped with other teachers from their district or surrounding districts. This option is ideal for smaller districts who feel they cannot register a full district section. Many districts post these dates on their district professional development site or send them out directly to teachers through various district communications.

The open enrollment web site can be found at http://forpd.ucf.edu/register/register.html.

Open Enrollment Summer 2007
4/02/2007 at 9 AM EST	Open enrollment (OE) begins on FOR-PD Web site.
5/21/2007 at 5 PM EST	Open enrollment closes.
6/4/2007	Summer OE courses begin.
9/10/2007	Summer OE courses end.

District Registration

Districts can register their own sections of FOR-PD at no cost to the district. For these sections, the district is responsible for recruiting teachers, completing the registration form, and sending that registration form to FOR-PD. Districts must have at least 20 teachers registered in order to start a district registration. For more information on how your district can register a section of FOR-PD, please go to our district web site at http://forpd.ucf.edu/register/district.html.

District Registration Summer 2007
5/21/2007	Registration file must be received in the FOR-PD office.
6/4/2007	Summer district courses begin.
9/10/2007	Summer district courses end.

We request that districts adhere to the dates provided. All registration files should be emailed to forpdreg@mail.ucf.edu on or before the due dates above. The District Registration file can be downloaded at http://forpd.ucf.edu/register/regfile_district.xls.

Come join us for a day of learning focused on motivating students, improving literacy, and preparing our students for the 21st Century! This is a free professional day for all elementary and secondary educators, including literacy coaches, library media specialists, reading specialists, and administrators. Please share this information with teachers in your district.

Focus: Motivation, Literacy, and the 21st Century

Location: The UCF College of Education (Gymnasium)

Date: Friday, April 6, 2007

Time: 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM (Registration from 8:00 AM to 8:45 AM in the Education Complex Gymnasium.)

For additional information on this year's literacy symposium, please visit the website http://forpd.ucf.edu/litsym.

FOR-PD Literacy e-Newsletter

Please read the March issue of the FOR-PD Literacy Newsletter.

In Focus – High School Reform

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. This month, for our In Focus section of the Literacy Newsletter, we'll be taking a closer look at how school reform initiatives are working toward supporting our adolescent learners.

Check out March's In Focus section.

FOR-PD's Reading Strategy of the Month

March's Reading Strategy of the Month focuses on the use of poetry to foster comprehension, fluency, and engagement with readers of all ages. April is National Poetry Month; check out our reading strategy to gather ideas for using poetry in your classroom.

Each month we feature an effective reading strategy, explain the rationale behind the strategy, give directions on how to use the strategy with students, present ideas for adapting the strategy to different content areas, present ideas for assessing the strategy, and of course provide a printable PDF version of the strategy. Check out our Reading Strategy Archive to see past Reading Strategies of the Month.

Literacy Coaches' Corner

Adolescents require instruction in unlocking higher-degrees of literacy in order to understand texts that cover a wide-range of topics and subject areas. In recognition of this need, middle and high schools in the United States are looking toward the “literacy coach” to assist content area teachers who may need extra support in creating effective reading instruction.

The International Reading Association in collaboration with National Council of Teachers of English, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, National Science Teachers Association, and National Council for the Social Studies, and with support provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York, has created a blueprint not only for literacy coaches, but also for policymakers, school and district administrators, and teacher educators on ways that literacy coaches can help adolescent learners.

The organizations and associations included sections on leadership standards, content area standards for English, Math, Science, and Social Studies, and a section on research with a proposed research agenda on future research.

Download the full text of Standards for Middle and High School Literacy Coaches

March's Text Set

This month's text set provides a medley of text and other materials, including non-fiction, websites, photos, pictures, primary source documents, and fiction on the topic of Japanese Internment during World War II.

If you have an idea, please feel free to email us at forpd@mail.ucf.edu.

FOR-PD's Facilitator e-Newsletter

Please also read the March edition of the Facilitator e-Newsletter. This newsletter is developed to support the development and work of our FOR-PD facilitators.

Spring Facilitator Professional Development

This spring our professional development efforts center on the importance of the facilitator presence in the online environment. The role of facilitator in the online environment is extremely complex and often a challenge. Teaching presence is defined as the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes (Anders, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001). There are three major responsibilities identified by this definition: design and administration, facilitating discourse, and direct instruction.

Discourse in an online course is critical to maintaining the interest, motivation, and engagement of participants (Anderson et al., 2001). How can a facilitator create and maintain discourse within their section? Below are some ways we have seen FOR-PD facilitators achieve optimal discourse.

Facilitators have identified what participants will be learning for the week.
Facilitators have identified areas of agreement and disagreement in summaries of weekly postings.
Facilitators have made clarifying statements and then asked participants for feedback.
Facilitators have asked probing questions to extend participant understanding.
Facilitators have provided connections between the text and real world examples.
Facilitators have provided additional resources for their participants to view and then asked for their feedback.
Facilitators have shared their knowledge and provided suggestions.
Facilitators have started threads in the Faculty Lounge for participants to share information or ideas.
Facilitators have provided encouragement to participants who are frustrated.
Facilitators have encouraged others in the course to respond to their peers.
Facilitators have identified when participants have gotten off track and brought them back to the discussion at hand.
Facilitators have used their Welcome Message to establish clear expectations.

Facilitator presence is vitally important to FOR-PD participants. Participants must know that facilitators are there. Participants must be engaged in reflection on the text and their own practices. Participants expect feedback from their facilitator. The facilitator is in control of the discourse within their section.

Facilitator Resource of the Month

Last month we discussed the types of interactions that learners engage in which affect and further their learning. At that time, we touched on the technique “Asking Questions” to encourage particular types of engagement with a focus on Bloom’s taxonomy. While Bloom’s has been a traditional guide in education, there are other taxonomies that can help shape questions asked of learners. One of those is the “Taxonomy of Personal Engagement.” Originally designed by Norah Morgan and Juliana Sexton (1985) to help drama teachers engage their students in the study and practice of the art, the “Taxonomy of Personal Engagement” has significance to learning other content. The taxonomy is based partly on Bloom's (1964) “Taxonomy of Educational Objectives” and Krathwohl's (1965) affective taxonomy, combining both cognition and emotion.

This month's resources include:

Morgan, N., & Saxton, J. (2006). Asking better questions (2 nd Edition). Markham, Ontario, Canada: Pembroke Publishers . Retrieved on March 14, 2007 from http://www.stenhouse.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=0&idproduct=9034.

English Learning Area: Asking Questions. Retrieved on March 14, 2007, from http://wwwfp.education.tas.gov.au/english/askquest.htm.

FOR-PD Help Desk Hours

Help Desk hours are:

Monday through Friday 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Monday, Tuesday, and Friday 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Saturday 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Toll free from Florida only 1-866-863-READ (7323)

Non-Florida calls only 407-249-4702

Technical support is also available through AOL Instant Messenger, screen name "forpdhelp."

If teachers need technical support beyond that which their facilitator or school technology coordinator can offer, they should contact the FOR-PD Technical Support Help Desk. Please fill out the Tech Help Form or call the Help Desk.

Chat Live with the Help Desk. First, make sure that we are online. The button below will tell you whether we are online or offline. Next, click on Set Screen Name and type your name. Then, click in the light blue box below to type your message. Press Enter to send it. This requires you have Macromedia Flash installed on your computer. http://forpd.ucf.edu/about/technicalsupport.html

Do you have comments about the course? Have you received any comments from people in your district? We are always looking for feedback, so send it our way. Email forpd@mail.ucf.edu.