Tammie Adams - K-1 teacher and Literacy Specialist in the Department of Teaching and Learning (Oakland Unified School District, Oakland, CA)

ABOUT

My name is Tammie Adams and I am currently a Literacy Specialist in the Department of Teaching and Learning in Oakland Unified School District.    My first two years I taught Kindergarten at Whittier Year Round School, the next fifteen years I taught Kindergarten at Brookfield Elementary, then taught First Grade for the next four years and last year I was the TSA - Literacy Coach at my school site.   

PROBLEM

I have just completed my 19th year with the district and in that time, I have seen lots of changes around Professional Development.  Previously, the district or our administrator have always dictated the focus of our Professional Development.  

SOLUTION

When our school got a new administrator, we used our Instructional Leadership Team to create Cycles of Inquiry in the content areas of Language Arts, Math, and Science that included teachers leading professional development based on the needs of our students, staff and school community. At the end of each PD, teachers completed a "Passport" to indicate their learning needs that helped the ILT create differentiated PD that not only impacted student achievement, but helped to build the capacity of the teachers at our school. 

RESOURCES

Please click  HERE  to view the artifacts described below.

Agenda

This is a sample agenda for a PD conducted at my school site.  This PD was conducted like a "mini-conference".  Other teachers were asked to be facilitators for the various topics within Balanced Literacy.  Teachers rotated to each mini-workshop for 20 minutes.  This gave teachers the opportunity to learn from each other.  Everyone received handouts and sample lessons they could use in their classrooms the next day.  This PD was created based on questions teachers had about instructional strategies.

4th Grade Sample Lesson Plan & Student Work Sample

This is a sample lesson plan that was demonstrated during one of the mini-workshops.  It was modeled by a 3rd grade teacher, but she created the lesson for 4th grade.  The lesson plan includes the CC standard addressed, objective of the lesson, materials to use, strategies to engage students before, during and after the reading as well as ways to extend the comprehension lesson to writing.  Although the student work sample attached is not for the specific lesson modeled, it gave the teachers an idea of how to complete the graphic organizer.  During the workshop, teachers were given a blank organizer to complete for their own active engagement.

1st Grade Sample Lesson Plan & Graphic Organizer

This is a sample lesson plan that was modeled for a Reading Workshop mini-lesson.  This lesson plan includes the CC standard addressed, objective of the lesson, materials to use, the teaching point students will practice using as they read text at their independent level. The lesson also includes an opportunity for the students to practice the skill with a partner before they do it independently.  The model lesson also includes the exit ticket students must complete to keep them accountable for their independent reading.  Attached is also the graphic organizer used during the model lesson.