After 15 years of leading schoolwide residencies—and with more requests than she can fill—Regie Routman has developed a video-based literacy project that brings her demonstration teaching into your school and anticipates your literacy professional development needs. In schools across the U.S. and Canada, Regie’s residencies have raised student achievement and boosted test scores, and now she can help your school or district do the same.

In Reading/Writing Connections, participants learn a way of teaching and assessing that works across the curriculum. Using an Optimal Learning Model, teachers become adept at maximizing demonstrations and multiple shared experiences before handing over responsibility to students through guided practice and independent work. As a result of this PD project, teachers gain confidence and expertise in using authentic, relevant literary and informational texts. They’ll be ready to teach word work, reading, report writing, free verse, and much more.

Research shows that high-level, on-site, and ongoing professional development is the surest route to school improvement in literacy, and Transforming Our Teaching Through Reading/Writing Connections delivers it directly to your teachers.

• Change begins with professional conversations that define beliefs and set high expectations about teaching and learning. For lasting, schoolwide change and high achievement, teachers across grade levels must develop common beliefs about what students are capable of, and which practices best advance children’s reading and writing.
• An Optimal Learning Model provides an effective, unified model for teaching and learning. Teachers can plan, teach, and assess with greater ease and effectiveness with an Optimal Learning Model, ensuring that teaching always nudges students toward independence.
• Responsive teaching engages students and raises their achievement. Research indicates that when children read and write for authentic reasons, achievement goes up. Writing leads to success in reading and vice versa, so we can raise achievement in both by asking students to read and write for real audiences and purposes.
• Applying new ideas leads to lasting, significant change. This is true for students and for teachers. Transforming Our Teaching Through Reading/Writing Connections gives teachers consistent opportunities to discuss, analyze, and try out with their students what they’ve seen in each session. By applying what they learn, their teaching is transformed, and so is students’ learning.