The CLI Model Classroom Program

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CLI's first-grade model classroom in Philadelphia's Meade Elementary School.
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About CLI Model Classrooms

Model classrooms are eye-openers: by showing what is possible, they dramatically raise teacher expectations, producing better performance from teacher and student alike.

CLI establishes model classrooms for our training program. Teachers receiving CLI coaching have the opportunity to observe successful classrooms and exemplary teaching practices in action, and can use this experience to hone their own practice. Teachers report that these visits help them to grow both in skill level and motivation as they see for themselves what is possible in classrooms like their own.

CLI model classrooms are located in schools in low-income neighborhoods with student populations typical to the area. These classrooms are evidence of the remarkable success of rich literacy environments, exemplary teaching, and high expectations for students. CLI provides the teacher with training that is both intensive and sustained over time, and furnishes the classroom with large numbers of quality children's books and literacy materials. The result is nothing short of transformational: a classroom where students thrive in an environment of support and challenge.

CLI currently maintains 97 model classrooms in 5 states. Click here for a full list.

Books, books, books!
The library corner in the kindergarten CLI model classroom in Newark's Oliver St. School.
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Urban Teacher Preparation Project

CLI's Urban Teacher Preparation Project, supported by funds from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, uses the CLI model classrooms in Newark, NJ, to introduce pre-service teachers from three local colleges - Kean, Montclair, and Rutgers -- to highly successful urban classrooms.

The CLI model classrooms serve as a resource to the pre-service teachers in effective literacy instructional practices and the resulting high student achievement. The goal is to provide the pre-service teachers with the opportunity to observe and participate in highly effective urban classrooms with the hope that this experience will impart the competence and confidence needed to choose a teaching job in an urban district.

Teachers should increase their instructional knowledge by visiting successful teachers in action, getting exemplary instruction from which to model their own practices.*

The project gives pre-service teachers the opportunity to visit a model classroom with a CLI trainer. This is an experience that opens students' eyes to the high intellectual potential of urban elementary students in classrooms with teachers who provide effective instruction through engaging and purposeful lessons. Pre-service teachers also attend presentations by CLI model classroom teachers and participate in CLI workshops on campus. Additionally, each of the 14 model classrooms will have a student teacher or junior practicum placement during the 2003-04 school year.

The expectation is that this will spark increased interest among college students in placement in a CLI model classroom, and that such placements will lead students to decide to pursue a teaching career in Newark.

Teacher qualification accounts for over 90% of the variation of achievement
in schools with students from similar backgrounds.*

*	National Commission on Teaching and America's Future What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future September 1996

Photo Gallery
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In this first-grade CLI model classroom in Newark's Ann St. School, books are displayed in the book racks, and grouped by reading level in the bins on the windowsill and by subject in the bins on the floor.

Third graders in CLI's model classroom in Philadelphia's Pratt Elementary School read about different countries, study maps, and write about what they learn.

CLI's first-grade model classroom in Newark's McKinley School.

A Message Time Plus® lesson at a CLI kindergarten model classroom in Philadelphia.

List of CLI Model Classrooms
95 in 5 states and Washington D.C.
December 2009

ILLINOIS Chicago Pre-Kindergarten Barry Elementary, Hugo Luna (Bilingual) Dewey Child Parent Center, Willa Mae Rodgers Doolittle Elementary, Angela Wooten Goldblatt Elementary, Beverly Funchess Goudy Elementary, Erin Stanfill Revere Elementary, Angela Clark Smith Elementary, Megan Grib Zapata Academy, Meghan Burke (Bilingual) Zapata Academy, Guadalupe Hernandez (Bilingual) MARYLAND *Baltimore* Special Education Patapsco School, Cynthia Flores Pre-Kindergarten Bentalou Elementary, Tanya Green Bentalou Elementary, Lauren Preston Carter G. Woodson, Nancy Parris Heritage High (pre-k program), Lori Raxenberg Kindergarten Morrell Park School, Melissa Housman Patapsco School, Teena Greene Patapsco School, Nicole Bien Carter G. Woodson, Elisha Gray MASSACHUSETTS Boston Pre-Kindergarten Mason School, Maria Mendes NEW JERSEY *Camden* First Grade LEAP Academy Charter, Christina Fredericksdorf Wiggins School , Emily Vosseller Second Grade Wiggins School , Marcal Doe *Newark* Special Education McKinley School, Elizabeth Pecota Pre-Kindergarten McKinley School, Clara Mota Kindergarten Abington Avenue School, Lenore Furman Ann Street School, Lidia DaGraca Chancellor Annex, Ke'Lee Brown Franklin Elementary, Olga Alonso-Cardenas Maple Annex, Theresa Rozek Mount Vernon School, Regina Wingo First Grade First Avenue School, Madeline Ferrao Mount Vernon School, Graciela Gomes Oliver Street School, Mariarosa DaCosta Oliver Street School, Mylene Branco (observation site) Newton Street School, Danielle Mastrogiovanni Second Grade Elliot Street School, Maribel Mendez (observation site) Third Grade Ivy Hill School, Veronica Avery Orange Kindergarten Forest Street School, Adriana Brochero- Hernandez First Grade Forest Street School, Natasha Pared	PENNSYLVANIA Bristol Pre-Kindergarten Bristol Board of Education Building, Mary Lou Tantum Norristown Kindergarten Gotwals Elementary, Jen Bacani First Grade Gotwals Elementary, Chris Porco Gotwals Elementary, Erica Prettyman Third Grade Gotwals Elementary, Katie Sortino Philadelphia Pre-Kindergarten Belmont Academy School, Jennifer MacNamara Kindergarten Alcorn Elementary, Jennifer Fagan Allen M. Stearne School, Carolyn Kivenias Bayard Taylor School, Gladys Navarro- Berriós (Bilingual) Belmont Academy, Sonja Neilson Clara Barton Elementary, Kelly McQuail Clara Barton Elementary, Jackie Anderson Duckrey Elementary, Cynthia Moultrie Dunbar Elementary, Angela Mcrea General George G. Meade School, Brenda Tucker Patterson George Sharswood School, Michele Hurst George Washington School, Jennifer Pakola Girard Elementary, Courtney Costello Gompers Elementary, Sue Weintraub Hartranft Elementary, Kanika Boone Isaac Sheppard School, Christina Genetti- Grosh John B. Kelly School, Stacy Dougherty Joseph Catharine School, Nicole Traore Kearny Elementary, Ellen Ginsberg Solis-Cohen School, Mary Bell Cote Thurgood Marshall School, Donna Thomas First Grade Alcorn Elementary, David Paul Clara Barton Elementary, Elaine Cubbage Clara Barton Elementary, Alison Walters Clara Barton Elementary, Marie Fortunato Bayard Taylor School, Erica Darken (Bilingual) Belmont Academy, Denise Metz Cook-Wissahickon,Mike Hennessey General George G. Meade School, Megan Taylor George Sharswood School , Andrea Irrera George Washington School, Toni O'Karma Gompers Elementary, Shantell Bowser Hartranft Elementary, Heather Brant John B. Kelly School, Meredith Schnector John Welsh Elementary, Barbara Kulkulka Joseph Catharine School, Andrea Vounas Penn Alexander Elementary, Kate Sharp Prince Hall School , JeanneMarie Navea Prince Hall School , Lauren Parker Isaac Sheppard School, Carmelina Vasquez Solis-Cohen School, Rosemarie Lee Thomas G. Morton School, Melinda Carson Thurgood Marshall School, Jill Mailey Second Grade Clara Barton Elementary, Michelle Geist Ferguson Elementary, Robin Finklestein Third Grade Isaac Sheppard School, Colleen Lutz General George G. Meade School, Donielle Rigler DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Pre-Kindergarten LaSalle Elementary School, Jennifer Allen ECDC#2, Janice Ford Carver Terrace, Phyllis Nichols

Most recently, some of our model classrooms have become coaching lab sites where professional developers can practice, observe, and reflect together on their coaching and that of their colleagues.

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