"Great children's books are the heart and soul of CLI's pre-kindergarten curriculum. Teachers use our specially chosen trade books to help children love reading for its own sake; learn letters, concepts about print, and vocabulary; develop an interest in authors and content themes (including math and science); and invite children into the world of literacy." That's how CLI Executive Director Linda Katz begins to describe CLI's newest product: Blueprint for Early Literacy™.

Blueprint is a comprehensive curriculum for pre-kindergarten classrooms that is being introduced into a variety of classrooms this fall, including public schools, Head Start programs, and child care centers. This curriculum combines the latest research on early childhood education with CLI's fifteen years experience in working directly with teachers. It is based on the best of children's literature rather than a strict reliance on workbooks and textbooks, and it provides ample guidance and a sequential structure as opposed to a scripted program that inhibits teacher creativity or limits responses to individual student needs.

The curriculum is based on a daily 90-minute literacy block which includes reading aloud, Message Time Plus™, phonemic awareness activities, focused mini-lessons (phonics, vocabulary, modeling skills, etc.), and small group/independent learning applications done in literacy centers. Literacy block content is based on a combination of themes and author/genre studies, providing children with the opportunity to encounter new information in a variety of related, meaningful contexts. All content is designed to move children through a logical sequence of phonemic awareness and phonics development and to help teachers incorporate state and/or local standards.

Blueprint for Early Literacy™ emphasizes developing the student's knowledge base to increase comprehension. Month to month, themes build on prior themes, emphasize vocabulary growth, and increase content knowledge. Themes are brought to life through children's literature, thereby reducing the teacher's dependence on holiday themes.

In addition to a classroom collection of 50 read aloud books, the curriculum package includes a Theme Box for each of the 10 school months and 5 of CLI's special Author Packs.

Each Theme Box contains 5 more read aloud books and 3 book-related learning tasks (applications), as well as lesson plans, a letter to parents, and 3 Skill Cards which emphasize skills based on National Reading Panel recommended areas that will align with federal government assessments and state standards.

Author Packs each contain 6 books by the author, a related lesson plan, and materials for creating an Author Study Board display: color copies of book covers, a portrait of the author, and biographical information.

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In A Lesson Is Like a Swiftly Flowing River: How Research Lessons Improve Japanese Education, an observer describes a teachers' training experience in Japan: "Mr. Ohara's lesson pushed us to think, in ways large and small, about the nature of good teaching, about how good practices are honed and spread, and about how teachers can be recognized and supported as they reinvent policy in the classroom."

In Japan, teachers may spend up to twenty hours a week on "research lessons" and related activities. Much of this occurs in grade-level meetings — collaborative efforts by teachers of a given grade within a school which focuses on jointly designing and planning lessons, as well as critiquing each other's lessons.

Teachers also take turns giving demonstration lessons for their colleagues. During the demonstrations, observing teachers focus on the students rather than the instructional teacher, changing the educational emphasis from what is taught to what is learned. Notes are taken, and in subsequent meetings, the results are discussed to see what worked and what didn't. Adjustments are made, and all teachers involved have the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned.

Here in the United States, these practices are being used extensively in Boston and have received enthusiastic reviews from principals and teachers alike. Children's Literacy Initiative has also borrowed this staff development initiative from abroad and has begun offering coaching and facilitating for grade-level meetings and demonstration lessons. CLI trainers find that once initiated, the enthusiasm for these meetings feeds on itself; as one participant said, "I love being around motivated people that love kids, love to teach, and love to get excited about learning new things."

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Don't miss this new opportunity for teachers to sign up individually to attend CLI's high-quality professional development seminars and workshops! Focusing on a single topic from CLI's traditional three-day institute, these courses serve as a great introduction to CLI's effective literacy practices for newcomers or a more in-depth look at a particular subject for those already familiar with this program.

Funding from FleetBank will allow 60 teachers to take one of the workshops, Reading Aloud to Develop Comprehension, for free and to receive a gift of four high-quality children's books.

All workshops will be held in the new CLI Center for Professional Development, a state-of-the-art conference center in Center City Philadelphia. This space was designed specifically for the professional development needs of teachers and opened just last spring.

The courses offered are as follows:

• Reading Aloud to Develop Comprehension
  October 6, October 23, and November 7 (morning)                                                $95
  Courtesy of generous support from FleetBank, this half-day workshop will be offered for free to the first sixty registrants when taken in conjunction with the Author Study Workshop (see below) and includes a gift of four high-quality children's books.
  
  
• Author Study
  October 6, October 23, and November 7 (afternoon)                                               $95
  Teachers will learn how to create an Author Study that supports comprehension and encourages children's development as writers in this half-day workshop. These studies can also be extended to explore specific themes and content areas.
  
  
• Message Time Plus™
  October 24 and December 5                                                                               $155
  This full-day seminar is an introduction to CLI's trademarked instructional program. Message Time Plus(tm) uses modeled writing and shared reading to promote every area determined by the National Reading Panel to be important in learning how to read.
  
  
• Reading Aloud to Support Instruction
  November 21 and December 12                                                                          $155
  Reading aloud from high-quality, challenging children's books is a crucial element in teaching young children to read themselves. This full-day seminar covers different material than the half-day workshop, Reading Aloud to Develop Comprehension.

Both the workshops and seminars provide Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for educators. Please contact Jackie Macey at (215) 561-4676 x112 to register for any of these courses.

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