Who’s Doing the Work? author and literacy consultant, Jan Burkins, led the second Cotsen workshop in the Alumni Speaker Series on Saturday, January 12th. This half-day workshop took place in the morning at The Center at Sycamore Plaza and centered on the research in Who’s Doing the Work? by Jan & Kim Yaris.
As literacy consultants, Burkins and Yaris have over 40 combined years of experience working closely with schools and districts, facilitating staff development, conducting in-class demonstrations, and developing curriculum. Their hard work in literacy research has had an immense impact on the academic lives of students by helping to shape the instructional practices of teachers. The Foundation extends a huge thank you in appreciation for Jan Burkins’ time and work with our participants.
During the session, educators were invited to examine their instruction and identify places where they might be doing the work for students, thus over-scaffolding and creating dependency. Throughout the day, participants discussed possible adjustments to their instruction which can lead to powerful shifts from what the teacher needs to do to what the students should be doing on their own to do the work of becoming more agentive readers. The workshop helped teachers explore the following:
* Who is doing most of the work in my classroom? How do I know?
* How do I understand and teach toward individual student reading processes?
* How do I develop lessons that give students more responsibility for the work?
* How does student empowerment connect to the gradual release of responsibility?
Lauren Oldfield, alumna fellow at Robert C. Fisler School, commented, “Today’s workshop reinforced a lot of what I learned in the Cotsen Fellowship. It’s a great reminder for us teachers to make sure we’re letting the kids do the work. It’s all too easy to spring in and do the work for them when we see them having trouble. But if you give them that chance and challenge, they can really surprise you. I loved how she connected everything we learned today.”
The Cotsen Foundation is honored to be able to provide more opportunities for Cotsen alumni to participate in workshops led by prominent speakers in the field of education. More workshops and study networks are sure to be offered in the near future as the 2018-2019 school year continues.
“This has been an incredible year learning for us at Coeur D’Alene,” said Valerie Neri Munoz, alumna fellow at Coeur D’Alene Avenue School. “As alumni, we are so grateful to be invited to come out on a Saturday and take part in workshops like this. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next Alumni Series Speaker will bring.”