School-Based Professional Development - Literacy Strategies Consulting

Comprehensive Support by Literacy Strategies Consulting

Customized on-site, job-embedded professional development has been shown by research to be one of the most effective methods to accelerate student achievement, as it equips teachers with the knowledge and ability to transfer what they learn immediately into classroom practice. Our approach to job-embedded professional learning ensures it's highly engaging and relevant to educators.

Literacy Strategies Consulting, led by bestselling author and literacy expert Jennifer Serravallo, supports educators no matter their role. We work with teachers, coaches, and administrators alike to provide relevant, ongoing, research-based professional development. Our work is driven by a plethora of considerations, including but not limited to district and/or school data, educator goals, logistics, and budget. This type of tailored professional development helps educators become more skilled and knowledgeable and positively impacts the literacy outcomes of students in your school.

Our work is program-agnostic. We collaborate with districts that use a wide range of literacy curricula and have varied approaches to literacy instruction. We work with urban, rural, and suburban school districts of all sizes. We pride ourselves on customizing professional development to align with your goals and data. We tailor and deliver professional development that considers both the big picture and the individual needs of educators and students across your school and/or district.

Under the leadership of Jennifer Serravallo, the literacy specialists on the team are experts in her books and publications, which can serve as the foundation for any professional learning plan based on any literacy topic. 

Comprehensive Needs Assessments Based on Research 

While some districts approach us knowing what they need, others seek our expertise in evaluating student assessment results and classroom practices to determine a focus for professional learning. In these cases, we conduct a needs assessment. We review student data, identify focal points for observation, and tour your school or district with lead educators and stakeholders to learn more about current practices. We gather and synthesize data and compare what we observe to the most current research on effective instruction. We then provide recommendations in a comprehensive report.

Based on your capacity, ability to release teachers, and overall budget, we plan the number of days across the year and topics for cycles of professional learning to support your goals. We collect, review, analyze, and use data continuously to create or revise this tailored professional learning plan, ensuring we remain responsive and flexible to meet the evolving needs of all educators, leaders, and students within your school and/or district. 

Each cohort's session within a cycle is typically organized into three parts. A pre-meeting, a lab site, and a post-meeting. During the pre-meeting, the literacy specialist conducts a mini-workshop focused on one of the cycle's objectives and plans classroom-based work with participants aligned with that objective. In the classroom, educators often first observe the consultant as they demonstrate with students. Educators then have the opportunity to practice the same teaching strategies with a colleague while receiving coaching from the literacy specialist. Working alongside students and teachers makes the learning process more accountable and accessible, providing educators with an experience that improves the rate of sustainability. 

In the post-lab meeting, teachers leave the classroom setting to debrief what they practiced, ask questions that arose, and make plans for transferring what they learned to their classrooms. We also collectively decide what all participants will do between this session and the next, ensuring accountability for moving forward. 

Keep in mind that while the above schedule allows us to maximize time with teachers and give them real experience applying what they've learned, there may be reasons why it may not work for your school. Whether due to logistical issues or challenges in covering classes to release teachers, we are very flexible and highly experienced in adapting the plan to fit the realities of your school's logistical parameters. For example, we might pull students into a meeting room rather than going to a classroom, or meet with teachers in a before-school meeting and then visit classrooms one at a time throughout the day to coach teachers individually as they practice. Alternatively, we might visit classrooms during the day and, in an after-school meeting, use video clips or student work samples to drive home the key learning objectives. 

Our focus is on applicability, transferability, and effectiveness. We will work with you to ensure that our plans work for you and meet you where you are. 

Together, we evaluate the effectiveness of our work and present you with annual impact reports that summarize the work we've done and indicators of success from both student data and teacher perspectives.