What We Do

Curriculum Development Services

Teaching and Learning Alliance can support districts and schools in the development of rich, student-centered curriculum to align with state standards, raise the level of rigor in classrooms, and personalize learning for all students in the following ways:

• Constructing common core-aligned, customized yearlong trajectories, units of study, and mini-lessons
• Implementing PARCC/Smarter Balanced assessment practices and tools to capture major changes in standards and assessment goals
• Mapping and unpacking common core standards horizontally and vertically
• Sequencing units and lessons in a progression to maximize depth and rigor
• Designing Readers’ Workshop, Writers’ Workshop, and Mathematics Workshop structures to differentiate and personalize learning

1:1 In-Class Coaching

Teaching and Learning Alliance can support practitioners in the development of effective pedagogy and content knowledge through intensive job-embedded coaching in the classroom in the following ways:

• 1:1 in-class coaching alongside master TLA practitioners with and average of 25 years of classroom experience in grades PreK-12
• Applying professional learning directly in the classroom with your students
• Modeling lessons, co-teaching, co-planning around units and lessons, and in-depth pre-briefing and debriefing to support transfer of professional learning to professional practice
• Developing proficient readers, writers, and thinkers among student population

Coaching topics range from targeted instructional techniques to broad philosophies of teaching and learning. Possible coaching focus topics include:

• Implement the core components of balanced literacy (Readers’ Workshop, Writers’ Workshop, Phonics/Word Study, Read-Aloud)
• Design and deliver powerful mini-lessons
• Teach reading and writing strategies through explicit demonstration and think-aloud
• Model and teach accountable talk to help students express their thinking through meaningful conversation
• Differentiate instruction in all curriculum areas
• Administer, score, and analyze diagnostic assessments
• Use informal assessments to plan differentiated instruction
• Plan and teach guided reading lessons
• Align district curriculum with Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
• Integrate standards-based teaching with developmental, student-centered approaches
• Collaborate and learn more effectively with colleagues
• Organize classroom libraries and other instructional materials
• Choose and use high-quality literature, as well as leveled books, to improve reading instruction
• Make thinking visible (their own thinking as well as their students’)
• Confer with students to assess and teach 1:1
• Ask open-ended, thought-provoking questions
• Manage time, space, and materials
• Connect literacy strategies to science, social studies, and math
• Differentiate instruction for ELL students and students with special needs
• Develop units of study in reading and writing, aligned to common core standards

Workshops

Teaching and Learning Alliance can support professional learning for administrators and teachers through engaging, customized workshops in the following ways:

• Bringing teachers and school leaders together for rich explorations of content or pedagogical knowledge
• Focusing on targeted topics, such as close reading of complex text, to broad investigations, such as implementation of Readers’ Workshop or Response to Intervention (RTI)
• Tailoring professional learning to meet the needs of school/district faculty and student populations

Workshop topics range from targeted instructional techniques to broad philosophies of teaching and learning. Possible topics include:

• Implement the core components of literacy instruction (Readers’ Workshop, Writers’ Workshop, Phonics/Word Study, Read-Aloud)
• Design and deliver powerful mini-lessons
• Teach reading and writing strategies through explicit demonstration and think-aloud
• Model and teach accountable talk to help students express their thinking through meaningful conversation
• Differentiate instruction in all curriculum areas
• Administer, score, and analyze diagnostic assessments
• Use informal assessments to plan differentiated instruction
• Plan and teach guided reading lessons
• Align district curriculum with Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
• Integrate standards-based teaching with developmental, student-centered approaches
• Collaborate and learn more effectively with colleagues
• Organize classroom libraries and other instructional materials
• Choose and use high-quality literature, as well as leveled books, to improve reading instruction
• Make thinking visible (their own thinking as well as their students’)
• Confer with students to assess and teach 1:1
• Ask open-ended, thought-provoking questions
• Manage time, space, and materials
• Connect literacy strategies to science, social studies, and math
• Differentiate instruction for ELL students and students with special needs
• Develop units of study in reading and writing, aligned to common core standards

Lab Classrooms

Teaching and Learning Alliance can help districts and schools develop sustainable, in-house learning “labs” to encourage practitioner growth, peer observation, and teacher leadership in the following ways:

• Leveraging change through intensive, in-class coaching and in-depth workshop examination with school/district-selected “Lab Class Teachers”
• Opening these classrooms as “learning labs” in which other teachers and administrators in the school/district can witness implementation of new practice, strategies for increasing instructional rigor, pedagogical approaches for personalizing with all students, and much more
• Inspiring change and risk-taking among colleagues through hosted visits to the “Lab Classroom” after desired practices have been cultivated
• Facilitating transference of new learning occurring during “Lab Classroom” visits to classrooms throughout the school/district

Guided Observation

Teaching and Learning Alliance can help districts and schools articulate a vision for what classrooms will look like as development of new initiatives unfold by visiting schools in other districts where similar work has been implemented. Guided Observations involve the following:

• Facilitating coordinated school/district team observations outside of your own district to learn desired, exemplary practices from educators in other cities and towns
• Guiding well-planned pre-briefing, classroom tours, debriefing, and interaction with host students and teachers to fully understand practices and outcomes
• Promoting conversation around lessons learned and resonating practice and co-constructing strategies for successful transference of promising practices
• Catalyzing transference for visiting educators through co-construction of vision, implementation plans, and learning activities to address specific student and teacher needs in the visiting school/district