Professional learning is always an area that can be looked at as friend and/or foe. Oftentimes educators are sitting in spaces where professional learning is just another check off their to do list or a directive by leaders. However, when the learning is purposeful, meaningful, and psychologically safe, it can be an area of growth and even excitement for educators. When providing professional learning for educators it is important to really take time to hone in on the importance and relevance of the learning being offered. One area of learning that was relevant by being an instructional coach in schools, visiting classrooms and sitting in on teacher planning was in the area of integration.

Within most content areas being taught to students, they are taught in silos–almost on an island. When you integrate literacy in a way that is threaded within specific content areas, it can only magnify the learning taking place within each content area that is being taught. It also increases literacy practice and can increase engagement. When students are empowered with literacy building skills across different content areas they can hold discussions and build connections at home, with peers, and community members. Students develop their ability to perform as problem-solvers and good citizens when they can make sense of incoming information and break down facts and opinions. The ability to process information, hold conversations and formulate thoughts related to their prior learning, allows them to excel in each content area. (Vasquez, Sanchez, Kozimor, 2022). We want our students to excel in all content areas and providing them with the thread of literacy within the varying content areas they are taught contributes to their thriving.

Before the Professional Learning: The why, how, what

When thinking of professional learning, leaders in buildings, whether you are an instructional coach, teacher leader, a vice principal or a principal in a building, there may be some hesitancy in providing professional learning in this area. One may be that teachers may not want another thing on their plate. Another may be that teachers may feel that they do not have the capacity to integrate literacy in the content areas in which they teach. However, incorporating literacy (reading, writing, media, etc.) within varying content areas, increases the amount of growth seen in student learning. For instance, the use of learning projects that address a combination of social studies and literacy standards led to increased learning of both content and improved ability to read informational text (Duke, Halvorsen, Strachan, Kim, & Konstantopoulos, 2021). When thinking about how to incorporate or begin professional learning, the first thing to first dig into is your own knowledge base. In this case you must be knowledgeable about the why—why is it important to integrate literacy within content areas. You must also be knowledgeable about the how—how to integrate literacy within varying content areas. Next, you must also think about the what— what am I going to give teachers as far as resources for them to be able to integrate literacy within their prospective content areas in a seamless way. All of this boils down to purpose—what is your purpose in having teachers sit in the learning space to absorb the knowledge around integrating literacy within varying content areas. Teachers need to know the purpose for integrating literacy in their content area and how it is beneficial for them and their students. You also need to know the purpose in order to ground in it and be able to refer back to it as an anchor. 

Planning for this Professional Learning

Plan for the Why

Take time to think through the why. Ask yourself, why is it important to provide professional learning around integrating literacy within content areas? We know ultimately our students are at the core–however, we also want to ensure that our teachers want to absorb this learning and are able to begin to take actionable steps in order to provide the most impactful learning experiences for students. Tell the educators you are providing this learning to the purpose at the onset.

Plan for Connection Building/Create a Safe Space

Take time within your session for teachers to connect around the reason for meeting. As an instructional coach that offered professional learning around this, my connection amongst teachers was using the book, The Best Part of Me, written by Wendy Ewald. I read a few of the poems in the books in which students celebrated parts of themselves and I had teachers think through a part of themselves as an educator that was the best part of them and why. Although the teachers that I was coaching taught various subject areas, they all came together, shared and connected through this prompt. They loved it. They laughed and some cried, however, they felt safe-enough to do so. They all were engrossed in literacy and connected around the idea of threading themselves in a quick literacy connection. It was a “feel good” moment and the teachers were ready to engage more.

Plan to Dispel the Elephant in the Room

After you connect with teachers, take time to ask if teachers want to share how they may be already integrating literacy–even in small ways. This will allow teachers to tap into prior knowledge and see that they may be already doing some of what they are learning about. Next, take time to tell them some stories that they may have crafted about learning around integrating literacy within their content area. Tell them at least three stories. The first story (which can be true) may be that they are overwhelmed and have a lot on their plates. That they may not have the capacity to learn one more thing. The second story (which may also be true) may be that they don’t know how to even begin to put this into action. The third story may be that they just don’t want to be there–that there are other things on their to-do lists that have to get done. Stating these stories may resonate with some and not with others, but it allows the teachers to feel seen. That you as the facilitator have taken some time to think about how they may or may not be –what may be coming up. This could help to dispel the elephant in the room, cultivate trust and continue to build the psychological safety needed for learning.

Plan to Provide Research

Take some time to research behind how integrating literacy across the curriculum increases student learning. There are three major points that are based on research and written in an article entitled, “Integrating Literacy Instruction with Science and Social Studies,” by reading researcher Timothy Shanahan. He states the three major points is the use of content texts in reading comprehension lessons which can improve content knowledge and reading ability, teaching students how to use reading and writing in content classrooms can also have dual effects, curriculum integration can have positive outcomes across a wide range of grades and with a wide range of students (including demographics and learning abilities), (Shanahan, 2022) Grounding in research helps teachers to see the importance of literacy integration.

Plan to Do Something

Make this time actionable and meaningful by having the teachers create. Have them take time to create a lesson in their content area while intentionally integrating literacy within that lesson. The best part of this is that they can collaborate together, share while creating and even talk through any emotions that may come up while creating. The teachers when done will take time to share their lesson, what literacy they are integrating within their content area and provide feedback to each other. When I provided this learning to teachers, I realized that providing spaciousness for collaboration and discussion was important. That means even if the educators aren’t able to complete the lesson, having the time to work together, support each other and have your support as the facilitator is important to the learning and growth of the teachers. Release the idea of completion in this space.

Plan for Reflection

Plan to give teachers time at the end of the professional learning to reflect on how they are feeling. A couple of questions you could plan to ask could be, do they feel that they can begin planning to integrate literacy in their content areas more often? How did the creation lesson go? Allow for the discussion to be had and just take time to listen. Provide the spaciousness for the possibility of next steps and understand that everyone’s next step may look different. Remind yourself as the facilitator that some teachers you may provide this learning to may already be doing some literacy integration, which is great! It will be helpful when discussing and supporting other teachers. Some may need more support and will be ready and willing to begin working together.

Self-Reflection after Professional Learning

As the facilitator, reflect on what went well, what you could do differently, etc. Take time to reach out to teachers that are integrating literacy in their content areas or ones that want to begin with your support alongside them. This may look like coaching conversations, observations, co-planning, etc. This is where you take your professional learning to action. This is ultimately where we want our professional learning to go. We want teachers to be able to begin implementation. This implementation is rooted in our purpose which is to be able to allow our students to flourish and to thrive in their learning while integrating reading in content areas. We want our teachers to also thrive in their learning and take that learning to action.

Ask for Feedback

As the professional learning facilitator, take time to ask for feedback from your session. Just as we want the teachers to grow in their craft, as do we as the leaders of the building. In order to do so, we must ask for feedback. That can look like a google survey or feedback conversations. However, when we can model growth and learning, we can create a culture of growth and learning and provide an environment where we all can thrive.

References

Vasquez, T., Sanchez, D., Kozimor, A. (2021, October 5). Teaching & School Administration. https://www.gcu.edu/blog/teaching-school-administration/teaching-tuesday-literacy-content-area-instruction

Shanahan, T. (2022, April 18). Integrating Literacy Instruction with Science and Social Studies. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/integrating-literacy-instruction-science-and-social-studies