For the past few years, the Reading & Writing Project’s staff developers have joined with districts and schools to plan and lead institutes across the country, in sites as diverse as Los Angeles, CA, Palm Beach, FL, Seattle, WA and Chicago, IL, and in far flung places in other nations, including Dubai, Singapore, Israel, and Jordan. These institutes serve as many as 10,000 teachers, and our numbers continue to grow.

Home Grown Institutes are one of the most effective ways of galvanizing the Reading & Writing Project’s work across a school or district. These 4-5 day on-site institutes are tailored to a district or school’s needs, assessments, prior knowledge, and hopes. That is, they are designed to help educators in a particular community invigorate their own unique professional learning culture. The course of study created for a Home Grown Institute will vary, too, depending on a school’s involvement with the Project and its experience with Reading and Writing Workshop teaching.

Typically, home grown institutes include large group sections coupled with small, interactive sections. Some institutes are staffed exclusively by Project leaders and some are also staffed by local educators who have worked closely with the Project.

Topics of study cover the following:

• The central role of curriculum development and planning in the teaching of reading;
• Units of study across the year in the reading workshop;
• The components of balanced literacy;
• Comprehension strategies;
• Assessing and planning for work with individuals and small groups;
• Read aloud and accountable talk;
• Writing about reading;
• Book Clubs.

• The central role of curriculum development and planning in the teaching of writing;
• Units of study across the year in the writing workshop;
• Methods of holding students accountable for doing their best work;
• Assessing and planning for work with individuals and small groups;
• Using literature to help students craft their writing;
• Classroom structures that support inquiry and collaboration.

For further information about our national and international work, and to establish a Home Grown Institute for your school or school district, please contact Kathy Neville at kathy@readingandwritingproject.com