I – Professional Learning: Launching Literacy Footprints
Launching Literacy Footprints is a professional learning series designed to help participants understand the what, why, and how-to of teaching guided reading across the grade-level Literacy Footprints kits. Literacy Footprints is a guided reading system designed to support classroom, intervention, English language learning (ELL), and special education teachers in delivering high-quality, research-based reading instruction. Each session will highlight the stages of guided reading within each kit. Additional follow-up options include modeling lessons and/or coaching your teachers during their implementation of guided reading lessons.
1. Launching Literacy Footprints: Kindergarten and First Grade Kits (Target Audience: Beginner Steps, Emergent, and Early Readers)
Beginning readers need to build a solid repertoire of foundational skills and develop a strong processing system. This session focuses on teaching beginning readers using Literacy Footprints materials for Beginner Steps, Emergent, and Early readers. Each framework follows a three-pronged approach integrating reading, word study, and writing skills and strategies, all aligned with the literacy continuum. Following explicit demonstration of each integral part, participants will engage in active participation and coaching, leaving confident and ready to teach small-group guided reading to Beginner Steps through Early readers.
2. Launching Literacy Footprints: Second Grade and Third Grade Kits (Target Audience: Early and Transitional Readers)
Early and Transitional readers need to solidify their self-extending processing system and develop more complex reading skills. This session focuses on teaching Early and Transitional readers using Literacy Footprints materials. Each framework follows a three-pronged approach integrating reading, word study, and writing skills and strategies, all aligned with the literacy continuum. Following explicit demonstration of each integral part, participants will engage in active participation and coaching, leaving confident and ready to teach small-group guided reading to Early and Transitional readers.
3. Launching Literacy Footprints: Fourth Grade and Fifth/Sixth Grade Kits (Target Audience: Fluent Readers)
Fluent readers need to develop increasingly more complex reading skills and vocabulary. This session focuses on teaching Fluent readers using Literacy Footprints materials. Each framework follows a three-pronged approach integrating reading, word study, and writing skills and strategies, all aligned with the literacy continuum. Following explicit demonstration of each integral part, participants will engage in active participation and coaching, leaving confident and ready to teach small-group guided reading to Fluent readers.
4. Launching Literacy Footprints: Intervention Partner Lessons (Target Audience: Levels A–N)
The goal of the Literacy Footprints Intervention Partner Kit is to accelerate the progress of students who are not meeting grade-level expectations in literacy. Each framework follows a three-pronged approach integrating reading, word study, and writing skills and strategies, all aligned with the literacy continuum. In this session, teachers will learn ways to improve students’ foundational skills, strategic processing, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency using the Literacy Footprints Intervention Partner materials. Participants will also learn how to work in partnership with classroom teachers to connect instruction in a way that will help struggling readers consolidate new learning.
5. Launching Literacy Footprints: Assessing Students for Guided Reading Using the Literacy Footprints Guided Reading Assessment (Target Audience: K–2 and 3–5/6)
Assessing a reader’s instructional level is the linchpin for teaching successful guided reading lessons. Now more than ever, we need targeted reading instruction that is laser-focused on a reader’s strengths to build on their instructional needs. The Literacy Footprints Guided Reading Assessment framework is a three-pronged approach that matches the lesson framework, assessing reading, word study, and writing. In this session, participants will learn how to assess students and analyze the results to make data-driven instructional decisions and more accurately differentiate their guided reading lessons.
6. Launching Interactive Read-Aloud: Whole-Group Read-Aloud Lessons (Target Audience: K–2 and 3–5/6)
Interactive Read-Aloud is a powerful instructional tool for introducing students to comprehension focuses while simultaneously engaging students in the joyful experience of listening to books read aloud. In this session, participants will become familiar with the stories, learn how to teach and scaffold the comprehension focus, explore the lesson framework, and become familiar with the steps and procedures of lesson delivery.
7. Launching Shared Reading Lessons: Stepping Together Shared Reading (Target Audience: K–2)
The Literacy Footprints Stepping Together Shared Reading system is a research-based system designed to support teachers as they help children become better readers within the context of whole-class instruction. During each week of daily lessons, students read an authentic grade level book, write about the book, and engage in lively and systematic phonological awareness and phonics activities. In this session, participants will become familiar with the organization of the Stepping Together lesson framework. They will leave with the confidence to implement the lessons and foster students’ proficiency in reading and writing.
II – Professional Learning: Focused Workshops
Focused Workshops provides professional learning opportunities designed to dig deeper into a specific guided reading topic. These segments are intended for those who are already familiar with the Literacy Footprints Guided Reading System. Workshop lengths vary according to school needs.
1. Exploring Word Study: Digging Deeper into Emergent, Early, and Transitional Word Study (Target Audience: K–2)
Word study is the component of the guided reading lessons that allows teachers the opportunity to provide explicit instruction for phonics and word-solving skills. By teaching a short word study activity during the guided reading lesson, teachers can prompt students who need more support in learning a skill and teach them how to transfer that newly learned skill to reading and writing. In this workshop, teachers will learn and practice word study procedures that support Emergent and Early readers in developing strong decoding and encoding skills.
2. Exploring Word Study: Digging Deeper into Transitional and Fluent Word Study (Target Audience: 3–5/6)
Word study is the component of the guided reading lessons that allows teachers the opportunity to provide explicit instruction for phonics and word-solving skills. By teaching a short word study activity during the guided reading lesson, teachers can prompt students who need more support in learning a skill and teach them how to transfer that newly learned skill to reading and writing. In this workshop, teachers will learn and practice word study procedures that support Transitional and Fluent readers in developing strong decoding and encoding skills and vocabulary.
3. Making Intentional Instructional Decisions: Responsive Teaching (Target Audience: K–3)
The Literacy Footprints Guided Reading lesson frameworks have three integral parts: guided reading, word study, and guided writing. The lesson parts were developed by aligning target skills, strategies, and comprehension focuses with the literacy continuum. The most effective guided reading lessons are planned and delivered by responding to student assessment data. In this workshop, participants will engage with student assessment data and lesson frameworks to modify the lessons and prompting in response to students’ needs in order to ultimately accelerate learning.
4. Moving Forward with Comprehension: Digging Deeper into the Comprehension Focus (Target Audience: 3–5/6)
Each Literacy Footprints Guided Reading lesson has a comprehension focus that threads through the lesson framework. In Chapter 7 of Jan Richardson’s The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading, 12 comprehension focuses are introduced across 29 teaching modules. In this workshop, participants will take part in a mini-book study while exploring each comprehension focus through the Literacy Footprints lessons. They will learn how to use the progressive steps to differentiate the support provided to students during guided reading lessons. They will leave with a strong understanding of how to lead students toward internalizing the comprehension focus to reach the goal of constructing meaning while reading any given text.
5. Guided Writers: Writing with Intention and Intensity (Target Audience: K–2 and 3–5/6)
The Literacy Footprints lesson framework includes a guided writing lesson. Guided writing provides an opportunity to support students as they write about the book they’ve just read, which in turn increases their comprehension. In this workshop, participants will learn how to analyze students’ writing to address their needs according to target skills. Participants will learn how to provide prompting and assistance during guided writing, including how to give appropriate scaffolding that helps students develop writing skills and craft.
6. Building Strategic Readers: The Art of Prompting for Strategic Action (Target Audience: K–2 and 3–5/6)
A key element of guided reading involves close observation of students’ literacy processing behaviors. Learning how to listen and make quick decisions about where to prompt takes time and practice. In this workshop, participants look carefully at what strategic actions are important for students to develop at each reading stage. Additionally, they will learn the importance of using running records as a tool for observing how students are approaching reading. Finally, we will delve deeper into how to foster strategic processing as students read and reread a new book, as well as how and what to teach the group following the reading.
7. Using the Digital Reader: The Nuts and Bolts (Target Audience: K–2 and 3–5/6)
The Literacy Footprints Digital Reader provides students with a bookshelf of instructional-level books that can be accessed both in the classroom and at home. This workshop will include an overview of the Literacy Footprints lesson frameworks and cover the nuts and bolts of how to design your digital classroom, form groups, assign lessons, create student bookshelves, and so much more! Participants will leave the session all set up and ready to begin using the Digital Reader with their students!
8. Using the Digital Reader: Engaging Lessons beyond Guided Reading
The Digital Reader provides classroom teachers access to over a thousand books ranging from Levels A–Z. In this session, participants will be inspired to create flexible and engaging reading opportunities, whole-group lessons, and learning opportunities for their students using the Digital Reader. Participants must have access to the Digital Reader for this session.
