I need funding to attend the Advanced Writing Summer Institute sponsored by the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University in New York City.
Every child deserves a chance to succeed in school. However, children with special needs often face additional challenges compared to their peers. For the second year in a row, I am teaching in a 4th grade co-taught classroom with a general ed teacher. Each day we plan and implement lessons that play to our students' strengths and learning styles. Our class consists of students with disabilities (learning disabilities, ADHD, Autism, speech and language impairments etc.) and typically developing children. Despite these challenges, my students persevere and always try to do their best.
My Project
The 2018 Advanced Writing Institute is a continuation of the highly successful course that I attended last summer at Teachers College. I gained valuable knowledge and acquired practical teaching methods that enabled me to seamlessly implement more advanced aspects of the writing workshop model. This has transformed my teaching this year as a 4th-grade special education educator.
Teachers College is on the cutting edge of innovative reading and writing practices to promote in-depth thinking, a growth mindset, social discourse, and building richly literate reading and writing workshops.
At this year’s Writing Institute, I will be enrolled in two advanced sessions to further deepen my knowledge and teaching practices based on the Reading and Writing Projects Units of Study.
My goal is to identify technological tools and apps to add vigor to the teaching of writing while supporting all learners regardless of ability. In addition, I plan on focusing on teaching kids with IEPs to become powerful, joyful and independent writers. As a special education teacher, the techniques and methodologies learned in these courses will be invaluable additions to my “teaching toolkit”. My objective is to ensure all students are taught in a way that fits his or her learning style.
In addition to attending two advanced sessions, I will be participating in smaller workshops on implementing student-led assessments, establishing writing partnerships, integrating reading into the writing workshop, small group instruction, interactive writing to scaffold writing skills, using learning progressions to accelerate student progress, creating toolkits and charts to promote revision, and essay writing.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Sloofman and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
