The Oklahoma Commission for Teacher Education along with East Central State University will host summer classes for both Phase I training for K- 2 and 3-5 teachers. This is a five day professional development training which addresses the key components of Literacy First: Mechanics of Reading, Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Advanced Decoding and Spelling, Vocabulary, Comprehension, Fluency, and Strategic Reading Tools, and Metacognitive Processes. Phase II is a three day professional development training designed to address the management and implementation of the following: centers, small flexible skills Groups, whole group instruction. The Literacy First training is participant interactive and teachers leave with resources, skills and strategies which can be implemented in the classroom. Interested participants can go to the East Central University web site at www.ecok.edu this will take you to the home page and type in Literacy First.
Grant opportunities have been extended to Oklahoma Public Schools to participate in the Literacy First Phase IV process. The schools awarded the grant work with Literacy First for three years. During this time a Literacy First Consultant makes multiple visits to the school working with the leadership team, visiting classes, models lessons, conducts grade level meetings coaches and models the leadership team to help implement the skills and strategies that are learned during training. Depending on the size of the school the coaching and consulting days at the school site can be as many as 18 over the three year period. In addition to the school visitations the consultant and the leadership team meet with all the Oklahoma Literacy Fist Schools in Oklahoma City four times a year over the three years to receive additional professional development. The focus of the meetings with the school leadership team is to address leadership skills, change models, using data to drive instruction, and a variety of supervision and instructional coaching processes.
The relationship of East Central State University (ECU) to Literacy First is as follows. ECU is the vendor of the Oklahoma Grant. ECU wrote the grant for the professional development training for Oklahoma teachers. Literacy First provides the training in accordance to the specification of the Oklahoma grant. The Oklahoma State Legislature provides the funding for the grant to ECU.
The Oklahoma Commission for Teacher Preparation (OCTP) is a state agency funded by the Oklahoma Legislature. OCTP is responsible for teacher certification, and professional development for Oklahoma Public Schools teachers...