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Professional Development
Public Schedule

Go-To Quick-Response Activities for Improving Content Knowledge, Retention and Performance Across the Curriculum

Learn how to incorporate quick, low risk, high reward writing and thinking tasks into daily instruction during this in-person workshop. Walk away with a bank of prompts and activities that can be used to increase student engagement and participation in class activities, encourage students to reflect on growth and feedback, and build student accountability for the learning process.
Go-To Quick-Response Activities for Improving Content Knowledge, Retention and Performance Across the Curriculum

Date

November 11, 2024

Location

MUJC, PD Center, 340 Central Ave, New Providence, NJ

Instructor:

Kristine Gibson

Grade:

4-12

Activities That Promote Close Reading and Thoughtful Text-Based Response

Attend this workshop to learn how to incorporate quick, low-risk, high-reward thinking and writing tasks into your daily instruction. Based on the most current cognitive research on student understanding and retention of content, these content-rich “quick writes” and ready-to-use exercises require little to no advanced planning, can be used in any subject area at any grade level, and, best of all, won’t have you lugging any papers home to grade at night! Walk away with a bank of prompts and activities that can be used to increase student engagement and participation in class activities, strengthen content knowledge, and build student accountability for the learning process.
Activities That Promote Close Reading and Thoughtful Text-Based Response

Date

November 14, 2024

Location

RPDA – at The Royal Banquet Hall, 613 Hope Rd, Eatontown, NJ 07724

Instructor:

Kristine Gibson

Grade:

4-12

Improving Cross-Curricular Engagement, Understanding and Constructed Response with Sentence Expansion

The sentence expansion framework introduced in this online workshop provides opportunities for students to develop the habit of building information-rich sentences while learning course content. Using this framework, a basic sentence is expanded by including details from the content that students are studying. The tools and strategies provided in this workshop guide students as they learn to develop content-rich, mechanically-correct sentences within the context of everyday learning. Sentence expansion is a highly effective strategy for improving and reinforcing content knowledge, can be assessed quickly by the educator and can easily be used in little time across all content areas.
Improving Cross-Curricular Engagement, Understanding and Constructed Response with Sentence Expansion

Date

November 15, 2024

Location

Online

Instructor:

Kristine Gibson

Grade:

3-12

Feedback that Works – Streaming Teacher Feedback and Getting Students to Apply it!

How much time do you spend annotating student work with thoughtful feedback, only to find those papers quickly tossed in the trash upon return? What does a rubric score really mean to the typical student? During this in-person workshop, participants will learn to prioritize writing skills and use clear criteria to set and model expectations before writing and use these same criteria after writing to provide streamlined, usable feedback to students. This skill-based system raises student accountability while decreasing teacher workloads, which is a win, win!
Feedback that Works – Streaming Teacher Feedback and Getting Students to Apply it!

Date

November 21, 2024

Location

MUJC, PD Center, 340 Central Ave, New Providence, NJ

Instructor:

Kristine Gibson

Grade:

4-12

The Core Four – Essential Assignments that Improve Writing Skills and Content Knowledge

During this in-person workshop, participants will learn how to plan, teach and assess four key assignments that significantly impact student achievement. How to teach the four essential writing assignments: vocabulary cards, the 10% summary, the compare and contrast essay, and the argument essay, will be discussed.
The Core Four – Essential Assignments that Improve Writing Skills and Content Knowledge

Date

December 18, 2024

Location

MUJC, PD Center, 340 Central Ave, New Providence, NJ

Instructor:

Kristine Gibson

Grade:

4-12

Four Activities that Apply the Science of Learning to Help Students Learn and Remember Content

The Retrieval Routine turns the most recent cognitive research on student understanding and retention of content into a series of four short, classroom-friendly activities for teachers in all subject areas. These five to ten minute activities help solve the problem of our students forgetting critical information and develop greater learning accountability. Improving knowledge retention and content understanding will be discussed during this online workshop.
Four Activities that Apply the Science of Learning to Help Students Learn and Remember Content

Date

January 7, 2025

Location

Online

Instructor:

Kristine Gibson

Grade:

6-12

Picture This! Overcoming Student Writing Resistance in the Content Areas by Using Graphics

Graphics have great versatility when it comes to building content-area skills, and quizzing is proven to deepen understanding and increase retention. This online workshop guides educators in using curriculum-based graphics (charts, diagrams, maps, primary source images, etc.) to build content vocabulary, help students fine tune observation and analysis skills, and even anticipate test questions. Combined with a manageable system for grading writing in the non-ELA classroom, teachers will see greatly improved subject-area performance with just a few minutes of practice each week.
Picture This! Overcoming Student Writing Resistance in the Content Areas by Using Graphics

Date

January 7, 2025

Location

Online

Instructor:

Kristine Gibson

Grade:

5-10

Writing Roadmap

Writing Roadmap: Improving Writing Skills and Habits Through Meaningful Preassessment , Purposeful Focus Correction Areas, and Strategic Instruction

Three one-hour, pre-recorded video modules.
Writing Roadmap

Date

Pre-Recorded, Anytime, Asynchronous Access

Location

Online
Offered in Collaboration with Central Intermediate Unit 10 in PA

Instructor:

Kristine Gibson

Grade:

K-12

Introduction to the Collins Writing Program

Six one-hour, pre-recorded video modules:

1. Overview of the Five Types of Writing, With a Focus on Type One
2. Improve Student Retention and Understanding of Content With Type Two Writing
3. Types Three, Four, and Five Writing: Focus on Selecting Critical Writing Skills
4. Teaching Critical Writing Skills to Mastery and Making Peer Editing Work
5. Help Students to Retain and Use Critical Content Vocabulary
6. Integrating the Five Types of Writing
Introduction to the Collins Writing Program

Date

Pre-Recorded, Anytime, Asynchronous Access

Location

Online
Offered in Collaboration with Central Intermediate Unit 10 in PA

Instructor:

John Collins

Grade:

3-12

Online Graduate Courses

Writing Without Borders: Using Writing and Thinking Across the Curriculum as a Tool for Improved Student Performance in Every Content Area

Online/independent format (Four 90 Minute Online Zoom Sessions and Virtual One-on-One Sessions including final portfolio conferences).

June 12 – November 6, 2024

Date

Location

Google Classroom and Zoom

Instructor:

Cheryl York McDonough, JD

Grade:

4-12

Meeting Real World Literacy Demands in CTE Schools

Online/independent format (Four 90 Minute Online Zoom Sessions and Virtual One-on-One Sessions including final portfolio conferences.)

June 5 – October 30, 2024

Date

Location

Google Classroom and Zoom

Instructor:

Cheryl York McDonough, JD

Grade:

CTE Teachers

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