A Research-to-Practice View of an Early Literacy PD Model

The purpose of this research-to-practice article is to describe the literacy and oral language professional development (PD) model that took place in a 3-year Early Reading First project in 9 Head Start and community-based school classrooms. Through our data-driven PD model, we provided 55 hr of training workshops for all classroom teaching staff based on the evidence-based literacy/language skills and learning strategies. Then, classroom coaches spent approximately 4 hr a week in each classroom working with teachers to plan for the next week's instruction and supporting that instruction while it was occurring. Children were regularly assessed in areas of literacy/oral language, and teachers were assessed on the quality of the classroom environment and teacher fidelity of implementation of strategies learned during coaching and workshop training. Teachers also provided feedback on the quality of workshop training and participated in self-reflection discussions about implementation. Each of these data sour...