TALA: Texas Adolescent Literacy Academy
ATTENTION: Grade 6 Teachers
by Lisa Thomas
April 22, 2008
The TALA academy is intended:
• to acquaint ELA/reading
teachers with successful, research-based
strategies for improving students' academic literacy. It is
framed within a school-wide approach to addressing the needs of
struggling adolescent readers.
• to provide examples of strategies and their applications with appropriate subject area materials in the middle school classroom.
The English Language Arts (ELA) Academy is based on the former Texas Teacher Reading Academies.
• This training model has been adapted to meet the needs of the secondary teacher population.
• Participants in the ELA
academy will receive training in strategies to assist students in
comprehending and learning the content in their
classroom materials and how to use a progress monitoring assessment
to meet struggling readers' individual needs.
• The academy will consist of the three days of face-to-face training and a one-day practicum follow-up with online documentation to be submitted between September and December of the same year.
The ELA Academy is open to certified, full-time general education, special education, and English as a second language teachers who will teach English language arts and/or reading at least 50% of their day and teach students in grade 6 (for the 2008-09 school year).
Teachers attending an ELA Academy will receive a $500 stipend:
• $250 after attending all 3 days of the face-to-face session
• $250 after completing and submitting assignments online before December 1 of the same year (equivalent of 1-day follow-up)
Regardless of assignment, a teacher may only attend one TALA session. For example, if a teacher teaches both reading and math, the teacher must pick the most relevant TALA to attend.
Educators on a campus rated Academically Unacceptable (AU) are required by House Bill 2237 to attend an academy.
Three-day Academy
(face-to-face)
One-day practicum follow-up
Course # Date Location
1384.3469 June 3 - 5, 2008 Region 9 ESC
1384.3470 June 24 - 26, 2008 Region 9 ESC
1384.3669 July 8 - 10, 2008 Bowie Legend
1384.3672 July 29 - 31, 2008 Seymour Adm. Bldg.
TALA: Content Area Academy
The Content Area
Academy is intended to acquaint teachers with successful,
research-based strategies for improving students’
academic literacy. In addition, the academy is framed within a
school-wide approach to addressing the needs of struggling
adolescent readers. Academy sessions will provide examples of
researched-based strategies and their applications with appropriate
subject area materials in the middle school classroom. The academy
will consist of the 1 1/2 days of face-to-face training and a
1/2 day practicum follow-up with online documentation to be
submitted between September and December of the same year. The TALA
Content Area Academy is designed to facilitate the incorporation of
literacy support within subject matter teaching;
specifically, the content of the Mathematics, Science, and Social
Studies Academy.
Teachers
attending a Content Area Academy will receive a $250
stipend:
● $125 after
attending all 1.5 days of the face-to-face session
●
$125 after completing and submitting assignments online before
December 1 of the same year (equivalent of ½ day follow-up)
