CommonLit 360 Foundations Jumpstart PD
CommonLit is excited to introduce our newest professional development offering — Foundations Jumpstart! Our expert facilitators will provide on-site, hands-on guidance over two days, ensuring that your team is ready to launch CommonLit 360 successfully!
Foundational Sessions
We begin Day 1 with our Introduction to CommonLit 360. This session orients participants to the efficacy, guiding principles, and design of the CommonLit 360 curriculum. By developing teachers’ understanding of the rationale supporting the curriculum’s design, we generate their excitement to explore and use the resources.
In the next session, Getting Started with Unit 1, we explore the core components and lesson types of each unit in CommonLit 360. Then teachers have time to internalize and plan for their first unit of instruction with their grade-level teams. Using our unit-specific resources, teachers will learn about the texts and topics of Unit 1, explore an annotated exemplar of the unit’s culminating task, and pace out their first unit. This is not sit-and-get PD!
A seventh grade teacher and recent Jumpstart participant shared, “I honestly loved this time we got to spend together, and I NEVER say that about PD! With almost two decades of teaching experience, I've sat through a lot of trainings, and I always leave feeling drained and like my time was not really respected. With this training, I feel energized to teach and I KNOW my time was respected.”
A Deep Dive into Best Practices
The remaining sessions in the Jumpstart Days prepare teachers to use best practices with each of the major lesson types within the curriculum. We begin with reading lessons, as they provide the backbone of each unit.
Teachers experience a CommonLit 360 lesson as if they were students, stopping at strategic points to analyze the structure of the lesson and the instructional moves that maximize student engagement and learning. Then, we break down the planning and preparation that went into the demonstration before teachers have a chance to plan for their own reading lesson.
As we begin Day 2, we repeat this process for writing lessons. Teachers will learn about the overall structure and approach of writing instruction within CommonLit 360 before experiencing a lesson themselves and planning for their own writing lessons.
Finally, we dig into the components that go beyond reading and writing. Teachers will have a chance to learn about and prepare for our vocabulary activities, discussion lessons, and Related Media Explorations.
After receiving in-person professional development, Angela Szakasits, Secondary Instructional Coach for ELA in Pender County, North Carolina, stated, “The thing to me that stands out is that the PD was so intentionally designed.” She saw that intentionality in the way learning transferred into teacher practice, sharing that “...it's turned into what is actually happening in the classroom.”
Practical Application
In each session of the Jumpstart, teachers will have planning and practice time to dig into their own lessons. With the support of our expert facilitators, teachers will build their confidence and skills with the CommonLit 360 content and platform. By the end of these two days, they will be ready to teach Unit 1!
Keep the Learning Going
The learning won’t stop after the Jumpstart. With CommonLit’s School Essentials PRO Plus package, your team will have access to personalized virtual training, live webinars, and our on-demand professional development across the year. You’ll be able to build upon the strong foundation that the Jumpstart provides, exploring topics such as data-driven instruction, reaching and supporting all learners, and engagement.
Next Steps
To bring our expert facilitators to your school for an on-site CommonLit 360 Foundations Jumpstart, reach out to our team.
