For Immediate Release

Monday, Nov. 18, 2019

Media Contact: Benjamin Paulin
Phone: 781-428-3299
Email: [email protected]

Medway Teachers Attend Literacy-Based Workshops at Columbia University

MEDWAY — Superintendent Armand Pires is pleased to announce that a group of K-5 teachers from the Medway Public Schools recently returned from New York City where they attended a conference focused on literacy-based professional development.

A dozen teachers from Medway Middle School, Burke-Memorial Elementary School and McGovern Elementary School, as well as a building principal and literacy curriculum and instruction leader, attended the 97th Fall Saturday Reunion put on by the Columbia University Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.

The daylong event was held Saturday, Oct. 19.

In total, more than 2,000 teachers, principals and literacy leaders from across the country attended the event. It included workshops with different educators discussing a variety of literacy best practices.

The keynote speaker was children’s author and illustrator Peter Reynolds, best known for his children’s books about authentic learning, creativity and self-expression, including “The North Star,” “Ish,” “The Dot” and “So Few of Me.”

Assistant Superintendent Gabrielle Abrams said the teachers returned from the trip filled with enthusiasm over what they had learned and experienced.

“This trip is a terrific opportunity for our teachers to interact with their peers across the country,” Abrams said. “Each year they learn so much about ways to improve their classroom instruction, and some of them returned with educational strategies that they plan to implement immediately.”

Topics covered during the event included phonics instruction, developing state-of-the-art school libraries, raising the level of book clubs, teaching toward social justice, argument reading and writing, writing about reading and the latest fiction books on the market.

Lucy Calkins, Founding Director of the Reading and Writing Project, was one of the main presenters of the day.

To learn more about the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, visit their website or follow them on Facebook.

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