February 22, 2019
Literacy Summit hosted by ECU’s College of Education and the NC NTSP
Over 170 literacy teachers, school principals, assistant principals, central office curriculum directors, new teacher coaches, and hig
NC NTSP Literacy Conference
her education faculty attended a Literacy Summit hosted by the ECU College of Education and the North Carolina New Teacher Support Program (NC NTSP) on February 18, at the Hilton in Greenville. The NC NTSP is a comprehensive induction program offering a research-based curriculum and multiple services designed to increase teacher effectiveness, enhance skills, and reduce attrition among beginning teachers. The NC NTSP is based at ECU and serves over 1,000 beginning teachers in more than 40 school districts throughout North Carolina.
Dr. Grant Hayes, Dean of ECU’s College of Education and ECU Provost, Dr. Ron Mitchelson gave opening remarks. The keynote address, Reading is a Complex Process, was given by Donna M. Scanlon, PhD, a Professor in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Dr. Scanlon focused on the relationships between instructional characteristics and success in learning to read. She also provided a seminar on developing and evaluating approaches to preventing and remediating reading difficulties.
Faculty from the COE Department of Literacy Education, English Education and History Education (LEHE) and NC NTSP staff led twelve breakout sessions on a variety of literacy and new teacher coaching topics. Dr. Kristin Gehsmann, Professor and Chair of LEHE noted, “This conference represents the power of collaboration and innovation in education. By engaging and supporting our public school partners, we are able to learn with and from each other. Improving reading achievement in North Carolina, and the country, is going to require expert knowledge and skill; bridging the gap between research and practice is essential. Working together, ECU and its public school, business, and community partners can transform reading instruction in the state, helping students and communities reach their greatest potential. Currently, only about 1 in every 3 fourth and eighth graders (39% and 33% respectively) in North Carolina is considered “proficient” in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, 2018).”
Dr. Allen Guidry, Assistant Dean for Planning and Global Engagement in the College of Education, led a session “Mutual Mindsets: Using Co-teaching and Disciplinary Literacy to Prepare Pre-service History Teachers to Make the History/Literacy Connection. “Literacy is a cornerstone of academic success. This literacy summit allowed us, as professional educators and teacher educators, to convene with the explicit purpose of informing and improving our practice in literacy development across campuses, districts, grade levels, and subject areas,” said Guidry. “It was inspiring to see so many dedicated literacy experts come together to move theory and practice forward and I am appreciative of the opportunity to participate.”
“The literacy summit was an incredible opportunity to bring like-minded professionals together in one location to talk about best practices in preparing and developing NC educators to enhance literacy instruction in every corner of the state,” stated Dr. Bryan Zugelder, Lead Researcher for the NC New Teacher Support Program and Assistant Professor in the Department of Elementary Education & Middle Grades Education. “With teacher education faculty, national reading experts, and school and district personnel in one place, a critical take-away for me was the notion that we are all in this together, working toward improving what we do along the educator continuum, from pre-service through teacher leadership.”
The summit concluded with a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Vivian Covington, Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Affairs and Educator Preparation at ECU. Panelists included: Dr. Scanlon, Dr. Pat Conetta, Director, NC NTSP, Dr. Kristen Cuthrell, Rural Education Institute (REI) at ECU Interim Director, and Dr. Gehsmann.
Patti Smith, Assistant Principal at Falkland Elementary in Pitt County, thoroughly enjoyed the conference. “The keynote speaker was insightful and so were the sessions I attended,” said Smith. “We are already implementing many of the strategies that were suggested and seeing the benefits of the New Teacher Support Program.”