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Common Goal Unites District

Leaders and teachers build literacy and a collective responsibility for student learning.

By James A. Bailey
April 2016
It was the morning of the last social studies content-area literacy studio of the year. Five middle and high school social studies teacher leaders, the high school principal, the superintendent for instruction, and a coach from the University of Washington Center for Educational Leadership gathered around a table in the middle school library in Evanston, Wyoming. It was late March. The snow had started to thaw, and teachers in Uinta County School District #1 were already talking about spring break. After Doug Rigby, the high school principal and social studies lead, welcomed the teachers to the professional development session, the host teacher, Tim Herold, started passing out copies of a one-page text about early Puritan life in the New England colonies. “I read this article

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Authors

Joanna Michelson, James A. Bailey

Joanna Michelson ([email protected]) is a project director at the University of Washington Center for Educational Leadership in Seattle, Washington. James A. Bailey ([email protected]) is superintendent for instruction at Uinta County School District #1 in Evanston, Wyoming.

References

Lee, V. & Smith, J. (1996). Collective responsibility for student learning and its effects on gains in achievement for early secondary school students. American Journal of Education, 104(2), 103-147.

Shanahan, T. & Shanahan, C. (2008). Teaching disciplinary literacy to adolescents. Harvard Educational Review, 78(1), 40-59.

Shanahan, T. & Shanahan, C. (2012). What is disciplinary literacy and why does it matter? Topics in Language Disorders, 32(1), 7-18.


James A. Bailey

James A. Bailey ([email protected]) and Randy Weiner ([email protected]) are partners at SEL-LeaderU. 


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