Pre-AP* English Vertical Teams
We are pleased to welcome Barbra Brooks to the 2013 AP* Summer Institute at PLU!
Registration is Now Open - Register before June 1 to get Early Bird Price!
Instructor Bio
Barbra A. Brooks-Barker has been an AP* English Teacher, Academic Coordinator, Curriculum Specialist, and Gifted and Talented Coordinator in her 30+ years of service in education in the state of California. She has also served and continues to serve as an educational consultant for the College Board* and Educational Testing Service for over 20 years. Ms. Brooks-Barker brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the area of teaching, organizing, creating and evaluating Pre-AP* courses. She is one of several English teachers across the nation who served as co-author of the College Board* Publication, English Vertical Teams Guide. She has also published a Grammar Mechanics Handbook for Glencoe Publishers. She is a recipient of an Outstanding AP* English Teacher Award from the College Board*. She has served as adjunct Professor for Sacramento State University in its Education and Policies Department, focusing on multicultural issues. She has also served as both reader and table leader for the scoring of AP* English Literature and Composition Exams., and presently works with The Educational Testing Service as a reader of Sat Essays.
As a retired educator and proprietor of her own private consulting service, Mrs. Brooks-Barker now serves as an independent educational consultant assisting schools, districts and private enterprise with her educational expertise.
Course Description
This course is designed to provide direction, models, and training to English teachers, in grades 6-12, organized around a series of productive activities, meetings, and workshops. This session is designed to assist teachers in understanding the reading, writing, and communication skills that are fundamental to advanced work in English. The end result is the formation of vertical teams, composed of English teachers from the 6th to 12th grade levels, working collaboratively to create a comprehensive, coordinated English program that is planned and implemented by the teachers themselves. While individual teaches can profit from the strategies demonstrated in this session, the activities are especially geared to teams of teachers from the same school or feeder patterns.
Course Objectives:
As a result of this course, participants will:
- Learn valuable and useful team building strategies.
- Examine working models of English Vertical Teams.
- Participate in team-building activities.
- Explore topics for instruction at various English grade levels.
- Reexamine existing curriculum with an eye toward revision and collaboration with other English teachers from grades 6-12.
- Begin to create units of instruction for their individual grade levels.
- Participate in activities designed to facilitate curriculum development.
- Demonstrate specific teaching strategies that can be used to provide all students with appropriately challenging reading and writing tasks.
- Provide opportunities for teachers to work in teams to design curriculum that will promote higher-level learning.
- College Board* English Vertical Teams Guide
- College Board* Curriculum Packets
- Individual readings from various grade levels established by school sites and districts
- Instructor created materials for classroom consumption