Understanding the Basics of the

Internal Coach & SEEDS Trainer

SEEDS of Early Literacy TrainingOverview

SEEDS is a 7-session early language and literacy training curriculum

Designed to build the language and literacy background knowledge of:• Minnesota Reading Corps members

• Your staff, including:• Teachers, Assistant Teachers,

Aides, Bus Drivers, Coordinators

SEEDS of Early Literacy TrainingSessions includes:

Session 1: A literacy rich environment / schedule

Session 2: Quality teacher-child interactions

Session 3: Vocabulary/Oral Language and ELL Development

Session 4: Dialogic Reading and Repeated Read Aloud

Session 5: Developing Phonological Awareness

Session 6: Developing Visual Discrimination & Letter Knowledge

Session 7: Relationship based interactions that promote social-emotional development

Each session lasts 2.5 hours for a total 17.5 hours.

SEEDS of Early Literacy TrainingTrain the Trainer: Overview

What: 5-day training of one internal literacy leader from a Minnesota Reading Corps site. The trainer is trained on the SEEDS of Early Literacy Curriculum so that s/he can provide SEEDS of Early Literacy Training to the MRC members, teachers, and other staff at his/her site.

When: June 21 – 25

Where: Minnesota Literacy Council, 756 Transfer Road, St. Paul

Costs: The following costs are paid by MRC: Hotel accommodations (single rooms) for greater MN Breakfast and lunch during training

All other costs are paid by the site.

Questions: Contact Jane Reilly at jreilly@theMLC.org or 651-251-9062

SEEDS of Early Literacy TrainingOn-Site Training

What: Training of Minnesota Reading Corps (MRC) members at individual sites on the 17.5 hours of SEEDS of Early Literacy Curriculum

When: Required to be offered to all MRC members between August and November, 2010

Where: At your site. All logistics arranged by site.

Who: Required: All MRC members & Internal Coaches Strongly encouraged: Teachers, assistants, bus drivers, coordinators, and other adults that interact with the pre-k children being served.

Costs: All costs associated with this training (including member mileage, if you choose to reimburse) is paid by the site.

You (the site) selects your trainer

Potential people to become the trainer:• Educational Director

• Coordinator

• Literacy Specialist

• Teacher

SEEDS of Early Literacy TrainingIdentifying a Trainer

The SEEDS Trainer should be someone who:

• Relates well and work sensitively with diverse populations• Communicates effectively both orally and verbally• Holds a B.A. in early childhood / parent education (or has

equivalent experience)• Has 5 years of early childhood experience• Is passionate about early literacy and open to response to

intervention in early childhood• Can attend the Train the Trainer: June 21-25• Is also the Internal Coach (ideal if this works out!)

• Has time to plan and implement 17.5 hours of training between August and November

• Wants to do it!

SEEDS of Early Literacy TrainingIdentifying a Trainer

Builds internal, best practice capacity at all MRC sites. MRC has rigorous expectations of members and sites

that demands they understand children, language and literacy, and interactions.

Build background knowledge of members who may have limited understanding of early childhood development, language and literacy.

High-quality, relationship-based interactions are learned, and lead to higher quality outcomes for children.

MRC is research and evidence-based and since research and evidence is constantly changing, we expect the adults guiding children to be current in their practice.

SEEDS of Early Literacy TrainingWhy it is required.

Challenge: • Your site does not have the capacity to have your own

SEEDS Trainer.

Potential Solutions:• Have your members attend SEEDS training at a

nearby MRC site

• Pay another SEEDS Trainer to do your training (cost approx. $1,500 - $2,000 for 7 sessions)

• Collaborate to share training with a nearby site, as your own trainer gains confidence

SEEDS of Early Literacy TrainingOther things to consider

Literacy CoachingRole of MRC Members

Member Position Titles Position Summaries

Preschool Literacy Tutor – Community Corps

This member is embedded into a classroom of children ages 3 - 5 to develop children’s early literacy skills in preparation for kindergarten. The member collaborates with the classroom teaching staff to enhance daily literacy opportunities and conduct literacy assessments to ensure children are on track to read by the end of 3rd grade.

Preschool Literacy Tutor – Professional Corps

This member is a current employee at an existing Minnesota Reading Corps site who works with children ages 3 - 5 to develop their early literacy skills in preparation for kindergarten. The member enhances daily literacy opportunities & conducts literacy assessments to ensure children are on track to read by the end of 3rd grade.

Role Summary:• Provides the Internal Coach and MRC member with support

through on-site observation, discussion and planning, as well as on-going communication and problem solving through email, phone.

Frequency of on-site visits from Master Coach:*• New sites: Monthly visits

• 2nd year sites: 7 visits / year

• 3rd year sites: 4 visits / year

• 4th year+ sites: 1-3 on-site data review meetings* Formula subject to change based on experience of Internal Coach.

Literacy CoachingRole of Master Coach

Viewable online: http://www.minnesotareadingcorps.org/expectations-of-prek-internal-coach

Literacy CoachingRole of Internal Coach

Scope and Sequence of on-going Professional Development Summer Institute: Learn program expectations for members

and coaches, documentation, timelines, relationship-based coaching, what to coach to, ELLCO tool, expectations for literacy rich classrooms.

September: Learn concept and procedures for collecting individual student data with integrity.

October: Learn concept and procedures for Response to Intervention. Learn tier 1, 2 interventions for oral language and letter naming. Procedures for identifying tier 2 children.

November: Review and add onto concept and procedures for tier 2 interventions for oral language and letter naming.

December: Learn concept and procedures of phonological awareness and interventions for tier 1,2, instruction.

February: Learn concept and procedures for identifying children to receive tier 3 instruction and tier 3 interventions.

The Internal Coach should be someone who:

Has a background in early childhood education: • Leader in Early Childhood at the site• Minimum of 5 years early childhood experience• Ideal if also the SEEDS Trainer

Has time to fulfill the responsibilities of the role:• Time Commitment: 6-9 hours per classroom per month & additional training time, which

includes:• Going on-site 2 times per month during child contact time to observe, discuss, and plan with

the member (each visit = 1 - 1.5 hours)• Completing required documentation• Attending Summer Institute (August 9 – 11)• Attending on-going training (September, October, November, December, February)

Has an interest in this role!• The Internal Coach should be excited to expand on his/her current practice and learn new

ways of supporting adult learners with the Response to Intervention process in Early Childhood.

Literacy CoachingCriteria for Internal Coach role

MRC has rigorous expectations

Response to Intervention (RtI) is new in the field of early childhood and the ‘best practices’ are still evolving

MRC has clear procedures and our goal is to reach integrity on the full design

We recognize it takes time to integrate all procedures and expectations with integrity - we want you to know that even the most stellar site has liked to have someone on their “blind side”

Literacy CoachingWhy it is vital to your success.

Identify Trainer

Save the dates: 6/21 – 6/25

Trainer should register him/herself: http://fs16.formsite.com/soconnor/2010SEEDSregistration/index.html

Think about how to incorporate SEEDS Training for members and staff into your training calendar next fall

SEEDS TrainingNext Steps

Internal CoachingNext Steps

Solidify who will fill this role

Each Internal Coach must review the expectations of the position:• http://www.minnesotareadingcorps.org/expectations-of

-prek-internal-coach

Each Internal Coach must register for the Summer Institute:• http://www.minnesotareadingcorps.org/summer-institut

e-for-internal-coacches

Questions, concerns & next steps

What is something new you learned? Is something that you learned different than you

thought before our discussion? Think about what you have learned - is there

something that you still wonder about? Ask it!

What do you do if you have a question after this meeting? • Contact Kate Horst: Khorst10@msn.com or 651-270-7565

• Contact your Regional Program Coordinator

• Contact Sadie O’Connor: soconnor@theMLC.org or 651-251-9100