PHILADELPHIA Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that works to improve early literacy instruction, was recently awarded the U.S. Department of Education’s Early-Phase Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant. The highly competitive grant, totaling nearly $4 million, will allow CLI to combine its teacher coaching success and curriculum development expertise to create the necessary, transformative approach to pre-kindergarten …
CLI’s quarterly e-newsletter provides updates on CLI’s work with students and educators, inspiring stories from Literacy Champions in the communities they serve, and book recommendations to promote early literacy in school and at home.
One of the greatest gifts literacy provides children is the ability to experience and explore new worlds, cultures, and ideas – all within the pages of a book. Matilda Bray, a 12-year-old student at Sol Feinstone Elementary in Newtown, Pa., knows this firsthand. “You can be whoever you want to in writing,” Matilda told Children’s Literacy Initiative. After a school …
Children’s Literacy Initiative is proud to announce that a new report from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) includes CLI among projects that have positive impacts on teacher practice and student outcomes. The report confirmed that CLI’s Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation intervention met the short-term and long-term goals of i3, including conducting a strong evaluation that produced high-quality data …
School districts are critical partners for Children’s Literacy Initiative, as demonstrated in the successful launch of our Investing in Innovation (i3) Scale-up project in four urban school districts, including Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) in Florida, during the 2016-2017 school year. BCPS Superintendent of Schools Robert W. Runcie, and district leaders, quickly embraced our i3 project in seven district schools, …
We spoke with Leah Eller, a Kindergarten teacher at Green Valley Elementary in Denver, CO about her experience with CLI and why our partnership with teachers is so important. How has Children’s Literacy Initiative training impacted your early literacy instruction? The training that I have received from Children’s Literacy Initiative has helped me really target the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) while …
Ingrid is a proud 2nd grader who loves to read. When asked to name her favorite book, she will tell you that she has many, but her most favorite book right now is The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. The Dot, part of the Children’s Literacy Initiative Spanish language book collection, is about a little girl who doesn’t believe that …
The first, and highly successful lesson study cycle at Grissom Elementary (Houston Independent School District) inspired its kindergarten through 3rd grade teachers to collaborate within their grade level teams, and across languages of instruction. The process of planning an Intentional Read Aloud (IRA) lesson together, and watching a colleague teach that lesson, allowed the teachers to develop effective practices they …
A teacher since 2001, JuneFrances Anderson is a literacy teacher and coach at Oakland Elementary in Denver. JuneFrances discusses coaching and training, and how book collections are benefiting her classroom. What were your initial expectations about CLI? I really didn’t know a lot about CLI when I started here at Oakland this year. How do you feel about CLI …
Throughout Glenda Smiley’s 15-year career as a teacher in New Jersey, she has taught pre-K to 3rd grade and 5th grade. Glenda also has had the unique opportunity of looping with her students (following them to the next grade) twice in her career. A 2nd grade teacher last year, Glenda followed most of her students to 3rd grade for …