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The University of Georgia College of Education is offering two workshops for local school administrators, counselors and teachers that focus on educational issues related to social class and poverty on Dec. 9 at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

“Leading Social Class-Sensitive Schools” is a workshop for district-level school administrators, principals, assistant principals, counselors and instructional coaches. It focuses on learning five principles for change to better meet the needs of working-class and poor students; developing strategies for evaluating and coaching teachers with class-sensitivity in mind; designing ways to make school improvement plans sensitive to social class; and examining how to make broad district, school and classroom policies and practices that are anti-classist and anti-poverty.

“Turning Around Readers and Reading with a Social Class-Sensitive Approach” is a workshop for school teachers, instructional coaches and individuals interested in helping all students become powerful readers.

Participants will learn about the social class-sensitive approach, a five-part framework for differentiated instruction in reading. They will examine how social class and poverty play a role in reading and language in the classroom, analyze social class and poverty in popular culture, media and literature through critical reading practices, design learning opportunities around working-class children’s literature; create a concrete plan for individualizing reading instruction for distressed readers and enhance literacy for all students.

The workshops are a part of the CLASSroom Project@UGA initiative developed by award-winning faculty members Stephanie Jones and Mark Vagle, both associate professors in elementary and social studies education.

Jones

Jones is a researcher, professional developer, education consultant and former elementary school teacher. She is the author of Girls, Social Class and Literacy: What Teachers Can Do to Make a Difference and co-author of The Reading Turn-Around: A Five-Part Framework for Differentiated Instruction.

Vagle

Vagle is also a researcher, former elementary and middle school teacher and middle school administrator. He is co-editor of Developmentalism in Early Childhood and Middle Grades Education: Critical Conservations on Readiness and Responsiveness. His research focuses on moment-to-moment classroom interactions and how they influence and impact student learning.

Registration costs $145 (which includes a copy of the book The Reading Turn-Around, A Five-Part Framework for Differentiated Instruction) and ends Nov. 28. For more information or to register online, visit www.coe.uga.edu/events.