Professional Development Courses

An overview of the Tar Heel Shared Reader Project. Tar Heel Shared Reader specifically targets those students who have a significant cognitive disability and are not yet reading, or who read words but don’t read text with comprehension. It is also appropriate for students who never choose to read even though they can.

This module discusses the acronym CAR (comment, ask for participation, respond) and how it can be used to plan comments during shared reading.

Participants will learn about a key professional development strategy called self-reflection.  Also addressed is the value of using self-reflection to think about instructional practice and how it helps make the kind of changes that will improve shared reading lessons and impact student outcomes.

In this module, you will learn about what to consider when selecting books for shared reading. How your students’ ability to understand language and the ways they communicate influence the books you select will be discussed. The many book choices in the Tar Heel Shared Reader interface, which are available at every grade level, in a wide variety of academic content and interests, will also be reviewed.

Participants will learn about all of the ways we can respond to our students so that we can help them build their communication skills during shared reading.  What to do when students do not respond at all, what to do when students only use facial expressions, gestures, or unintentional behaviors and what to do when students use words, signs, or graphic symbols will be reviewed. The information in this module will help you decide which strategies are most appropriate for each of the students in our classroom.

This module discusses an approach for expanding and refining your shared reading practice called the CROWD (Whitehurst et al., 1988). Using the CROWD will help you move your students beyond participation and interaction toward language development. Each element of the CROWD will be explained. The module also describes when teachers and students should begin using the CROWD approach.