Professional Development

Benchmark Ed Launches Free Read Aloud Professional Development for NY Teachers

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 10/28/14

Benchmark Education, a provider of literacy tools, is offering free professional development for more than 2,000 early childhood teachers in New York City.

The weekday training with sessions in both the morning and the afternoon is designed to support "the city's educators to address the needs of diverse learners to achieve kindergarten readiness based on the NYC preschool foundation for the Common Core State Standards," according to a news release, and is sponsored by the Division of Early Childhood.

The sessions focus on interactive read alouds using the company's interactive e-books, which "are designed to deepen the student's interaction with the text," according to a Benchmark representative.

Features of the sessions include:

• Strategies for supporting a range of students in a single classroom, including high performers, low performers, students with atypical development, English language learners and students with disabilities;
• Stategies for engaging parents;
• Content presentations;
• Modeling and demonstration of lessons; and
• Interactive experience in proper read aloud implementation.

Teachers will also be provided with "read aloud classics and a subscription to over 250 digital texts published by Benchmark Education to help implement strategies learned in the training," according to information released by the company.

"It is an exciting opportunity to work with New York City Schools in helping teachers improve strategies for preparing early learning students for success in literacy through our professional development series," said Tom Reycraft, Benchmark Education president, in a prepared statement. "Our training series is valuable to the school district because the early childhood classes are the first step in building the foundation for learning in primary and secondary grades."

More information is available at benchmarkeducation.com.