Early Literacy Tutor Professional Learning Framework

Introduction

This Framework for Professional Learning is part of the National Student Support Accelerator’s Professional Learning Toolkit for Early Literacy Tutors¹ which consists of the following three sections:

• This Framework for Professional Learning that describes and provides resources for implementation of three recommended modes of professional learning, all with an understanding of and commitment to Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education:
  • Practice-based Formal Learning 
  • Feedback and Individualized Coaching 
  • A Community of Support and Social Learning
• An Early Literacy Tutor Training Recipe Book that offers learning goals and critical ingredients in the four core content areas needed to build a strong scope and sequence of training, before tutors are working directly with students.
  • Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education
  • Building Relationships with Young Children
  • How Children Learn to Read and How Adults Teach Them to Do So
  • Supporting the Whole Child
• An Early Literacy Tutor Continuous Learning Resource Bank to support early literacy tutoring providers and districts in the ongoing professional learning of tutors, once they have begun instructing students. These resources are also organized by the same four core content areas listed above.

The ingredients in our Early Literacy Tutor Training Recipe Book and Continuous Learning Resource Bank offer content to build tutors’ knowledge, while this Professional Learning Framework addresses how providers engage tutors with that content. It also helps clarify how tutors’ practice -- during both their preparation to tutor and their tutoring with students -- can be the most important source of their learning, if well-structured. 

All resources included in this framework are open-source, available for free use by all. We have vetted and selected these resources because they meet two or more of the following criteria:

• Early literacy tutoring providers or experts in the field recommended them.
• They align with an evidence-based approach to language and literacy instruction. Resources on topics related to important educational needs of the whole child, beyond language and literacy, are evidence-based and honor the child’s full humanity.
• Resources related to professional learning align with an evidence-based approach to educator training and the continuous development of adult learners.

¹These resources and materials are based on a review of relevant research from the field of teacher education and professional learning and interviews conducted with early literacy tutoring providers.