Agenda Highlights
On Wednesday, May 23, 2018, over 50 community partners representing over 30 organizations met at Chapter 510 and the Department of Make Believe for the Spring Quarterly OLC Meeting.
Below are some highlights!
Advocacy Update on Measure A & the Oakland Children’s Initiative
Three representatives from the campaigns presented compelling background and data about why these measures are so important to the Oakland community.
“Loved the policy/advocacy update! In my work – not many opportunities for this type of learning. Extremely beneficial especially for representatives for the campaign to explain various parts.”
LitMap Update
Rinat Fried from OUSD unveiled the new LitMap, which is designed to help Oakland schools and external partners better collaborate with each other, and helps to make resources transparent and accessible to schools and community stakeholders. The LitMap is fully searchable and features detailed community partner profiles, school profiles, and interactive mapping tools that can be used to access data on OUSD child development centers, OUSD elementary schools, Oakland charter elementary schools, and community partner literacy providers. Litmap currently includes 2017-18 data.
You can access the LitMap here.
Panel – Beyond Reading: Three approaches to literacy beyond the fundamentals
Lacy Asbill from Moving Forward Institute, Rebecca Haskell from Science is Elementary, and Janet Heller from Chapter 510 and the Department of Make Believe each presented about how their work builds literacy skills with students. It was evident that although all three are very different organizations, literacy is a focus for each.
Lacy shared how social emotional learning is at the core of their curriculum, and that helping students connect with books on an emotional level enables them to engage with text in a more meaningful way, building skills and applying knowledge along the way. Rebecca shared how student engagement is significantly high in science and how children’s fundamental curiosity lends itself well to science work, but that it’s imperative for students to be able to express what they learn and discover. Janet shared the process by which teaching artists collaborate with teachers in schools to help develop space for writing projects that align with their classroom curriculum.
All three panelists expressed the importance of holding student experience and student engagement at the heart of their work, and the power of collaborating across disciplines in order to support students most effectively.
You can find more information about the organizations below.
“The Beyond Reading panel was extraordinary – made me really rethink the direction of our curriculum.”
“The panel discussion was great – awesome to learn more about how social/emotional learning and science is helpful with literacy”
“Great to hear from peer organizations in the panel! It helped fuel ideas for peer collaboration.”
OUSD Partnerships Update
Martin Young presented the process for partnering with OUSD, and the necessary steps needed to take in order for an organization to officially partner. You can find more information from his presentation below.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Chapter 510 and Janet Heller for hosting us in their one-of-a-kind writing space. For more information on renting their space for an event or meeting visit their website.
Thank you to Whole Foods Market for providing breakfast and lunch for the quarterly meeting.