Training Method Options, Part 1: Video Training through Individual Streaming

Finding enough time to train your teachers together can be a challenge. Administrators’ schedules are busier than ever, and teachers have enough to do in their classrooms without making them attend another afterschool in-service or compelling them to give up part of their summer break. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to give your teachers professional development in the comfort of their homes or classrooms at the click of a mouse? IEW can make it happen!

The Teaching Writing: Structure and Style Seminar streaming package includes access to fourteen hours of video instruction in teachers’ individual IEW accounts, a Seminar Workbook, and a one-year Premium Membership. This method offers flexibility in scheduling, allowing teachers to watch the videos on their own and join with others to work through the practicum exercises. On-demand video training also works well to train one teacher, a small mentor group, or new teachers who join your staff in subsequent years.

How does it work?

Teachers train individually with video streaming or view the entire seminar

• during the summer prior to implementation or

• one video clip at a time during the school year.

Training by video streaming is recommended for schools that do not have adequate time for teachers to train together on-site, and it is ideal for piloting with a mentor group or in small schools where there is little time to train together within the contract day.

To train following the video streaming option, purchase a Teaching Writing: Structure and Style package for each teacher who will be responsible for teaching writing. Ideally administrators will want to begin the planning process during the school year prior to implementing Structure and Style™ in order to begin training in the spring or summer.

What are the benefits of training by the video streaming method?

1. For most schools, individual streaming is a less expensive option than live, on-site professional development or registering your teachers for a virtual Structure and Style Writing Workshop for grades K–2 or 3–12.

2. It offers great flexibility in scheduling and location. Teachers can complete the training at home at a time of their choosing and are free to review any portion of the seminar as often as they need to at a moment’s notice throughout the school year!

3. Individual training works best following a flipped classroom model where teachers view each seminar session on their own by a predetermined schedule and then come together for an afterschool session to complete the practicum exercise for that unit and ask any questions they may have about the particular unit or stylistic technique.

4. The streaming option or flipped classroom model doesn't mean that teachers are on their own to learn the method but that the logistics are easier to manage because while they are watching the seminar individually, they will come together later to discuss what they have learned.

5. As teachers and administrators engage with each other during the practicums, crucial conversations happen that inspire the vision of shaping the culture of the school and lead to fidelity in teaching the method. It is during this time that the facilitator helps the teachers see how dependent they are on each other to do their part and develop a culture conducive to language acquisition. The teachers solidify their understanding and gain confidence.

6. Teachers will have more time to complete the practicum exercises than they would during a live seminar.

7. By completing the seminar through video streaming, schools can choose to utilize their professional development dollars for IEW’s other live training offerings (Demonstration and Coaching Day and Observation and Coaching Day) that are designed to enrich your teachers’ understanding of the Structure and Style method. Contact your educational consultant for more information about our professional development days. Don’t have an educational consultant? Call 800.856.5815 and ask to speak to someone in the Schools Division.

What are the challenges to consider about this method?

1. Primary Writing with Structure and Style is not available via video streaming. K–2 teachers should complete the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style seminar, but may skip Units 6, 8, and 9, as well as the Advanced Stylistic Techniques.

2. This option can be challenging in schools that plan to train the entire staff if influential teachers or a majority of the teachers are not fully on board with the decision to implement Structure and Style. An effective way to introduce the Structure and Style process is to first train the teachers who are more likely to support your efforts and provide solid role models for others. This has the advantage of building interest organically from within. It gives you a smaller group of teachers to support in the first year of implementation and an in-house team of mentor teachers as more teachers become trained.

3. This training method requires more hands-on involvement by administrators in getting teachers on-board, planning the training, ordering materials, and setting deadlines for completing each unit. Our IEW Educational Consultant team is available to guide you through the process and is ready to provide training resources to help you along the way.

We hope that you find this useful as you make decisions about IEW’s training options for your teachers. If you have questions or need more information, please contact your educational consultant. Don’t have one? Contact Schools@IEW.com or call 800.856.5815. Ask to speak to someone in the Schools Division.