Meredith Alvaro is a full time national consultant and staff developer located in the NY/NJ metro area. Meredith previously served as the Director of Student Teaching in the Elementary Inclusive Preservice Program at Teachers College Columbia University as well as held a tenured NYC public school teacher position at PS 116 in Manhattan's former District 2. Meredith conferred her Masters Degree at Teachers College, where she studied literacy directly with Lucy Calkins. Meredith recently finished her Administration Certification program and is pursuing a Doctorate Degree from Teachers College where she holds her Masters Degree. Meredith's staff development work spans levels PreK-12 and encompasses a range of environments including Public, Private, Charter, Parochial, Yeshiva, and Early Childhood schools.

Meredith's in-classroom coaching and practical workshops focus on developing strategies alongside teachers to help them successfully assess, instruct, and differentiate/adapt curriculum to support the developmental and learning needs of all students in powerful, teacher-friendly ways. Meredith works with teachers of:

• General Education
• Basic Skills Instruction (BSI)
• Gifted Education
• Special Education (both replacement and inclusion models)
• Self-contained environments (Autism, MD, LLD, etc.)
• Collaborative Team Teaching models (CTT)
• English Language Learners (ELLs/ESL)

Meredith's work and classroom have been acknowledged in several publications including Writing about Reading: From Book Talk to Literary Essays, Grades 3-8 (Angelilo, 2003) and Voices of Diversity: Stories, Activities, and Resources for the Multicultural Classroom (Langer de Ramirez, 2006).

Description:

Reading and Writing Workshop – General and Special Education (K-8)
Beginning and Advanced Sections Available!

The Common Core Standards emphasize the importance of students reading and writing at increasingly rigorous levels. Meredith's staff development days and her week-long Institutes focus on helping teachers establish clear structures and efficient routines necessary for the successful launch of Writing and Reading Workshop, planning and differentiating instruction in the workshop model, planning units of study, conferring and assessing students, small group structures, and matching students to texts.

Meredith is a realist and extremely practical; her hands-on methods and classroom modeling and coaching allow teachers a risk-free environment to learn the inner workings of workshop teaching. Meredith’s workshops are always engaging and flexible to the needs of each school with whom she works. Regardless of the content, the focus of all work remains on student learning and achievement.

Content Area Reading: K-12

The Common Core Standards emphasize the importance of students reading across the curriculum using a variety of text types and levels. Meredith’s content-area reading workshops are the perfect option for teachers looking at how to infuse powerful reading instruction into content-area work. Meredith is grounded in practice – not philosophy – and her hands-on, differentiated workshops provide teachers with countless strategies for assessment, instruction, and modifications to ensure that all students can access complex texts in successful, engaging ways. Meredith often includes classroom demonstration and coaching to model effective teaching practices across a range of settings.