English Language Arts (ELA) Collaborative 2025-26

English Language Arts (ELA) Collaborative 2025-26

The 2025-26 Char-Em ISD ELA Collaborative will be a book study and collaborative learning environment in which attending teachers will share their experience, success, and challenges in the ELA classroom. The two sessions, fall and winter, will include a book study of Kelly Gallagher’s To Read Stuff You Have To Know Stuff – Helping Students Build and Use Prior Knowledge. This year’s book study and collaborative will focus on encouraging students to become better readers and writers by focusing on the small steps it takes to become proficient at both.

Words: How building knowledge helps students to overcome word poverty.

​Sentences and Passages: How building knowledge helps students to comprehend “small” reading.

​Articles: How building knowledge helps students to critically read articles–an important skill in the digital age.

​Books: How building knowledge moves students away from fake reading and back into reading full-length books.

Learner Outcomes

Building Vocabulary

Building and using Background Knowledge

Reading Comprehension

Writing Fundamentals

Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) Tenets

Challenged, Engaged, and Supported

Dates

October 8

February 4

Time

8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Location

Char-Em ISD Charlevoix

Audience

Teachers grades 6 -12, paraprofessionals

Facilitator

Mark Seymour, Boyne City High School Teacher