College of Education News

85 Local Teachers to Get Edge on New Lesson Planning at Fifth-Annual Chancellor's Academy

June 8, 2009

After attending the Chancellor's Academy in 2007, math teacher Renee Hunt took a few new lessons back to her own classroom at Urbana High School (UHS). As the academy's theme was "literacy," Hunt learned how to help her freshmen through seniors make sense of reading math text.

"My students responded better than I could have imagined. They were on task, engaged and were excited about learning. Instead of just memorizing steps to problems, they were understanding the 'why' behind doing math," said Hunt, Chair of the Math Department at UHS, adding that test scores increased in the classroom. "I really should have video taped some lessons because it was almost unbelievable. Teaching students the literacy strategies empowered them to take ownership of their own learning, and that is something I'd been trying to figure out for years."

Looking to continue this trend of success, Hunt is one of 85 local teachers who will take part in the fifth-annual Chancellor's Academy, which starts June 15.

The five-day academy, started in 2005, is a concentrated professional development program resulting from a partnership among the Champaign and Urbana public schools and the University of Illinois, with the College of Education acting as the host. Each day highlights a different topic in education from "Meeting the Literacy Needs of Adolescent Readers," to "Promoting Engaged Learning."

Forty-one secondary and 55 elementary teachers will take part in the program, which takes place June 15 - 19. Participants are nominated by their school's principal in order to attend. Those principals, along with Chancellor Richard Herman and district officials, will join the faculty members at the Chancellor's Academy Breakfast to be held in the Alice Campbell Alumni Center Ballroom on Friday morning of the Academy.

Broadening the focus of the past, which highlighted literacy practices in education, the emphasis of this year's academy echoes the success of last year's theme: differentiated instruction across grade levels and content areas, according to Julia Johnson, Director of the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities, an outreach and research center in the College of Education. The Center is responsible for coordinating the academy in conjunction with a planning committee comprised of university and school personnel. Johnson said, "The academy will continue its focus on meeting and responding to diverse student needs through differentiated instruction."

Differentiated instruction is a way of teaching that enhances teaching and learning of required content by means of proactive, student-centered instructional practices that are informed by assessment of students' specific educational needs. What does differentiated instruction look like in the classroom? Among other things, it's "small group work, independent work time, teacher-facilitation not necessarily directive, a variety of product options, dialogue and discussion between teacher and other students," according to Haeny Yoon, one of six teacher collaborators at the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities.

For Hunt, "differentiated instruction", translates into empowering her students to take ownership of their learning. "Instead of spoon feeding ideas, I'm now showing kids how to process topics using their own problem solving skills. I love the fact that I have students who are getting excited about math because they are able to understand ideas at a deeper level."

In this vein, the Academy sessions will provide time for teachers to consider approaches to teaching that anticipate and respond to widely diverse students' needs.

"This partnership is really a model for how the university and our local communities can make each other stronger," said Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman. "This program blurs the old lines between the world of practice and the world of academia."

"What we are seeing instead is a community of learning developing here," Herman said. "Our children are getting new opportunities to learn through our teachers and faculty working together to build better teaching models. Our faculty, in turn, are fully engaged with the issues that teachers face every day. We all get better, together."

The five days of the academy, along with other aspects of the program that run throughout the year, are "very partner-directed," Johnson said, referring to the schools. Many of the themes and daily topics, as well as some of the instructors, were suggested by local educators, she said. Activities planned for the coming school year are based on the needs of the schools and individual teachers. "It's truly a joint project," she said. Responding to a range of learner needs proactively by means of instruction based on meaningful, ongoing assessment and on a deep understanding of individual students' educational needs, interests and learning styles is a common goal for all involved. This is the basis of a "differentiated instruction" approach to teaching.

Speakers and facilitators for the academy will include U. of I., regional and district faculty members and experts in the field of differentiated instruction, Johnson said. The five-day event will include significant time for teachers to collaborate and plan in teams organized by school and grade level or content area. School teams will be supported in the development of plans to tailor the information for application to their schools and districts.

Funding for the program comes from the Illinois campus, which pays for faculty time, books, and supplies, and a $500 stipend for each participating teacher.

"The great thing about the Chancellor's Academy is that it extends past the one week in the summer," Hunt said. "During the 07-08 school year, I was fortunate to work closely with Teacher Collaborator Phil Wilder to develop many lesson plans and get feedback from him about what I was doing in my classroom. Being able to try new things and then reflect on 'the good, the bad and the ugly' made what I learned that much more effective... I'm looking forward to taking more things from Chancellor's Academy 2009 back to the kids."