Professional Development Center for Educators
CCPS teachers, administrators, parents and librarians are noticing students’ growing enthusiasm for reading — enthusiasm fueled by a partnership between this Maryland district and the University of Delaware.
All 17 elementary schools in CCPS are implementing Bookworms, a literacy curriculum developed by UD School of Education professor Sharon Walpole with her late colleague Mike McKenna of the University of Virginia. This represents the largest implementation of Bookworms in a mid-Atlantic district, and the first professional development partnership between CCPS and UD.
Walpole and McKenna developed Bookworms in response to the increased reading and writing expectations in the Common Core State Standards. The curriculum incorporates shared reading, interactive read-aloud or writing, and small-group instruction in 45-minute blocks. It uses fiction and nonfiction books to help students stretch their skills and build vocabulary on a daily basis.