Literacy effort takes Bacon back to classroom

A cake decorated like a Brownie uniform (foreground) was among the many cakes decorated by Northern Putnam County Girl Scouts and auctioned Friday evening as a fundraiser. Judges for the event were (from left) Marjorie Robinson, Jill Spiker and Greencastle Mayor Nancy Michael.Ridpath Primary has launched the first year of a five-year project with the Purdue Literacy Collabor-ative.

Tammy Bacon has been selected as the primary literacy coordinator and has been attending the seven weeks of intensive training at Purdue University this year. In addition, four Ridpath staff members have attended school team planning training for five days during the first semester to learn the literacy framework and to prepare for team planning. Participating in the training are Courtenay Hayes, Kim Whited, Beve Miller and Tonia Dibble.

Although Bacon has been serving as the Ridpath principal and literacy coordinator this year, next year she will do full-time on-site training and coaching teachers on the literacy strategies she is learning and refining this year. She will also help to support Deer Meadow as the staff there begins implementation of the project next year.

Some highlights of the Purdue Literacy Collabor-ative are:

* The primary literacy coordinator will provide on-site professional development for teachers.

* Teacher will receive coaching in the literacy framework.

* As part of the literacy collaborative model, the school will collect ongoing program assessment data.

* Teachers will be training to insure individual student assessment data will guide instructional decisions.

* The school planning team will determine strategic planning for the school and will continually monitor student achievement data.