Events

Time: 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM (Beijing) | 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM (New York)

Empowering schools to establish and enhance the culture of literacy is challenging in terms of teaching quality, resources, methods, and time, but it plays a critical and transformative role in student’s personal and professional development.

Columbia Global Centers | Beijing is pleased to invite you to join Dr. Lucy Calkins of Teachers College at Columbia University, as she highlights how to build schoolwide excellence in English reading and writing in the K-12 classroom. Drawing on her teaching experience in the past 30 years, Dr. Calkins will share her perspectives on how the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project facilitates and supports educators to adopt effective teaching practices in building literacy capabilities, and how this program contributes to teacher's professional development.

Dr. Calkins will be joined by Chinese senior academic advisors and school administrators to exchange opinions on the effectiveness of the English teacher training program and the demands for innovative pedagogies and teaching strategies to equip students with robust literacy skills.

Points to be covered:

• How to create a powerful learning environment for reading and writing at schools?
• What does a systematic and comprehensive teacher training program look like?

In partnership with:

Presentation by:

Lucy Calkins is the Founding Director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project and the Richard Robinson Professor in Children's Literature at Teachers College, Columbia University where she co-directs the Literacy Specialist Program. She also serves as a member of Columbia Global Centers | Beijing's Faculty Advisory Committee.

Calkins is the author or co-author of several scores of books, including especially the series, Units of Study in Teaching Information, Narrative and Opinion Writing, K-8, and the just-released sister series, Units of Study in Teaching Reading, K-5. Hundreds of thousands of teachers from across the world have used these books to undergird a rigorous and joyful curriculum in reading and writing.

The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project has a staff of 80. Many of the most influential literacy educators in the world are current or former members of this team, and Calkins regards her leadership of this extraordinary team of people as her most important contribution. Together, Lucy and her colleagues have led week-long summer intensive institutes for over 200,000 teachers and school leaders. Each year, the team provides long-lasting, field-based professional development in well over 1000 schools across the world, including urban, suburban, rural, and international schools. Some of this work is done through a sister organization, Reading and Writing Project LLC, which Calkins also directs. That work leaves a lasting and immediately obvious impact, and for that reason, the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project has for decades been regarded as one of the premier providers of professional development in literacy in the world.

Remarks & Panel Discussion with:

XIA Guming currently serves as a member of China's National School Curriculum and Textbook Expert Committee. He is a core member of the first batch of the High School English Curriculum Standards Revision Expert Committee and a member of the first batch of experts under the National Traning Program issued by the Chinese Ministry of Education. He also serves as a board member of the Council of China Basic Foreign Language Education Research & Training Center and President of Zhejiang Foreign Language Education Society for Primary and Secondary School. Xia is a special-grade English teacher.

LI Jing SIPA '15 currently serves as Deputy General Manager, Kaiwen Academy Education Group, overseeing school and education functions. She has almost two-decade experience in school management and leadership, taking senior executive positions at leading schools in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and New York. She graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University with a BA in International Business and MA in American Studies. Then she attended an MPA program with a concentration in International and Financial Policy at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University where she conducted research on school accountability at Law School. She worked at RDFZ as Assistant Head, Deputy Head, and Secretary-General at YKPao School, and then Acting China President, Global Head of Enrollment and Marketing at Whittle School & Studios.

ZHANG Dongsheng, Secretary-General of International Education Branch of the Chinese Society of Education, has been engaged in education management and international education research and exchange for many years. He was the Executive Director of Zigler International Child Development Association, senior researcher in children's social-emotional learning, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Association for Campus Management.

LIU Xiaobo is a middle school English teaching and research adviser from Beijing Haidian Teachers Training College, a key teacher of Beijing, a member of the Teaching Research and Teacher Education Committee of Foreign Language Teaching Professional Committee of Chinese Education Association, a visiting scholar of Beijing Normal University, and a visiting scholar of Vermont University USA. For many years, he has been engaged in teaching and research work in middle and high schools, and now he is responsible for teaching and research work of new teaching materials and new college entrance examination. He has served as the training and guidance of many training programs such as the "National Training Program" of the Ministry of Education, participated in the compilation of many textbooks and academic works, published dozens of papers in core English teaching journals or won awards, and participated in or presided over the research of many topics. He is the evaluation expert of "One Excellent Course for One Teacher" and "National Moral Education Excellent Course" of the Ministry of Education. He is the winner of the National Gardeners Award for teachers.

CHEN Yanzhu is a senior English teacher at Tsinghua University High School. She leads English teaching for high schools in Haidian District, Beijing. 

Chen holds a master's degree in English Language and Literature. Her research interests include stylistics and English teaching methodology. She is the first prize winner of Beijing's First High School English Teacher's Basic Skills Competition.

Reminders

• Event language: English
• If you have any questions, please email [email protected]