Focus on Literacy

Instructional Coach

How well a teacher performs in the classroom is critical to successful student outcomes. And like star performers everywhere, coaching and practice are a key part of everyday life.

In keeping with the Partnership’s belief that all of the teachers must be professional educators committed to children as well as to the craft of teaching, they have implemented an instructional coach to work in all five schools.

The coach will be a collaborator with classroom teachers to support student learning. She will focus on individual and group professional development that will expand and refine the understanding of research-based instructional best practices. The instructional coach will also provide mentoring to principals in areas such as time management, leadership, effective classroom observation, use of student data, parent communication, and creating a culture of learning.

Langan/Nadell Reading Program

“The best way to encourage more reading is to provide compelling human stories that will appeal to readers of all ages. That is what the affordable Townsend Library tries to do. Research shows that the more access students have to appealing paperback books, the more they read.”

~John Langan

The Townsend Press Foundation and the Langan-Nadell family have a strong commitment to improving literacy for children in Camden.

Author Dr. Judith Nadell and other partners of Townsend Press have started a tradition of reading portions of various books from their collection to our students. In addition, each of our students, kindergarten through 8th grade, receives 15 books for their personal home library.

For example, the King Series, which is read monthly to 1st and 2nd graders in our schools, features a cast of characters modeled on actual boys and girls of various ethnicities and family structures living right here in Camden. At the end of each school year, students have up to 60 books to call their own.

According to Dr. Nadell, “Young readers will relate easily to these recurring characters, will want to read all about them and will, in the process, become eager, skilled readers.”