Teacher Programs

Making Reading a Part of Children’s Lives

Programs & Resources

RLF is a collaborative peer network for urban educators that builds teacher expertise and provides classroom resources to inspire teachers and their students to become lifelong readers: individuals who not only know how to read, but do read—frequently, widely, and willingly.

Unlike other professional development opportunities, RLF programs are not simply workshop-based. We also focus on helping teachers to apply in their classrooms what they have learned, and to reflect on this learning with colleagues.

All RLF programs are teacher-developed and teacher-led. We build teacher capacity through programs that are based on best practices in adult learning. These include the opportunity for leadership and supportive environments which foster learning among colleagues.

Teachers who read are the best teachers of readers. Therefore, we run nearly 100 teacher book discussion groups throughout the school year. These groups engage teachers in dynamic and intellectual discussions of adult books so that they can experience the value of reading and discussion.

Through its extensive libraries of 13,000 children’s books, RLF offers network teachers free access to valuable reading resources that are otherwise unavailable to them. RLF network teachers borrow sets of books from the children’s lending library to use in their classrooms. They conduct research In the teacher review library on the best children’s books to buy for their classrooms.

“[RLF programs] bring together teachers with a much different philosophy of teaching reading than those with whom I generally attend in-services. I didn’t anticipate that I would learn so much or be so inspired by the RLF sessions...”

- Karen Zaccor, 8th grade teacher, UPLIFT

Community School