The California Department of Education is helping to celebrate the Month of the Young Adolescent in October with new professional learning activities at the Taking Center Stage-Act II Web portal.

Designed specifically for California’s middle grade educators, the Get into the Act! Professional Learning Series is geared to enhancing excellence in teaching adolescents.

October offerings on adolescent brain development are scheduled to be featured on the Web portal at www.cde.ca.gov/tcsii.

Cognitive neuroscientist Janet Zadina’s presentation “Brain Research and Adolescent Development” includes three new videos and professional learning activities on adolescent brain development and how it impacts classroom practices. Zadina, a reading specialist and the founder of Brain Research and Instruction, offers brain-based practical strategies that help educators understand how to adapt lessons and strategies so that adolescents can succeed.

Also available at the TCSII site is Doug Reeves’ “Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness,” featuring four videos and professional learning activities. Reeves, a popular speaker on education topics such as assessment and accountability, presents “Making Assessment Work in the Real World,” “Accountability in a Learning Organization” and “Teacher Leadership: Making a Difference,” along with his initial presentation, “Rigor in the Classroom.”

On Nov. 4, “Adolescent Literacy Development” with Kate Kinsella will be available, discussing how to develop adolescent literacy and ways to increase reading engagement across the curriculum. Kinsella, a San Francisco State University faculty member and a former Fulbright lecturer specializing in teaching English as a second language, provides information as well as classroom footage of instructional techniques that work for young adolescent learners – especially those who are English learners or who may be struggling readers.

For more information, contact the CDE at (916) 322-1892.