It’s no secret that educators have a profound impact on students. Great educators make learning fun, inspire students, and bolster student success through motivational strategies. Positive learning experiences leave a lasting mark, and literacy is no exception. 

Given their impact, literacy specialists and educators can benefit significantly from professional development opportunities designed for teachers. 

Explore the topics most relevant to you:

How Does Teacher Development Impact Student Literacy Outcomes?

Teacher with high quality professional development skills high fiving student.

There are so many factors that impact a student’s literacy outcomes that it can be hard to pinpoint exactly where literacy educators can strengthen their interventions. One area that they have total control over is their abilities, knowledge, and skills

Teacher capability is often regarded as one of the most impactful factors to affect student learning outcomes. Their approach to teaching, level of engagement, and understanding of effective pedagogy can all contribute to better literacy and writing outcomes. 

In order to teach with evidence-based techniques and approaches, literacy specialists must be familiar with constantly evolving research-based teaching methods.

Continually enhancing your pedagogical knowledge and skillset doesn’t happen automatically: it takes ongoing education, training, and study. Engaging in this ongoing process through professional development directly enhances student learning, because teachers who develop themselves consistently are able to use more tools and resources to refine their instructional practice. 

What Makes an Effective Professional Development Activity?

Professional development is an investment in one’s time—and often it’s a financial investment as well. So, it’s crucial for literacy educators to choose professional development activities designed to foster strong teaching competencies and skills. 

What makes a professional development activity effective can include a few factors. When choosing an activity, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Can I use this to develop strategies that improve student engagement, foster literacy growth, and support long-term achievement?
  • Does this leverage contemporary evidence-based practice?
  • Does this help me improve my skills and knowledge?
  • Will this allow me to experiment with new instructional styles?
  • Does this allow me to reflect on my current practice?
  • Will this help me become a stronger leader?

If the majority of these boxes are checked off, you’re likely looking at a high-impact professional development opportunity. 

Examples of Strong Professional Development Opportunities

It’s worth considering all manner of development opportunities to improve your teaching capability — whether it’s a huge investment or simply takes a few hours of your time. Here are a few examples of strong professional development, both small and large:

  • Teaching workshops offer a collaborative opportunity for educators of all kinds to discuss evidence-based teaching strategies. In a workshop, literacy teachers and specialists can:
    • Engage with new pedagogical approaches
    • Share their own knowledge and experiences 
    • Learn strategies and skills from fellow educators
  • Attending lectures, seminars, webinars, and conferences allows literacy educators to connect with fellow experts in the field, discover strong research, and learn evidence-based approaches. All of this helps teachers develop a stronger understanding of effective teaching approaches. 
  • Continuing education programs, such as certificate programs, are an effective way to hone powerful teaching strategies. It allows you to refresh your professional knowledge and keep up with the latest developments in pedagogy and state standards. 
  • Earning a master’s degree in literacyis a critical way to become a true literacy expert. You’ll be able to build up your skills, knowledge, and teaching strategies in a way that allows you to improve student learning outcomes on an individual and institutional level. 

How Does an MSEd in Literacy Translate to the Classroom?

An MS in Education with a literacy focus can help literacy specialists acquire the latest in pedagogical knowledge and skills. A master’s also allows literacy educators to network with passionate faculty and students who are also focused on developing effective approaches to teaching. Master’s level programs build on foundational topics and instructional skills, so students can engage more deeply with highly advanced topics. 

Through their master’s degree, literacy educators build advanced skills and knowledge that they can carry with them into the classroom. Choosing the right program can enable teachers to use advanced approaches in their instruction, which improves student learning outcomes in key domains. 

Advanced Skill Development

Many master’s in education programs are designed to equip teachers and other educators with effective teaching techniques, strong pedagogical skills, instructional prowess, and community connections. 

In a literacy master’s, you’ll learn the foundations of these skills through instructional, theoretical understanding. Depending on what program you choose, you’ll also practice these skills through hands-on experiences like roleplaying exercises, practicum classes, fieldwork, and a capstone project. 

Literacy master’s programs are highly practical, classroom-focused degrees. They are designed to help teachers and other educators develop stronger skills so that their teaching practice is adaptable to changing student needs. And, the skills they learn will be highly transferable to multiple literacy-focused career paths.

Specialized Courses

While skill development is crucial, you can only learn the foundational knowledge that enables strong skills through specialized courses.

Taking the right courses makes a world of difference, offering literacy students a chance to engage with topics they can apply in the classroom. A strong master’s in literacy education curriculum will cover the best practices and theories most relevant to literacy specialists:

  • Factors influencing literacy acquisition
  • Reading and writing instruction, including multi-modal resources and new literacies
  • The connection between oral language and literacy development
  • Explicit and implicit instructional approaches
  • Language theory and individual differences 
  • The relationship between cognitive and literacy development
  • General pedagogy

In the Pace University online Master of Science in Education, Literary Specialist, you’ll learn all this and more, with advanced courses like “Research and Theories in Language and Literacy Development” and “Teaching Literacy Skills to Children with Special Needs” that are designed to help you meaningfully improve student learning outcomes. 

Powerful Career Outcomes 

In an online literacy MSEd program, teaching professionals are offered powerful learning outcomes themselves that can then support the learning outcomes of their students. In addition to the ability to become a literacy specialist, an MSEd in literacy can prepare you for long-term career opportunities outside of, such as administrative positions and consultancy. 

[CALLOUT] We need literacy specialists trained to work with K-12 students immersed in the virtual world. Two-thirds of students are not proficient readers. We need literacy specialists to engage all students in literacy development!

— National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2019 (12th graders) and 2022 (4th and 8th graders) 

How to Build Your Confidence and Leadership Capacity

Teachers tend to be humble, and it’s no surprise why. Teaching is a hard job, it’s a position of service, and it takes dedication and work in the face of students who don’t always appreciate your work.

This is why building your confidence and leadership ability is crucial. Confident, leadership-oriented literacy educators:

To improve your teaching confidence (also called self-efficacy), you’ll need to actively practice becoming more confident. It may seem silly, but hardly anyone just wakes up one day with perfect, healthy confidence. Some strategies to improve your confidence include:

  • Wear something that cues confidence
  • Improve your self-talk to be more positive
  • Have a routine before class
  • Develop positive relationships with students 
  • Practice mindfulness
  • Engage in lifelong learning and further training

Becoming a strong leader also requires ongoing practice and skill development. To become a stronger leader, you might need to:

  • Ask for feedback from students, other teachers, or administrators
  • Offer to mentor or coach new teachers
  • Set goals for yourself
  • Check in with a self-evaluation every few months to see where you can grow
  • Challenge yourself to take on leadership roles
  • Learn more about leadership strategies and styles

The Role of the Literacy Specialist in School-wide Instructional Improvement 

Literacy specialists have powerful impacts in the classroom, but they can also enable positive development across their whole school or institution. Literacy specialists will often have their own classrooms, but they can also have positions in the library, as substitute teachers, or they can offer support to other teachers who are struggling with reading and writing in their classrooms. 

Literacy specialists need to have more than just pedagogical knowledge to help change schools and improve outcomes for all students. They need to be classroom leaders, mentors, and instructional leaders within their schools.

By pursuing ongoing professional development, and even a master’s in literacy education, literacy specialists can build both the instructional expertise and leadership skills they need to shape stronger learning environments in their schools. 

About the Pace University Online MSEd, Literacy Specialist

The online Master of Science in Education, Literacy Specialist (MSEd, LIT) prepares educators to take on complex instructional challenges and become eligible for an advanced or professional certificate in teaching literacy to children or adolescents. 

With coursework covering literacy development, assessment models, digital literacy and more, this program offers the knowledge and flexible classroom practices to help students from a wide range of backgrounds, including individuals with language or learning disabilities, English language learners, and high achievers. 

In addition, an online Advanced Certificate in Literacy Specialist (ADV CERT LIT) program is an excellent option for those who already hold a master’s degree. This 21 credit program can be completed in as little as one and a half years.

Reviewed by Francine Falk-Ross, PhD Coordinator, Literacy Specialist Graduate Programs Chair, Pace School of Education-NYC

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