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Jenelle Williams

Williams, Jenelle
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Jenelle Williams is a Literacy Consultant within the Leadership and Continuous Improvement unit at Oakland Schools, an intermediate school district supporting 28 school districts in Oakland County, Michigan. She joined the organization in 2017 following 18 years of experience in public schools at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. She has served as a classroom teacher, IB Middle Years Programme Coordinator, teacher leader, and educational technology coach. Jenelle holds an Education Specialist in Leadership degree and a Master’s degree in Reading and Language Arts through Oakland University. In addition, Jenelle serves as an Adjunct Professor in Grand Valley State University’s Graduate Program, an Adjunct Professor at Central Michigan University, and co-editor of Michigan Reading Journal. Jenelle is passionate about supporting teachers, building leaders, and central office administrators in secondary literacy, and she is especially excited to be able to support Michigan’s work around disciplinary literacy through her role as Co-Chair of the statewide Disciplinary Literacy Task Force.
Areas of expertise
  • Disciplinary Literacy
  • Reading/Writing Workshop in ELA
  • Literacy Leadership Teams
  • Coaching for Disciplinary Literacy

Workshops

Disciplinary Literacy: Deeper Learning in All Content Areas: The paradigm is shifting, thankfully, so that now ELA teachers are not the only ones responsible for teaching kids to read, write, and utilize other forms of literacy.  It’s not that science, math, or social studies teachers are expected to “become teachers of reading.” Instead, a disciplinary literacy approach shows teachers how to infuse content-specific literacy as a tool to increase learning.  That means kids are taught to read documents as historians, write lab notes as scientists, and communicate about problems as mathematicians. As for ELA teachers, they can support literacy learning within the disciplines, but they are free to concentrate on their own content. This workshop honors the expertise of all teachers while helping them integrate literacy as an inherent part of everyday lessons.