On the first two Saturdays in March, Oakland High School English and History teachers attended presentations organized by Oakland's Urban Dreams Project and UC Berkeley's Interactive University. Four separate lecture/discussion sessions gave participating teachers an opportunity to learn in-depth about one of the required texts in this year's Language Arts curriculum for grades 9 through 12.

The half-day sessions — developed as part of Oakland's year six extension of Urban Dreams professional development work — were held at the Technology Learning Center in OUSD's Harper Building, where participants gathered for introductions and refreshments prior to the scheduled events.

On March 5, the designated texts were Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers (grade 9), and Night, by Elie Wiesel (grade 10); the following Saturday, March 12, featured the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (grade 11), the first of three autobiographies Douglass wrote, and Shakespeare's Macbeth (grade 12).

Each program began with a prepared talk about the book, followed by a round-table discussion. The talks were delivered by UC Berkeley professors and other academics recruited by the IU. A short break followed the talk and discussion, each  group then re-convened to explore and discuss online resources at a new website created for the sessions. This part of the program was led and facilitated by an OUSD staff member, who guided teachers through both paper and online resources that supplemented the lecture and discussion.

All four presentation and discussion sessions were video-taped by OUSD's KDOL staff, and each will be edited and available in the future. The website material will also be permanently archived by OUSD. Currently, the website is hosted by the IU; it was created by the IU in collaboration with OUSD curriculum staff, the lecturers, and teachers who participated in the Saturday sessions.

. . . Continue on to the IU News April 2005 page to complete this story.