LitLife’s main focus is consulting in schools. We develop sustainable literacy initiatives alongside teachers, administrators and students in a wide variety of schools. Our consulting is tailored to each school environment: whether a school is ranked among the best in the state or is failing to meet state standards, LitLife creates teaching that helps every student excel by constantly adapting our services to fit the individual needs of our partners. We build flexible frameworks that are standards-based and outcomes-driven, but best of all, are doable and fun for teachers and students. At LitLife, our aim is to help school communities achieve true balance in this work: between process and products, journeys and destinations, and joy and rigor.

We design curriculum along a spiraling continuum that carries learning throughout grade levels. We develop strategic plans for literacy achievement at all grades K-12. LitLife empowers students to exceed national learning standards by training teachers wisely and well. We give teachers practical strategies and management tools to create a healthy, productive classroom. By motivating teachers, we inspire a love of reading and writing in their students. LitLife works in schools to create vibrant learning environments, using concrete techniques for achieving one hundred percent literacy success for all children. We train teachers in a variety of ways, including on-site demonstration teaching and coaching, leadership training workshops, mini-courses on best-practice methods for literacy instruction, and online support.

In our quest to create a truly literate generation of children, LitLife works with a number of nonprofits. Our own not-for-profit sister organization, LitWorld, brings teacher training and resources to high-need schools globally. LitLife’s Executive Director Pam Allyn founded Books for Boys to bring the joy of reading to boys at residential treatment center and school the Children’s Village. LitLife is currently working to expand literacy alongside Family-to-Family, Yonkers Partners in Education, RealeBooks, Global Action for Children, and the Center for Community Engagement at Amherst College.

LitLife serves teachers, parents, librarians, education specialists, administrators, caregivers: all those who are working to nurture the literate lives of children. Beyond school consulting, the LitLife team provides communities with many resources in the teaching of reading and writing: series workshops, evening study groups, summer symposia, seminars, webinars and DVDs. Our founder, Pam Allyn, wrote a book for parents called What to Read When: The Books and Stories to Read with Your Child – And All the Best Times to Read Them, which will be available in April of 2009. Along with the LitLife team, Pam Allyn has also written a book series on our method for balanced literacy education, The Complete 4. The Complete 4 for Literacy: How to Teach Reading and Writing Through Daily Lessons, Monthly Units, and Yearlong Calendars introduces the concept, and a series of books for grades K-5 dives into grade-specific curriculum. Our work is driven by the people we meet, and we are excited to continue expanding our services in order to reach an ever-widening community.