Choice Lit Topic: Leadership
Do you guide teachers, specialists, and literacy coaches? Here are tools, advice, and strategies school leaders need for their daily work in staff meetings, study groups, and one-on-one discussions with colleagues. If you have a leadership role in coaching teachers and designing professional development, you’ll want an upgraded membership with access to our Leaders Lounge.
Results
Simplexity: Finding Your Focus
Simplexity - Finding the smallest number of high-leverage, easy to understand actions that unleash stunningly powerful consequences. Michael Fullan, in Motion Leadership As I approached 279 Newbury Street in Boston, I...
Putting the “Mini” Back in Minilessons
Recently I watched a very engaging lesson. The teacher started the lesson by reading aloud a short story about a trip to the beach. Then she projected some photos on...
Off the Dance Floor and Onto the Balcony: Getting the Big Picture in Schools
We coordinate professional development efforts in schools. Periodically we visit classrooms during literacy blocks to think about how we are progressing toward our goals, and to identify next steps for...
Keeping Students Front and Center
The other day I had a phone conference with teachers in a graduate course. They asked insightful and thought provoking questions around the challenges of working as a literacy coach....
A Bad Case of the Never-Ending Januaries
A Choice Literacy member wrote to us this week: I am noticing that we have hit a point in the year where teachers are stressed, snow days are maxed, and...
A Class with More Boys Than Girls
Hannah was in her second year of teaching when we began our work together. She was interested in "bettering her game" as she put it. "I know I have lots...
Poetry Fridays (and So Much More) for Students and Staff
Poetry Friday is surely my most subversive act of teaching. From the outside, you see a suspension of the regular routines of reading workshop. You see children sitting side-by-side with...
Favorite Short Mentor Texts for Demonstration Lessons
Teachers and coaches often ask us for a list of mentor texts to teach a particular strategy or genre unit of study. While we certainly have some favorites, we truly...
The Email Mirror and Literacy Coaching
Last year while attending a mentor symposium, my thinking about coaching was challenged. As experienced instructional coaches, we were asked to rate ourselves on a number of attributes. When I...
Creating a Coaching Schedule
We have been encouraging the literacy coaches we work with to create a year-long coaching schedule for their school. The main goal of these coaching schedules is to ensure that...
Still Revising After 10 Years: Sorting Through Pitfalls of Study Groups
"You hammer against the walls of your house. You tap the walls, lightly, everywhere. After giving many years' attention to these things, you know what to listen for. Some of...
Language Patterns: Reflecting with Transcripts and Wordle
When a colleague shared the word cloud generator at www.wordle.net with me, I was intrigued. I pasted quotes, poems, lyrics and bios into the generator, and found an entirely new way of...
Quick and Thorough: Literacy Coach Conferring Notes
For most classroom teachers, it takes years to perfect a system for conferring during reading and writing workshops. In my role as a literacy coach I have supported many teachers...
Digital Handouts: An Alternative to More Paper and Meetings
"I want to contribute, I would just rather do something different than a presentation," Jane shared with me after one of her district meetings on English language learners (ELLs). She...
Coaching Beyond the Curriculum: Reframing Our Talk and Attitude Toward Difficult Students
"Can Darren spend some time with you? He needs to take a break from our classroom right now." Translation: Darren is driving me crazy and I need a break from him so...
Daily Tidbits: Professional Development in Small Bites
With so many modes of communicating these days intended to make staying in touch easier, sometimes it becomes a burden and a challenge to keep up with them all. I...
Coaching Codes
When I was teaching English in South Korea, I attended a parent night in the community to promote our school. At the conclusion of the program, I stood up to...
Relentless Consistency: Finding a Common Teaching Language Without Scripts
We recently heard Michael Fullan speak about the impact of common language and consistent practices on the speed of change within school systems. Consistency in core practices and key language...
Undercover Coach: Making Time to Work with Children
Have you ever watched the television show Undercover Boss? Each episode shows what happens when a high ranking official of a company attempts to do an entry level job in the...
Great Little Books for Professional Book Clubs
Tracie and Shelly were absolutely beaming! Their first professional book club as the literacy coaches at Wilson School was an undeniable success. The teachers had agreed to meet before school...
Supporting Successful First-Year Coaches
It's Friday, a little after noon, and Cristina Charney, Heather Sisson, Becky Lee and I are tucked around the small circle table with our lunches in my office. We are...
