Choice Lit Topic: Literacy Coaches
A simple question – who will coach the coaches? If you’re a literacy coach, you already know there is no job more amazing or overwhelming in a school. Our Choice Literacy library includes a small sample of our resources for literacy coaches. If you work as a coach, you’ll want a subscription that includes access to our Leaders Lounge, where there are over 900 resources for coaches, including study group protocols, videos of demonstration lessons, and guides for designing coaching cycles.
Results
Opening Classroom Doors
The role of the reading specialist in elementary schools has shifted so much in the last ten years. Many specialists have gone from working solely with students to serving, at...
Structuring Coaching Conferences
When we think about the structure of a coaching session for a teacher, it reminds us of the structure of a conference for a student. Lucy Calkins set a structure...
Building a Professional Library from Scratch
Almost everything about Emily's new coaching position was perfect. The school was one of those charming, old, traditional brick buildings with lots of character: high ceilings, hardwood floors, wide corridors,...
Eight Tips for Building Relationships: A Tale of Two Literacy Coaches
I stopped by Monroe School to see the literacy coach, Kate, before the school day began. I was in her office for about five minutes when second-grade teacher Leah burst...
A Reason to Learn
This fall my son Ben ran on the cross country team. As I walked in the door after work recently, Ben shared that he had come in 9th place overall....
I Believe . . . Some Thoughts on Marathons and Sustained Professional Development in Schools
I believe that professional learning communities such as teacher study groups are the key to sustainable instructional change. When teachers are given on-going opportunities over time to explore new ideas...
Cartwheels, Backward Rolls, and Literacy Coaching
My six year old daughter takes gymnastics lessons. I have watched in amazement over the last year at how her gymnastics coach breaks down instruction. Before ever beginning a recognizable...
Sales Clerks and Literacy Leaders
Shopping for the perfect outfit is always an exhausting task. I seem to always encounter the hovering salesperson. She's the one who shows me the outfits I would never buy, and suggests...
Creating Structures to Sustain Our Work
I wish I could bottle the inspiration I felt after listening to Bruce Morgan, Debbie Miller, and Ellin Keene at a recent NCTE presentation. They spoke about professional learning experiences...
On Board with Literacy Leadership
It all started last summer when we read Jennifer Allen's book Becoming a Literacy Leader. We wanted to move from our current roles of reading specialists in the direction of literacy...
Notetaking Series Part III: “Raw” and “Cooked” Notes
Sometimes I learn the most when I am uncomfortable, unsure, and attempting new things. As you use new tools to observe and note events in your classroom, you may gain...
The Power of Layered Coaching
The new teacher support group is already sliding into spring. My hunch is that no one component of the layered coaching model is responsible for the success of the group....
Literacy Chats with Teachers: Routines and Guidelines
In my school, teachers have monthly "literacy chats" to discuss current trends and issues that arise in our classrooms. These are informal discussions designed to help us build a supportive...
Learning from the Shadows
This past month I decided to try something a little different. I asked Jeni, a teacher in her third year to shadow me for a full day. New teachers have...
Staying Focused in Literacy Workshops
Clare Landrigan meets with a group of fifth graders to talk about what's going well in literacy workshops, and to set individual goals. Stamina is an issue many of the...
“Hard” Reading Workshop: Understanding How Proficient Readers Comprehend Difficult Text
This workshop activity is useful for a study group, staff meeting, or mentor meeting where the topic is reading instruction. Over the past two decades, comprehension research has focused on...
January New Teacher Group Update: When Life Happens
It was noontime when I received a call from my daycare provider, Sandy. She told me that my daughter, Samantha was coughing a lot. I had an important meeting scheduled...
New Teacher Conversations: Breaking Through Roadblocks and Sustaining Support
At our final New Teacher Conversations meeting, we wanted to celebrate with the first-year teachers as well as look ahead to their second year. Knowing this was the last scheduled...
Watching Teachers Teach: An Observation Form for Literacy Coaches
Early in my first year as a literacy coach, I tried to go into classrooms to watch teachers teach. I wanted to know what was happening in classrooms, and I...
Looking Back to Move Forward: The Plan Book Scavenger Hunt for Literacy Leaders
It's 5:30 in the afternoon, and the school improvement team meeting for one of my buildings is concluding. My principal remarks that there are only sixteen days of school left....
New Teacher Conversations: Management Stories from the Classroom
Classroom management was on the new teachers' minds at our last meeting of the year when we asked them what they would like from us for resources and discussion the...
