Content Category: Lead Literacy
Results
Text Sets for Reading Groups in Fourth Grade
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan support two fourth-grade teachers by suggesting text sets based on assessment data and small-group needs.
Starting the Year Together
One of the best things about working to support readers in a school community is the collaboration with teachers. There is the obvious benefit of having two sets of eyes,...
Making PLCs Work: Shifting the Tone
Our weekly professional learning community (PLC) meetings were sailing along. Each week they started with pleasantries and chitchat. Usually, someone had curriculum questions that needed to be answered. I tried...
The Words We Use
Our small team of teachers gathered around the table. The school hallways had not yet filled with the morning sounds of students entering the building, and our mugs were still...
Coaching for Kindergarten Writing
Melanie Meehan meets with kindergarten teacher Katie to talk through the needs of two children who are just beginning to learn how to transfer their stories from home to the...
No Special Class
We recently received this note from the mother of one of our students. Take a moment and really read it. What story does it tell? There’s a high probability that...
Professional Development Offerings for the New Year
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they learn. Albert Einstein A few years ago, my daughter entered a drug awareness contest....
Discussion Before Demonstration Lesson
In this video excerpt from a brief meeting before a demonstration lesson, you'll see the first-grade teacher Erin, who will be leading the lesson, share her concerns. The principal, Jason...
Making PLCs Work: Getting Teacher Input
The teaching staff in my district is given an extraordinary gift each week. Every classroom teacher is given 50 quiet, uninterrupted minutes to collaborate with his or her grade-level team...
Meeting Debrief: Coaching Literacy Coaches
Heather Sisson and Amanda Adrian debrief after leading a professional development session for literacy coaches on the Pause Paraphrase Probe strategy.
Essential Resources for Building Professional Learning Communities
Professional learning communities, or PLCs, have become almost ubiquitous in US schools. Most educators are aware of this philosophy for structuring collaborative teacher learning. Yet common knowledge of the best...
Managing the Email Load
In my role as a principal, I feel like a slave to email pretty much all of the time. I get hundreds of emails a day, and it feels like...
Always “On”: Reconsidering Connectivity
A few months ago, I sat in a training for a new online learning management system my school district is rolling out to our middle school and high school students...
Using Padlet to Support a Boys’ Book Group
In this fifth-grade demonstration lesson, Tammy Mulligan shows a group of boys how their book group can use Padlet to share ideas. The lesson includes a prebrief and debrief with...
Questions for Reflection and Goal Setting with Teachers
We start the school year, and all of a sudden it’s spring. Where did the time go? Even when a fast pace is the result of students experiencing deep learning,...
Coaching Connections
Recently I attended an intensive weekend yoga retreat. I spent a full day out of my comfort zone, pushing my limits doing things like boat pose in the air while...
Visualizing to Sustain Reading: Second-Grade Small Group
Clare Landrigan leads a small-group demonstration lesson with second graders who are having trouble sustaining their reading. The strategy she teaches is visualizing as a way to help the children...
Together: Supporting Readers Toward Independence
Walking into Deb Frazier’s first-grade classroom, it was obvious the students were already engaged in their reading workshop choices. Students were sitting around the room in little nooks, on stools,...
Refining Reflective Practice and Notetaking
Ten years ago, as a first-year middle school teacher, I clumsily juggled piles and piles of information (and that was before standardized testing really amped up!) about my readers and...
Nurturing a Growth Mindset in Young Readers
The growth mindset, a term brought to life by psychologist Carol Dweck, is becoming an ever-present expression in our schools. In her book Mindset, she refers to the growth mindset...
Meeting Snapshot: “Look Fors” After Demonstration Lesson
Jason DiCarlo leads a group of first-grade teachers sharing their "look-for" notes after a demonstration lesson in a first-grade classroom. The teachers were observing a lesson on differences between fiction...
