Content Category: Lead Literacy
Results
Creating Flash Continuums
It is part of my work to guide teams of teachers to create standards-based learning continuums. A continuum is a way to generate a common understanding of a selected standard...
Toolbox Activities in Study Groups
"Toolbox" activities have subtly worked their way into our study group agendas over the last year. These quick activities are an opportunity for the group to try out some of...
Shifting to Student-Centered Coaching
During my first two years in my position as writing coordinator, a large percentage of my work involved developing curriculum and assessments. My coaching work was mainly for new teachers...
What I Know for Sure: Reflection and Core Beliefs
Last summer, I read this tiny book by Oprah Winfrey called What I Know for Sure. As she writes in the first chapter, she reflects on all the lessons she...
Predictable Structures for Study Groups
I use a simple format and structure when planning for study groups. These key elements help me select resources for the meetings. There is often not enough time to do...
Brain and Movement Breaks for Teachers
Have you ever been facilitating a professional development session and looked out in the crowd to find signs of inattention? Teachers checking their cell phones. Table members engaging in side...
The Evolution of Study Groups
Recently I was asked if the Common Core has changed our study groups. Am I running study groups the same way I did when I started 10 years ago? My...
Planning for a Year of Professional Development
As a literacy leader, I set up opportunities for staff to interact and learn together. As I look ahead to the upcoming year and professional development for the district, I...
An Open Apology
To: Parents of Students I Taught From: A Teacher Who Now Knows Better Hello, Parents— Your child was just twelve years old when he or she was in my class....
Seizing a Coaching Opportunity
As one of the adults in the building who clips a walkie-talkie to my waistband, I smugly expected a class of fifth graders to listen to me. That bubble was...
Coaching Minute: Strategic Reading for Our Youngest Learners
In this quick video tip, Tammy Mulligan and Clare Landrigan have wise advice for supporting strategic reading in young learners.
Advocating for English Language Learners
I recently worked with a team of teachers on a committee to interview candidates for an open position working with English language learners. We all gathered around a large conference...
Hiring Teachers for English Language Learners
As our schools become more and more diverse, educators have had to prioritize the needs of students who have limited skills with speaking, reading, and writing in English. As a...
Taking Notes in Fourth Grade
Tammy Mulligan works with a group of fourth graders to help them build their nonfiction note-taking skills. The demonstration small group includes a prebrief and debrief with the teacher. ...
Coaching Minute: Working with New Coaches
In this brief video, Amanda Adrian talks about the importance of considering how to integrate new coaches into ongoing study groups and teams that have worked together for years.
Back-to-School PowerPoints
I remember my husband gently grabbing my arm as I started to raise my hand to ask a question at my daughter’s Back-to-School Night. We had clearly been instructed that...
Coaching New Teachers
Coaching is an opportunity to be a "thought partner" in a challenging and rewarding profession. The majority of educators with whom I connect on a daily basis understand my role...
Coaching Minute: Supporting New Coaches
Kathy Provost and Heather Fisher share tips for how veteran coaches can support new colleagues in this short video.
Developing Coaching Skills Together
We have a small group of literacy coaches in my district. There are four of us, and we have become a rather tight-knit group. We meet together monthly to discuss...
Breaking Tasks Down into Steps
One summer when I was in college, I had intensive training to work in a camp program that specialized in children with attention and behavior disorders. One of our lessons...
Rethinking End-of-Year Assessments
If an assessment is not lifting the quality of our instruction or helping us understand the needs of readers, we believe we need to question why we are giving it....
