Content Category: Lead Literacy
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Planning Classroom Visits: Organizing Purposefully
For instructional coaches and principals, opportunities to visit classrooms and observe learning and teaching are critical. As a principal, I knew I needed a plan so I could make the...
Coaching Minute: That’s Me
Heather Rader shares an easy icebreaker to use when you are visiting a class of students for the first time in this quick video tip. A transcript is available below...
Coaching Minute: A Stash of Student Work
Heather Rader explains the many uses for a stash of student work for literacy coaches in this quick video tip. A transcript is available below the player. In my...
The Writing Process Revisited
Melanie is one of those super-organized teachers. Her classroom has labeled, color-coded book bins arranged in alphabetical order on the bookshelves (fiction: red, informational: blue, poetry: yellow). Her students all...
Small-Group Demonstration Lesson: Writing Details in Kindergarten
In this demonstration small group with kindergartners, Tammy Mulligan uses student texts to show children the value of adding details to their pictures and texts in writing workshop. ...
Coaching Minute: Principals and Professional Development
In this brief video, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan talk about the challenges of getting busy principals involved in professional development given how packed their schedules are.
Hear It, Clear It Up, and Steer It
A couple of years ago I was in charge of sending out emails two weeks before our scoring workshops in writing. The first time, I was caught off guard by...
Lessons from a Multitasker
Harvard Business Review reports that multitasking leads to as much as a 40% drop in productivity, increased stress, and a 10% drop in IQ. Peter Bergman I was getting...
Taking a Fresh Look at PLCs
These days, the initialism PLC is so common in teaching vernacular that it is almost to the point of being cliche. But what does it really mean? What does a...
Coaching Minute: Dress for Success
What message does your attire send? Heather Rader explores this tricky issue in this quick video tip. A transcript is available below the player. “Nice boots” was the only positive...
Meaningful Transitions During Professional Development Sessions
No matter the age or composition of a group, transitioning a large number of people from one activity to the next can be difficult. During large-group professional development sessions, it...
You Are Not My Mentor
Sociologists and psychologists have long observed our deep desire to participate in reciprocal behavior. The fact that humans feel obligated to return favors has been documented in virtually all societies...
Coaching Minute: Teachers First
In this brief video, Ruth Ayres explains why listening and asking genuine questions are essential when mentoring teachers.
Cultivating Teacher Leadership
The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. Harvey S. Firestone For the past year I have been entrenched in curriculum development with grade-level teams...
Benefits and Barriers: Helping Teachers Change
My husband and I had the privilege of flying to San Antonio to see our son Jeff’s graduation from Air Force Basic Training. Our family was proud and excited, which...
Coming Apart to Come Back Together
Poet Mekeel McBride‘s poem provides a useful prompt for teachers to reflect on the underlying tensions in their classroom that might be fertile ground for healthy reflection and change. “Autobiography’s...
Coaching Minute: Cellphone Fun
Do you want a quick fun way to get to learn a bit about participants in professional development? Heather Rader suggests a cellphone poll in this video tip. A transcript...
Engaging That Class
As a second-year teacher, I had an impossible freshman sixth-period class. I cried after school most days. By contrast, I had three other sections of engaged, fun ninth-grade classes with...
Reaching Boy Writers
"What would you do if the second you got into an airplane bathroom, and you REALLY had to go, the pilot turned on the 'fasten your seatbelt' sign?" This was...
Coaching Minute: One Size Does Not Fit All
Ruth Ayres talks about the importance of varying responses to teachers with diverse needs in this two-minute video.
Helping Teachers Learn to Love the Common Core Standards
Loving something or someone involves knowing that thing or person very well . . . Chris Lehman and Kate Roberts (Falling in Love with Close Reading) I have been...
