Content Category: Lead Literacy
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Read Alouds Aren’t Just for Children
I love to start literacy team meetings with a read aloud. It is typically a picture book, although I sometimes select a poem or an excerpt from a novel I...
Learning from Lasso: Cultivating a Coaching Mindset in New Literacy Coaches
In 2021, Ted Lasso won seven Emmy Awards. If you’ve seen the program, just hearing the show’s title likely causes you to smile and then to say, either internally or...
Coaching Minute: Change Can Be Rewarding
Instructional coach Paula Fiscus shares the notion that change is a catalyst for growth. Although change can be difficult and challenging, it is also rewarding.
Reclaiming What It Means to Flourish
These two words are all around me, and I’m going to lose my mind if I hear them again: learning loss. For the ones who get to read this article,...
How Do You Show Up?
Let’s start with a quick exercise. Think about your own coaching work with colleagues or think about a coach you’ve partnered with recently. Using the matrix below, where would you...
Purposefully Plan PD to Support Transformational Change
Life is busy, especially in the midst of a school year. Sometimes the only time an educator sits still is for a professional learning meeting. Although they may be sitting...
Shopping in Your Own House: Searching Our Own Teaching Practice for New Ideas
Sometimes when you’re looking for an answer, you search everywhere else before you take a look at what’s right in front of you. —Dean Hughes While I was eating in...
Coaching Minute: The Risk of Vulnerability
Instructional coach Jenn Ross explains the importance of being vulnerable. By modeling the expectations for phonics minilessons, she risked failure in front of her colleagues and was reminded of a...
Coaching Minute: Encouraging Teacher Leaders
Instructional coach Jonathan Winslow shares how he intentionally uplifts teacher leaders. After a coaching cycle, he embeds a reflection that highlights the learning from the cycle that is then shared...
Feedback Is Overrated: Focus First on Building Positive, Trusting Relationships
Go to any of the major educational publishers’ websites and enter “feedback” into the search bar. You will likely get dozens or even hundreds of books and other resources about...
Five Classroom Design Ideas for Supporting Readers and Writers with ADHD
Kids do well if they can. —Ross W. Greene In the world of literacy instruction, we talk a lot about literacy but maybe not enough about instruction. Specifically, I see a...
Using a Checklist for Powerful Post-Conferences
The new school year has started! You’ve connected with your teachers, created a schedule, organized your resources. As you begin to navigate your coaching cycles, it’s helpful to have a...
Coaching Minute: Taking Time to Plan
David Pittman encourages the importance of instructional coaches taking the time to plan.
Creating a Culture Where Everyone Leads
A few years ago, I came home and announced that I’d be doing a different job at my school the next year. My youngest son looked incredulous. “Don’t be offended,”...
Coaching Minute: Creating a Sign-Up for Coaching
Kate Mills and Tara Barnett streamline the sign-up system for working with a coach.
Capturing Classroom Currents
As a coach, I have the amazing opportunity to see classrooms through an objective outside view, but even more, to see the art, the creativity, the ebb and flow of...
Give Yourself Time to Prepare
David Pittman encourages instructional coaches to take time to prepare for the day and then to reflect at the end of the day.
A PLC Planning Template to Help Focus Work with Teachers
“But what is your goal?” Ann asked after listening to me (Kate) talk for several minutes about ideas for an upcoming PLC with the second-grade team. I had no immediate...
Stay Sharp with Professional Reading
Kate Mills and Tara Barnett share ways to stay sharp with professional reading.
Yes, and . . . A Collaborative Philosophy
I approach Jean as she lies on the stage, hands in the air, moving them in a semi-rhythmic twisting fashion. “Hey, Jean, whatcha’ doin’?” I offer, almost complacently. “I’m putting...
Let’s Upskill: How to Revive and Transform Instruction to Serve Today’s Learners
Summer is a great time to think of ways to “upskill” our instruction. At the beach, on the back porch, and when walking the dog in the sunshine, we can...
