Stephanie Affinito
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Know Your Teachers
Stephanie Affinito reminds us that effective coaching is built on strong relationships. Try this challenge to see if you know your colleagues as well as you hope you do.
A 30-Day Coaching Challenge
Stephanie Affinito invites instructional coaches to engage in a 30-Day Coaching Challenge designed to bring renewed enthusiasm and effectiveness to our work. Grab a notebook and get started today!
Five Books to Launch Discussion About the Coaching Role
Stephanie Affinito recommends five picture books to launch discussions about an instructional coach’s role. This helps ensure success by giving all stakeholders an opportunity to define and understand the role of a coach.
Creating Thematic Text Sets for Inquiry
Stephanie Affinito guides us to carefully curate text sets so that not only are they suited to students’ interests, but students are guided through the sequence of reading them. There’s no better way to launch students’ curiosity and reading motivation!
Five Books for Teacher Reflection
Stephanie Affinito offers five picture books to encourage teachers to relax and consider how to prioritize their own wellness.
Planning for Virtual Literacy Intervention
Stephanie Affinito curated a wise and useful guide to plan virtual literacy intervention. Useful resources are included for those who are teaching remotely or in person.
Five Books to End the Year Coaching Strong
Stephanie Affinito offers five picture books to end the year coaching strong. Each offers an opportunity for teachers to enjoy a book together, reflect on the year, and walk away with a book to share with their students.
April 29, 2022: Deepening Discussions Part 1
This week’s newsletter is the first or two installments about deepening discussions.
April 22, 2022: Reading Invitations
This week’s newsletter considers reading invitations.
Listening and Learning from Literature
Stephanie Affinito proposes that a first step toward anti-racist coaching and teaching is through carefully selecting the books we read and recommend to teachers.
From a Coaching Vision to a Coaching Menu
Stephanie Affinito guides us in transforming a coaching vision into a practical coaching menu so teachers can choose their ideal way to work with an instructional coach. Download a copy of a coaching menu.
Have Coach, Will Travel
Stephanie Affinito is a traveling coach, with no office to call her own. She shares tips and tools for organizing and streamlining materials when you are constantly on the go between classrooms and schools.
Book Talks Go Digital
Stephanie Affinito creates a simple template to help teachers move book talks online in remote learning settings.
Can a High-Stakes Assessment Create Readers?
Stephanie Affinito encounters an unexpected by-product of testing for her son—the uninterrupted reading time waiting for others to finish builds a good habit. She shares how teachers might reclaim 10 minutes a day for independent reading.
Creating Coaching Visions
Vision boards are a marvelous way to help teachers and coaches reflect in positive ways on their professional goals and passions. Stephanie Affinito explains how she helps colleagues create them.
I Still Am
Stephanie Affinito presents a simple and smart activity to help literacy coaches reflect on what they do well and develop plans for growing stronger. Included is a guided reflection download.
Unadulterated Reading
Just reading. Pure, unadulterated reading. That’s the reading homework that matters most in the long run. Stephanie Affinito explains why.
What Do We Mean by Coachable?
We think of teachers who are easy to persuade and work with as being the most “coachable.” Stephanie Affinito explains why the teachers who challenge us may teach literacy coaches more.
Literacy Morning Announcements
Stephanie Affinito has suggestions for how short poems and snippets of children’s literature might be integrated into morning announcements.
Creative Reading Responses: It Begins with You
Stephanie Affinito finds the secret to helping teachers get creative with reading responses is to try them out in their own reading first.
March Read-Aloud Madness
Stephanie Affinito explains how you can spice up a winter professional development session with a read-aloud book tasting and competition modeled after the March Book Madness initiative.
Picture Books to Teach Digital Citizenship
Students aren’t just collaborative in our classrooms—they are connecting with others all over the world. Stephanie Affinito shares her favorite picture books to teach digital citizenship.
What Happens Next Is What Defines Us
Stephanie Affinito reminds us that we all face challenges and discouraging situations when guiding teachers. What happens next when you pause and reset defines who you are as a literacy coach.
Tackling Coaching Challenges
Stephanie Affinito shares a protocol with reflective questions to help literacy coaches make professional development opportunities more relevant for teachers.
The Instagram Project
Stephanie Affinito uses a popular app to stay on top of children’s literature and deliver timely recommendations to teachers and children.
Helping Teachers Weed Libraries
It is difficult for teachers to discard or recycle books they spent years acquiring, yet this is essential end-of-year work in many classrooms. Stephanie Affinito explains how a literacy coach can turn this challenge into an opportunity to build community and professional development plans.
Next-Thing Thinking and Google Keep
Stephanie Affinito has learned to focus closely on one task at a time and use technology to keep track of all the other things on the horizon.
A Book Tasting for Teachers
Stephanie Affinito shares the steps for hosting a book tasting for teachers, with everything from creating a splashy invitation to fostering a fun atmosphere included.
Not All Superheroes Wear Capes
Stephanie Affinito shares a professional development activity to celebrate teaching strengths and help teachers through the doldrums of this time of year.
Using Padlet in Coaching
Stephanie Affinito shares the many ways in which she uses Padlet to enhance her professional development offerings and showcase the great teaching and learning in her community.
Preparing Teachers for Reading Over Breaks
Stephanie Affinito shares strategies for helping teachers build plans and excitement for reading over holiday and summer breaks.
QR Code Listening Stations
Listening stations are invaluable in elementary reading workshops, and can also be a hassle to set up and maintain. QR codes to the rescue! Stephanie Affinito shares how she helps teachers use simple online tools for setting up QR code listening stations.
The Quote Collector
Are you a quote collector? Stephanie Affinito shares her love of quotes with students and also enlists them as quote collectors.
Build More Lingering into Coaching
Stephanie Affinito finds that frustration can morph into appreciation when coaches linger long enough to let teachers know how much their work is valued. She provides many practical suggestions for how to slow down during hectic coaching days.
Using Student Checklists in Literacy Intervention
Stephanie Affinito explains how to use student checklists in literacy intervention.
Sketchnoting in Professional Development
Stephanie Affinito energizes a professional development session with sketchnoting, and teachers soon take the practice back to their classrooms.
DIY Notebooks for Literacy Coaches
Stephanie Affinito turns her on-the-spot demo notes and scrawled sticky notes into a more carefully constructed coaching notebook.
Planning for Small-Group Word Study
Stephanie Affinito offers five guiding principles and a template for planning small-group word study.
The Scarlet Level
Stephanie Affinito tells everyone at a staff meeting to write their weights and ages on sticky notes so that she can post the numbers for the group to view. When teachers balk at the request, she has the perfect opening to discuss why focusing on levels in classrooms is a bad idea.
Coaching High Fives
Stephanie Affinito finds that simple, quick, and modest celebrations can be just what teachers need to get through a long day. She shares the value of these coaching high fives.
