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Lead Literacy Articles & Videos (formerly leadliteracy.com)

Our lounge is your home for exploring hundreds of articles and videos for literacy coaches and school leaders. Our contributors share their best advice for working one-on-one with teachers in coaching cycles, hosting professional development sessions, and designing demonstration lessons and study groups.

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Multiplier Mindset

Brian Sepe guides us in a reflective practice activity to help strengthen our mindsets as leaders who multiply and grow the intelligence of those around them. This article was inspired by Liz Wiseman’s book Multipliers.

Not-to-Do-List

Julie Cox shares a poignant twist for making a list to set the new school year in motion—a not-to-do list!

It All Counts: Getting to Know Your Teacher Candidates

Teacher Educators Teach | Suzy Kaback shares ways professors can get to know teacher candidates, as well as the research behind mattering and the important connection to building relationships as educators.

A Necessary Survey for Your School Community

Ruth Ayres and Becca Burk share a necessary survey for your school community to begin engaging in conversations about managing emotional dysregulation in students. Drawing on their extensive experiences with managing emotional dysregulation as foster parents and educators, they make a case for beginning conversations among your faculty with this simple survey.

Principals Are People, Too!

Instructional coach Mary Brower reminds us of the importance of maintaining the humanity of the administrators we work alongside. Her mantra—principals are people, too—guides us in building strong relationships.

Beyond the Books: A Tale of Empowerment, Influence, and Agency from the School Library

Matt Renwick shares about a project in the school library that builds students’ empowerment, influence, and agency. Matt gives resources and advice for you to try this in your school, too.

Five Questions to Ask When Reviewing Literacy Curriculum

Matt Renwick uses five questions to lead a team through reviewing a literacy curriculum resource. Download the checklist to use during your own review process.

Off the Hook: How to Engage with and Reframe Our Obstacles to Reduce Anxiety and Stress

Obstacles are a part of literacy leadership. Matt Renwick offers three steps to reframe our obstacles in order to reduce anxiety and stress.

Lifting Teachers by Lifting a Teacher

Mary Brower shares a process to uplift teacher voices in professional learning. The effort is small, but the payoff is astronomical!

Fixer of Everything

Dana Murphy is the only reading interventionist in her school, and her groups are maxed out. She shares some of her simplest yet most effective intervention strategies that all classroom teachers can use.

Examining (and Changing) Our Literacy Beliefs over Time

Changing one’s mind in today’s educational world can feel risky. We fear looking incompetent or like we don’t know what we believe. Matt Renwick learned firsthand that when leaders share how their thinking and beliefs around literacy instruction has changed, it increases the level of respect from others.

Engaging from the Start: Considering Accessible Professional Development Experiences for a Range of Educators

Inspired by low-ceiling, high-threshold activities in classrooms, Heather Fisher offers three ways to plan professional learning so that it is accessible to a range of educators.

Developing Transcripts of Classroom Teaching with AI

Suzy Kaback provides a guide for using an AI chatbot to help generate transcripts to study explicit instructional moves. Download a progression to learn how to refine requests to create a high-quality transcript. This is the third installment in a series about using AI with teacher candidates.

AI in Teacher Prep

Suzy Kaback guides us in learning to use ChatGPT as a thought partner. She offers a compelling rationale, clear step-by-step directions, and resources to build a deeper understand of using AI to prepare for instruction. This is the second installment in a series about using AI with teacher candidates.

Meet Stevie, Our Imaginary AI Friend

Inspired by a third-grade teacher, Suzy Kaback uses AI to generate an imaginary student to engage her teacher candidates as they mediate teaching and learning through a proxy. This is the first installment in a series about using AI with teacher candidates.

Quiet Coaching

Matt Renwick offers insightful ideas about reaching colleagues who are resistant to coaching. Matt offers three steps and practical ideas to “quietly coach.”

Misreading Body Language

Matt Renwick reminds us of the benefits and dangers of reading (or misreading) body language, and offers a way to get to the heart of communicating clearly.

Make and Take…With a Twist: Incorporating Research and Play with Preparing Materials

Heather Fisher taps the power of play in professional learning. By being mindful of incorporating play into professional learning, teachers build their skills and confidence with new materials or strategies in their classrooms.

Ways to Make Positive Momentum Happen in Sticky Situations

Instructional coach Paula Fiscus finds ways to establish positive momentum in a season of combining two schools into one.

Connecting the Dots

Heather Fisher realized the possibility of connections while volunteering in the T-ball dugout. This transformed the direction of her coaching conversations as she used questioning and wait time to help teachers make powerful connections between content areas.

You’re Not There—Yet!

Mary Brower considers ways to support risk-taking in classrooms. She shares a simple process for reflective practice that helps fuel professional growth.

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