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Study Groups

Teacher study groups are as diverse as the teachers who participate in them. They can be an informal, low-key coffee klatch designed to relieve the daily stress of teaching or a highly structured inquiry group with definite participant protocols. Most study groups are somewhere in-between, with colleagues getting together regularly to discuss books, view videos, and support each other as they test out new literacy instruction strategies in their classrooms. Here you’ll find inspiration and ideas from study group leaders who coordinate book groups, design workshops, and develop structures for helping colleagues transfer professional learning to the reality of the classroom and sustain it.

Latest Content
First-Grade Team: Exploring Student Engagement

Heather Fisher leads a first-grade team monthly meeting where everyone shares strategies they are trying for fostering more student engagement.

Making Meetings Purposeful

From identifying intent to setting personal norms, Jen Schwanke shares her key principles for leading meetings that participants won't hate.

Being Selfish About Meeting Norms

Jennifer Allen questions the purpose of meeting norms, and begins from a new place in establishing them for a study group.

Coaching Minute: Student Observation Form

In this brief video, Kathy Provost and Heather Fisher talk about the value of trying out a student observation form first within the coaching team before using it in classroom observations with teachers.

Third-Grade Team Discussion: Rate Your Post-It Tool

Literacy coach Kathy Provost leads a team of third-grade teachers as they discuss using a “Rate Your Post-It” visual tool in their classrooms.

Motivating Reluctant Writers in Third Grade

Kathy Provost and a third-grade teaching team discuss how to motivate reluctant writers.

Case Studies All Year Long

Kathy Provost and Heather Fisher talk with reading specialists about the value of following a case study over an entire year.

Coaching Minute: Lesson Planning Form

Kathy Provost and Heather Fisher talk about the value of using a lesson planning form with teachers as a shared record of plans, action, and reflection in coaching sessions.

Planning Next Year’s Professional Development Offerings

Jennifer Allen shares her topics, schedules, and plans for study groups in 2017-2018.

Coaching Minute: Selecting Books for Teachers

In this brief video, Kathy Provost and Heather Fisher share some criteria for selecting books for teachers to open doors and conversations.

The Secret to Better Meetings: It’s All in the Ending

Jennifer Allen shares her favorite ending for meetings that leaves participants hungry for more.

The Other Agenda

Dana Murphy shares a simple technique to ensure there is more transfer of new learning strategies from meetings and professional development workshops to classrooms.

Coaching Minute: Better Data Meetings

In this brief video, Heather Fisher and Kathy Provost explain why turning data meetings over to reading specialists has had such a positive effect on schools in their district.

Planning Family Literacy Night

Heather Fisher and Kathy Provost work with a group of reading specialists to plan a family literacy night.

Collecting Data on Case Study Students

Launching case studies can be overwhelming for teachers and specialists. Kathy Provost shares a form she uses with reading specialists to help focus observations and collect a manageable amount of data to analyze for each case study student.

Coaching Minute: Case Studies with Reading Specialists

Heather Fisher and Kathy Provost talk about how case studies have changed their work with literacy specialists over the past year in this brief video.

Common Planning Meeting: Third-Grade Notebooks

In this excerpt from a common planning meeting, Kathy Provost works with third-grade teachers who are focused on improving their use of student notebooks across the curriculum.

Teachers Who Write

Ruth Ayres shares the power of a professional development session that reawakened her love of writing and then transformed her teaching.

Making Fiction Writing Come to Life

Heather Fisher experiences a breakthrough with first-grade teachers when they create fictional characters in a professional development session and then try the same activity with their students.

Coaching Minute: Literacy Master Document

Kathy Provost and Heather Fisher explain how the Literacy Master Document has simplified and improved their coaching.

Recipes and Lesson Plans: Process and Practice

Suzy Kaback is inspired by chefs testing recipes to develop a lesson analysis activity. She shares an example of how it works,  encouraging honesty and risk-taking among new teachers.

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