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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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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.

Visual Data for Literacy

When data was flying and difficult to corral, David Pittman sought to create a tool for teachers to use that would encompass all pieces of data as well as align with shifts in instruction. David shares the process of developing a useful tool that honors student learning and provides clarity for next steps for growth.

How to Manage Our Frustrations in Difficult Times

Matt Renwick offers an insightful perspective on how anger arises in educators, where it comes from, and what to do about it.

Coaching Up: How Teachers Can Support School Leaders ’ Capacity for Positively Influencing School-wide Instruction

Matt Renwick encourages school leaders to be brave and engage a teacher as a thought partner. This helps leaders construct a better understanding of school-wide instruction.

Coaching from Teachers’ Strengths

When observing literacy instruction, Matt Renwick asks the question “Who is being served and who is not?” This allows an entry point into a conversation based on teacher strengths while simultaneously being aware of equitable practices.

PL…See? Lightening Up PLCs to Increase Engagement

David Pittman reminds us of the importance of curiosity in driving professional learning communities. If engagement is waning in your PLCs, this article is a must-read!

Balancing Ambition with Humility

Brian Sepe defines a leader as someone who balances ambition and humility. Although ambition and humility may seem like opposing forces, the most effective leaders are those who skillfully blend these two traits.

Developing an Ambitious Vision with Humility

Brian Sepe guides leaders in determining how to strike a balance between ambition and humility to achieve objectives and to influence and inspire the people they lead.

 Bridging the Gap (Session 1): The Sold a Story Peel

Mary Brower shares a professional learning experience that peels back the layers of the Sold a Story podcast to help teachers find common ground in reading instruction. Includes a template for a guided conversation.

Empowering Teachers and Building Relationships

As a traveling coach, Mary Brower was overwhelmed by the amount of things she was. One day when the load felt too big, she heard joy spilling out of a classroom. Stopping to look into the classroom led to a powerful connection with a teacher…and a realization about what a coach really needs to carry.

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