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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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Conflict: A Teacher’s Perspective

Scott Jones shares his experience of being in conflict with a coach. After an uncomfortable 24 hours, he ends up with some insights about the value of the teacher-coach relationship.

The Importance of Creating a Literacy Room (Instead of a Tiny Office)

Melanie Swider finds that her first task in moving from teaching to a coaching role at her school is to think through how she will organize and share resources with teachers. Scratch that—her very first task is convincing her principal that a large room needs to be set aside for professional development resources.

Coaching and Tracking Conferences

Melanie Meehan shares some of her favorite prompts, strategies, and tools for effective conferences with students.

Coaching Minute: Baggies

Melanie Meehan shares her bedraggled baggie—the essential tools she carries with her when she confers with students.

No Cutting Corners in Coaching

A home renovation project gets Kathy Provost thinking about what's essential in coaching well.

Coaching Tool: Presentation Binders

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan explain how they organize on-the-go resources for presentations in this second installment in the coaching tools series.

Coaching Tool: Digital Books

In this first installment in a series, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share one of their favorite coaching tools: digital books.

Picture It: Student Mentor Text Bulletin Board

Heather Fisher shares an example of a craft resource—a bulletin board highlighting student writing choices that can help peers hone their craft.

Coaching Minute: What’s in My Bag

Melanie Meehan opens her coaching bag to share her favorite on-the-go resources.

Autobiographical Listening

Jennifer Schwanke realizes too often that in attempting to connect with others, we shift the focus away from the person we're listening to. She explains why feedback based on autobiographical listening may be problematic.

Improving My Feedback

Brian Sepe explores the difference between appreciative and coaching feedback, and why both are essential for literacy coaches to give to teachers.

Transcribing Conversations During Instructional Walks

Matt Renwick finds transcribing brief snippets of conversation with students during his daily instructional walks ensures the focus stays on students in conversations with teachers.

Meeting Snapshot: Deciding Look-Fors

In this excerpt from a meeting before a first-grade demonstration lesson, Principal Jason DiCarlo and teachers discuss potential "look-fors" during the lesson—what everyone will focus on during observations. The lesson and activity is designed to help the children differentiate between fiction and nonfiction.

Unintended Benefits of Recording Minilessons

Melanie Meehan explains the value of recording minilessons when coaching, and also shares some tips if you are new to the practice.

Don’t Confuse the Already Confused

Gretchen Taylor observes the confusion that ensues when different adults, all with the best intentions, work with readers who are struggling.

Inclusion: What Does It Mean?

Melanie Quinn chronicles the changes her school staff has gone through in defining and designing inclusion programs, from the “rolling cart” year to the time when all horseshoe tables vanished. This year, the staff finally got on the same page by creating a document defining their beliefs about inclusion.

Coaching Minute: Conferring Cards

In this brief video, Melanie Meehan shares the simple cards she gives to students when conferring. These cards document compliments and challenges to guide the student after the conference is over. They also give the classroom teacher a sense of what was discussed in the conference.

Persevere

Ruth Ayres realizes that sometimes the most important advice coaches can give to teachers is to just hang in there when things don't go as planned in reading workshops.

What Are You Working on Today?

Dana Murphy explains why reframing the opening question in conferences with children may be the most important thing teachers can do to foster more independence and stamina.

Sticking with a Topic

Tammy Mulligan leads a group with Luke and Gabby, two third graders who have trouble focusing on a topic while writing drafts. The demonstration lesson includes a prebrief and debrief with their teacher.

The Leading Edge

Dana Murphy considers what type of feedback is most helpful to teachers when they are most vulnerable—on the leading edge of trying something new.

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