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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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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.

From Coaching Logs to Coaching Reports

Gretchen Taylor uses her coaching logs to craft coaching reports. These reports are a catalyst for receiving feedback from administrators on her work.

Coaching Minute: Cycle Evaluation Form

Melanie Meehan shares her coaching cycle evaluation form and why it is helpful in this quick video tip.

On Being Coached

Dana Murphy finds herself analyzing how a colleague encourages her, and in the process reaffirms the value of coaching for everyone.

Bounce-Back Spirit

Ruth Ayres shares the "bounce-back spirit" all educators need through the inspiring story and video of Heather Dorniden.

The Importance of Encouragement

Melanie Meehan and a coaching colleague transfer lessons from their children participating on sports teams to their coaching sessions.

The Evolution of Data Meetings

Kathy Provost writes about how her district moved from a physical to a virtual data wall, and the implications for talk about assessment and student needs.

Coaching Minute: Student Work Form

Melanie Meehan talks about the importance of developing assessment forms for coaching cycles that focus on student work and integrating analysis of the work into plans for instruction.

The Students Behind the Numbers

Matt Renwick shares the challenges and benefits of using multiple measures to inform instruction with an example of the impact of a read aloud in a fifth-grade classroom.

From Worksheets to Workshops

A teacher asks first-year literacy coach Gretchen Taylor to observe and help with a disengaged student. Gretchen discovers in her observation that the issue may be that the literacy curriculum needs an update.

Coaching Collaboration: Visual Note Taking in First Grade

Heather Fisher and a first-grade teacher collaborate after an embarrassing classroom observation reveals that students need to develop note-taking skills.

Helping with Management Challenges in First Grade

Melanie Meehan is coaching a first-grade teacher struggling with management. She shares her top four strategies for focusing students during minilessons.

First-Grade Retelling Demonstration Lesson

Clare Landrigan leads this first-grade demonstration small group on retelling strategies. The demonstration includes prebrief and debrief meetings with the teacher.

In the Trenches: Reflection, Not Perfection

Gretchen Taylor finds it’s important to suppress her urge to manage students when coaching—and to be honest with teachers about those urges.

Meeting Snapshot: Defining the Essential Question

Jason DiCarlo leads a team of first-grade teachers and specialists as they work to define an essential question before a demonstration lesson to focus discussions and expectations.

Coaching Tool: Voice-Overs

Brian Sepe uses "voice-overs" (reflecting aloud during demonstration lessons) to help display his thinking to teachers who are observing the instruction.

Voice Notes

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan use voice notes as a way to be more reflective and systematic in organizing materials after professional development sessions.

Problems and Solutions: Small-Group Demonstration Lesson

In this demonstration small group, Clare Landrigan works with a second-grade teacher to reflect on the needs of two students and, after the lesson, debriefs with her about the learning.

Better Meetings Through Reflection

Jennifer Allen ponders the importance of including a reflection component in meetings, and shares a reflection protocol she finds is effective.

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