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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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It’s All About Perception

Literacy coach Melanie Quinn works with teachers to help them move beyond deficit-based thinking in analyzing assessments.

A Coach’s Toolbox: Transcribing Talk

Dana Murphy finds one of the most important tools in her coaching arsenal is transcription. She explains when transcription is effective and gives tips for effective note taking.

Meeting Snapshot: Selecting a Standard for Lesson Study

In this short video excerpt, Jason DiCarlo works with a first-grade team to select a standard before designing a demonstration lesson. The group explores connections between reading and writing, and has an honest discussion of where children are in terms of understanding differences in fiction and nonfiction.

The Power of Sketchbooks for Coaches

Melanie Swider finds sketchbooks are a nifty tool for creating sample anchor charts as well as conferring with students and teachers.

Professional Development Planning

Melanie Meehan reflects upon what went well in a full-day professional development session early in the year as she plans for follow-up midyear.

Picture It: A Mentor Text Is Like . . .

Heather Fisher and Kathy Provost use an analogy exercise to provide a quick and creative brain break during professional development sessions.

Coaching Basics: Choice

Ruth Ayres explains how coaches can help teachers value choice in writing units through flexibility in genres and other structural supports.

Teaching Advanced Second-Grade Writers: Debrief

Literacy coach Kathy Provost and second-grade teacher Jen Volpicelli debrief after teaching a lesson for second graders who are moving beyond grade-level expectations in their writing. This is the third video in a three-part series.

Coaching Teachers to Support Gifted Learners

Gretchen Taylor has coaching advice for teachers who are working with a challenging population that is sometimes shortchanged: students who exceed grade-level expectations.

One Task Fits All

Melanie Quinn wonders if the "sit and get" agenda for a full-day inservice needs to be upended to acknowledge the struggles teachers are facing in meeting assessment demands in the district.

CoffeeEDU

Are the teachers you work with too overbooked for more professional development time? Literacy coach Brian Sepe finds that voluntary 15-minute sessions before school are wildly successful. He shares tips for implementing these lightning-fast workshops.

First-Grade Writing Group: Catchy Endings

Clare Landrigan leads a demonstration small group with first graders who are having trouble writing catchy endings to their opinion pieces. The lesson includes a prebrief and debrief with the classroom teacher.

The Power of a Hashtag for Districtwide Reading

Bill Bass shares the power of creating a hashtag for celebrating reading in the school community and beyond all year long.

Teaching Advanced Second-Grade Writers: A Collaborative Lesson

Literacy coach Kathy Provost and second-grade teacher Jen Volpicelli teach a lesson for second graders who are moving beyond grade level expectations in their writing. This is the second video in a three-part series.

Always Another Choice

Ruth Shagoury finds herself checking out during dysfunctional staff meetings. A mentor shares an anecdote and advice that helps her rethink her role with colleagues.

Collaborative Brainstorming

Bill Bass shares a creative way to integrate an online tool for brainstorming into professional development sessions. This tool is especially useful for including introverts in conversations.

No Cookies: Reflection and Celebration

Melanie Meehan and a fourth-grade teacher develop a lesson to help a challenging class of students reflect on their learning.

The Honeymoon Is Over

The warm, fuzzy feelings of back-to-school goodwill are gone by this point in the fall. Melanie Quinn designs a professional development session to help teachers reflect on classroom needs and develop some new strategies for strengthening classroom communities.

Teaching Advanced Second-Grade Writers: Designing the Lesson

Literacy coach Kathy Provost and second-grade teacher Jen Volpicelli design a lesson for second graders who are moving beyond grade-level expectations in their writing. This is the first video in a three-part series.

The Common Core and Parents: Building Bridges, Not Walls

Melanie Quinn works with teachers to make language less standards-based and more invitational in conferences with parents.

Meeting Snapshot: Examining Standards for Vertical Alignment

In this excerpt from a first-grade lesson study, Principal Jason DiCarlo and the team look at the standard they are tackling compared with what is expected in kindergarten and second grade.

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