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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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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.

A Complicated Relationship with Standards

Melanie Meehan looks at how expectations for curriculum and professional development have changed with the Common Core, and not always for the better.

Meeting Snapshot: Evidence of Learning

In this brief excerpt from a first-grade team planning meeting, Principal Jason DiCarlo asks for evidence of learning from previous work together. Before beginning new lesson design, the group always reflects on changes in classrooms since the last gathering.

Picture It: Museum Walk with Quotes

Kathy Provost and Heather Fisher share a simple activity to open or transition in professional development sessions.

“Get a Little on Ya”: Coaching Teachers Through Change

Dana Murphy uses a humorous mantra to remind herself and the teachers she works with that change comes only when you have the courage to try new things even before you fully believe in their value.

Why I Love Having a Coach

Franki Sibberson shares a teacher's perspective on why even the most experienced teachers can benefit from having a coach as a mentor.

Fostering Change with Student Work

Heather Fisher has a secret weapon for nudging teachers toward change: student work samples. She explains how she finds opportunities across the day for sharing them.

Coaching Basics: Routines

Ruth Ayres shares a simple protocol for coaches to use with teachers when they are thinking through changes to routines in their classrooms.

Coaching Logs and Daily Reflective Routines

Gretchen Taylor explains why it's important for coaches to carve out time to use their coaching notes for reflection.

Cultivating Natural Mentors

Jennifer Schwanke thinks back to her painful first days as a teacher in a "mentor-free" zone and shares how literacy leaders can cultivate and foster natural mentorships for new teachers.

Meeting Snapshot: Exploring Terms in Standards

Jason DiCarlo pauses for a minute with a team of first-grade teachers to examine a standard together, projected with an LCD to ensure everyone has the same understanding of terms and definitions in the standard.

First-Grade Small Group: From Decoding to Monitoring for Meaning

Clare Landrigan leads a demonstration small group with Braden and Talis, who are working to move from an emphasis on decoding in first grade to monitoring meaning. The video includes a prebrief and debrief with the classroom teacher, Ann Vigne.

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