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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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Transitioning from Teaching Children to Adults

Erin Ocon makes the transition from teaching children to mentoring adults, and finds that most principles and practices for literacy learning still hold true.

Launching Meetings with Video

Jennifer Allen always launches study group meetings with short video clips. Here she shares some of her favorite free videos on the web.

Meeting Snapshot: Checking In

Jason DiCarlo launches the monthly lesson study with the first-grade team by checking in on learning since the last meeting—what was applied from the previous study (especially when it comes to standards), what went well, and what was surprising.

Collaborative Teaching: Debrief

Literacy coach Kathy Provost and second-grade teacher Jen Volpicelli debrief after teaching a lesson on opinion writing to Owen and Laura. This is the third video in a three-part series.

Getting Organized with Google

Gretchen Taylor finds Google is indispensable for keeping her literacy coaching work organized. She explains how she uses Google for everything from surveys to collaborating with teachers.

Sign-In Sheets, Professionalism, and Being Human

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan explain why they will not take responsibility for one record-keeping tool: the sign-in sheet for professional development sessions.

A Good Coach Is a Good Wingman

Ruth Ayres explains how a literacy coach is a wingman for teachers, with a mission of watching for danger, protecting, supporting, and encouraging.

Writer’s Notebook Minilesson

Sean Moore shows his second graders how he develops topics in his writer’s notebook in this demonstration lesson.

What Am I Doing Here?

Dana Murphy questions the value of her participation as a literacy coach in professional development sessions designed solely for teachers, and discovers unexpected benefits.

Collaborative Teaching: Opinion Writing

Literacy coach Kathy Provost and second-grade teacher Jen Volpicelli teach a lesson on opinion writing to Owen and Laura. This is the second video in a three-part series.

Breaking Away from the Team

Literacy coach Gretchen Taylor is stymied by a grade-level team with one dominant member. She needs to find creative ways to separate individual teachers from the "group-think" herd to guide and collaborate effectively.

Planning for Collaborative Teaching

Literacy coach Kathy Provost plans for small-group instruction with second-grade teacher Jen Volpicelli. This first video in a series is excellent for thinking through how coaches can make their planning and instruction for demonstration lessons more collaborative with teachers.

Struggling Teachers? Don’t Force It

Melanie Quinn confronts the dilemma that vexes many coaches: how to support struggling teachers who are required to receive coaching, whether they want the help or not.

Honesty with Adult Learners

Jennifer Vincent explains why the most important norm of all for coaches may be sharing vulnerability and openess in professional development settings.

Meeting Snapshot: Norms

At the start of this meeting before a demonstration lesson, Jason DiCarlo reminds the first-grade teaching team of the norms they have agreed to use throughout their time together.

Failure to Norm

Gretchen Taylor watches her coaching unravel with a teacher, and slowly comes to realize that the problem is a lack of shared expectations.

Matching Resources to Teachers: Tools for Coaches

Ruth Ayres explains how coaches can use technology to match teachers to resources in an era when what's available online can be overwhelming.

Integrating the Bookroom into Professional Development Sessions

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan explain how bookrooms can be at the heart of professional development sessions that are designed to help teachers explore resources. This is another installment in their bookrooms series.

Study Group Gifts

Jennifer Allen explains why she always budgets for small study-group gifts, and shares how they build connections between the groups and teaching practice.

Systems for Keeping the Bookroom Organized and Manageable

From setups to all-calls to end-of-year reorganizations, here are Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan’s best tips for keeping school bookrooms organized.

My New and Improved Writing Toolkit

What's in your bag? Melanie Meehan shares her favorite tools and how she organizes them in her bag for on-the-go coaching in writing workshops.

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