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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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Math, Literacy, and RTI

Jennifer Schwanke explores connections between content literacy and RTI plans.

Reflections on the First Six Weeks Coaching

Samantha Munnecke chats with Heather Rader about learning and surprises from her first six weeks as a literacy coach.

Assessment and Response to Intervention

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan explain why the promise of RTI won’t be fulfilled until individual assessments are more closely linked to interventions.

Repertoire: A Coach’s Perspective

Melanie Meehan considers how coaches, teachers, and students can build a range of strategies they know how to access easily for independent learning.

Keeping Note Taking Fresh for Students

Kathy Provost shares many note-taking options teachers might try with students, especially those involving sketching and other visual aids.

What’s Not on the Study Group Agenda

Jennifer Allen describes some of the subtle variables that lead to success in study groups, and includes a video of the closing minutes of a study group. This is the final video in a four-part series.

Listening and Storytelling

Andie Cunningham shares a simple and creative professional development activity that melds storytelling, art, and listening.

Creating Flash Continuums

Jason DiCarlo explains how to help teachers build flash continuums together. This activity is a quick routine used often to ensure teachers understand the Common Core standards and how to implement them at each grade level.

Toolbox Activities in Study Groups

Jennifer Allen uses "toolbox" activities during study groups as a way to help teachers add to their repertoire of practical teaching strategies. This video is the third installment in our four-part series on study groups.

Shifting to Student-Centered Coaching

Melanie Meehan explains why she made the shift from focusing on teacher skills to student needs in coaching, and how that has led to more reflective practice for everyone.

What I Know for Sure: Reflection and Core Beliefs

Stella Villalba shares a reflection activity that centers her coaching and relationships with teachers and children.

Predictable Structures for Study Groups

Jennifer Allen shares a typical format for study groups and a video excerpt from a recent group. This is the second installment in a four-part series.

Brain and Movement Breaks for Teachers

Heather Fisher explains why breaks are important for learners of any age, and how to incorporate them into professional development sessions.

The Evolution of Study Groups

Jennifer Allen explains what has changed and what remains the same in her study groups over the past decade. She includes a video example of the start of a study group. This is the first installment in a four-part video series.

Planning for a Year of Professional Development

If you’re planning next year’s study groups, you might find Jennifer Allen’s list and reflections helpful in thinking through your school and district needs.

An Open Apology

Jennifer Schwanke crafts a letter (never to be sent) to parents of her students from years past, remembering all her early blunders as a middle school teacher. This would be a fun piece to share at a new-teachers orientation, or as a workshop icebreaker for chatting about how teachers have changed over the years.

Seizing a Coaching Opportunity

Melanie Quinn develops a new appreciation for a fifth-grade teacher’s struggles with her class, and finds an opportunity to open a conversation about student motivation and community building.

Coaching Minute: Strategic Reading for Our Youngest Learners

In this quick video tip, Tammy Mulligan and Clare Landrigan have wise advice for supporting strategic reading in young learners.

Advocating for English Language Learners

Of all the skills teachers of English language learners need, knowing how to advocate for students may be the most important. Jennifer Schwanke explains why.

Hiring Teachers for English Language Learners

Jennifer Schwanke shares interview questions and ways to analyze candidate responses when hiring teachers of English language learners.

Taking Notes in Fourth Grade

Tammy Mulligan works with a group of fourth graders to help them build their nonfiction note-taking skills. The demonstration small group includes a prebrief and debrief with the teacher.

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