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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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Hiring for Literacy: The Interview

These interview questions from Jennifer Schwanke are accompanied by a guide for what to look for in the answers from candidates, as well as potential red flags.

Talk to the Text Discussion Closure

Amanda Adrian and Heather Sisson lead a literacy coaching group discussion of an article using the “Talk to the Text” protocol. This is an excellent activity for fostering contributions from introverts. The video is Part 2 in a two-part series.

Talk to the Text Discussion Activity

Amanda Adrian and Heather Sisson lead a literacy coaching group discussion of an article using the “Talk to the Text” protocol. This is an excellent activity for fostering contributions from introverts. The video is Part 1 in a two-part series.

Learning How to Communicate: From Teacher to Coach

Gretchen Taylor weeds through old teaching files in her early days as a literacy coach and finds a common theme in both roles: the tendency to send overly long emails and notes.

When Guided Reading Goes Wrong

Shari Frost has suggestions for coaching teachers when guided reading isn't working in their classrooms.

Wild Reading: A Coach’s Perspective

Kathy Provost suggests a fun way for coaches to help students and teachers find joy again during independent reading.

Narrative Nonfiction Conference

Literacy coach Heather Rader confers with Beth Lawson about using more narrative nonfiction in both reading and writing workshops.

Coaching Minute: Getting Started with Evernote

Ruth Ayres and Deb Gaby talk about how they are beginning to use Evernote and different ways of organizing the tool.

Hosting a Family Writing Night

Dana Murphy finds that notebooks are the perfect catalysts for good writing and conversation at a family literacy event.

Coaching Minute: Dividing Responsibilities Among Coaches

Kathy Provost and Heather Fisher explain how they worked to divide responsibilities fairly and efficiently over time.

Five Notebook Pages I Can’t Live Without (and Neither Should Students)

Ruth Ayres shares five “mentor pages” from her writing notebook that you’ll want to develop and use over and over again in demonstration lessons.

First-Grade Writers: Demonstration Small Group

Clare Landrigan leads a demonstration small group with first graders. The video includes a planning session and debrief with the children's teacher.

What Holds Students Back in Writing?

Melanie Meehan brings together her recent observations in classrooms to identify five things that get in the way of students moving forward as writers.

Coaching Minute: Building a Coaching Rapport

Literacy coaches Ruth Ayres and Deb Gaby chat with second-grade teacher Cathy Laker about building trust in coaching and teaching relationships.

Getting Creative in Building Relationships with Teachers

If you are struggling to build relationships with a few teachers in your community, you might enjoy these creative suggestions from Ruth Ayres.

Apps in Perspective

Jennifer Vincent helps a group of teachers who request suggestions for apps in Spanish. She "zigs" when they want her to "zag" by encouraging them to go deeper into exploring what students need.

Monitoring for Meaning: Fourth-Grade Small Group

In this demonstration small group, Tammy Mulligan teaches fourth graders strategies to monitor for meaning. The demonstration lesson includes a planning session with the teacher and a debrief.

I Have Time

Ruth Ayres explains why these are the three most important words for literacy coaches to say throughout the day.

Staying Focused: How Leaders Can Keep Their Passion for Literacy Alive

Jennifer Schwanke shares nine strategies to use in the midst of days, weeks, and months that seem to be nothing but distractions.

Coaching Minute: Explore

Heather Rader explains the value of surfing the web with a professional development purpose in this quick video tip.

Resourceful and Cheap: Professional Development That Sparks Learning and Change

Jennifer Allen provides a sample agenda and inexpensive resources for leading a professional development session on anchor charts.

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