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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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Libraries for All: Considering Struggling Readers

Cathy Mere explores the classroom library structures and texts that best support struggling young readers.

Reading Response in Third Grade: Demonstration Small Group

Tammy Mulligan leads a group of third graders in a small group designed to deepen their reading response. The video includes excerpts from the planning and debrief sessions with their teacher.

Coaching Cycles Matter

Julie Wright explains how coaching cycles fit into the larger scheme of ongoing professional development. She includes templates for planning and protocols in her piece.

Tips for Conducting Demonstration Lessons, or How to Avoid the “Am I Doing This Right?” Question

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan have advice for literacy coaches leading demonstration lessons.

Learning Labs for Professional Development

Kristin Houser finds learning labs are a powerful tool in her coaching. She provides tools and a graphic for understanding how they work.

Coaching Letter to Jo

Julie Wright guides a harried fifth-grade teacher in this sample coaching letter.

Student-Centered Coaching: Collaborating with Teachers

Heather Sisson considers when she has experienced success and when she has failed in attempting to collaborate with teachers.

The Value of Story Play

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan explain why story play is crucial in building children’s oral and written language skills. The feature includes a video of Clare leading a group of kindergartners in story play.

Coaching Letters

Julie Wright finds coaching letters are an essential element in her mentoring toolkit. In this first installment of a series, she explains the key components of letters that build rapport and instruction skills.

Accountable Talk: Beginning Steps

Kathy Provost and her colleagues are disappointed with test scores and realize that the quality of student conversations in their classrooms needs a lift.

Coaching Minute: Read to Every Class

Principal Jennifer Schwanke has a simple strategy for building connections to every reader in her school: she regularly reads to every class.

The Staircase Reading Response: Demonstration Small Group

In the second of a two-part video series, Clare Landrigan leads a demonstration small group with fourth graders who have an intriguing way of responding to reading.

Where Am I Going and How Did I Get Here?

Melanie Quinn shares a simple professional development activity to help teachers match their beliefs and practice.

The Staircase Reading Response: Planning Session

In this first video in a two-part series, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan meet with fourth-grade teachers to assess student reading responses and plan a demonstration small group that Clare will lead.

Secrets of Coaching Revisited

Jennifer Allen revisits the three principles that form her core beliefs about coaching, and decides to add a fourth.

My Ideal Professional Bookshelf: What Does Yours Look Like?

Ruth Shagoury works with teachers as they brainstorm which books have most influenced their professional beliefs and practice.

Resource Round-Up for Text Types

Heather Rader sets out to provide engaging, resource-packed professional development by helping teachers gain a deeper understand of text types, using children's books as mentor texts.
 

Coaching the Nuts and Bolts of Book Bags

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan have advice for the most common questions teachers ask about using book bags with young learners.

Pictures First

In this demonstration lesson, Clare Landrigan instructs a group of kindergartners who are stuck on the strategy of only "sounding it out" to decipher text.

I Should Have Stopped at the Staples

Have you ever tried to do too much in a conference with a student? Have you ever had this happen when a teacher is observing you as a model? Kathy Provost describes how the experience with a kindergarten student provided valuable insights for her and the child's teacher.

Writer-ish

Julie Johnson fails in an attempt to assess two kindergartners, and over time learns a lot about trust and the children's abilities from observing them and listening to their teacher.

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