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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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Coaching Minute: Punctuality

Heather Rader explains why starting meetings on time is crucial for the learning climate in this quick video tip.

Teaching Is Like . . .

Kim Campbell shares a fun activity for a staff meeting or the launching of any new study group.

An Ideal Professional Bookshelf: The Important Book for Teachers

Help teachers get back to their reading and teaching roots with this classic professional development activity from Ruth Shagoury.

When Is Coaching a Waste of Time?

Brenda Power asks a crucial question for coaches: When is it time to admit positive changes aren't happening and move on?

Failure to Thrive: Rethinking Assessment Binders

Kathy Provost and her coaching colleague are delighted with the assessment binders they've created . . . until they realize teachers aren't actually using them.

Literacy Day

Jennifer Schwanke tackles the challenge of developing an inviting curriculum for an "extra day" added to the school calendar because of weather disruptions.

Coaching Minute: Ending the Day

Heather Rader shares a quick video tip about the importance of closing rituals at the end of the coaching day.

Celebration Charts

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan find that celebrating small triumphs from the week is a great way to launch any professional development session.

Coaching Minute: Birthday Tip

Heather Rader has a quick video tip for organizing low-stress birthday celebrations for colleagues.

Coaching Minute: Reading Habits

Heather Rader explains why professional reading needs to be a priority for literacy coaches in this quick video.

Courage to Change: A Professional Development Activity

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share a professional development activity using the book Courage that helps teachers look at change in new ways.

Just Tell Me! Evaluation and the Coach’s Dilemma

Kathy Provost resists the role of evaluator as a literacy coach, but a classroom observation and the teacher's reaction makes her question this stance.

Above the Clouds

Jennifer Vincent reflects on the drudgery and angst that is a normal part of the life of literacy leaders helping others.

Coaching Minute: Waiting to Respond

Heather Rader explains the WAIT strategy for responding to challenging email in this quick video tip.

Drop the Rope

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share a strategy for working through tense situations when coaching.

Leadership 101: Knowing When to Step Back

Jennifer Schwanke prepares to lead a book study group among colleagues, and finds teachers are balking at the idea of adding one more responsibility. She asks herself an essential leadership question: Should I pull back or push?

Coaching Conversations: Easing Your Way into Positive Relationships

Sharon Thompson shares some of the highs (growing interest in getting help, via word of mouth) and lows (tutoring in an unheated closet?!) of her first year of coaching in this brief audio interview.

Demonstration Lesson: Reading Response in Notebooks

Tammy Mulligan leads a demonstration small group with fourth graders on writing responses to reading. The session includes a prebrief and debrief with the fourth-grade teaching team.

Is the Pain Worth the Gain?

Suki Mozenter works with three fifth-grade teachers to design a unit based on Common Core standards that emphasize integrated learning and non-narrative texts.
 

Coaching Minute: Professional Development

Deb Gaby talks about the importance of professional development mirroring best practices in this quick video.

Picture It: Mentoring Organization

How are you helping new teachers reorganize their classrooms now that the school year is well under way and issues are emerging? Sharing snapshots of how other teachers work through organization issues can help. Here is one example from Mandy Robek's kindergarten classroom.

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