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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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Creating a Healthy Classroom Culture the First Week of School

Ruth Shagoury observes how a classroom community is built in one sixth-grade classroom, and ponders how she can use what she has observed with the young teachers she mentors.

Demonstration Small Group: Retelling Strategies in First Grade

In this demonstration lesson, Clare Landrigan works with a group of first graders who need help developing retelling skills. The video includes a prebrief and debrief with the classroom teacher to help focus the lesson.

Finding Purpose in Coaching with Organized Notes

After two years of coaching, Kathy Provost worried that her classroom sessions with teachers lacked purpose. She shares a notetaking form she developed to focus and extend the learning from these interactions.

Coaching Minute: Notes

Heather Rader explains how she uses the “notes” section in organizers to build rapport with teachers in this quick video tip.

Leading a Multi-Day Curriculum Meeting

Jennifer Vincent adds ways for committee members to share notes and insights in writing outside meetings, as a way to ensure that all voices (especially those of introverts) can be heard.

Educating Parents on Supporting Boys

Jodi Mahoney shares insights from research on boys' literacy that is useful to share with parents in presentations.

Literacy Learning and Parent Teacher Organizations

Jennifer Schwanke changes her collaboration with her school's Parent Teacher Organization when she realizes that many in the group don't have the background knowledge to understand current practices.

Coaching Conversations: Building a Foundation of Trust

In this audio interview, Brenda Power chats with Gwen Blumberg about her lessons from her first years of coaching: trust takes time, and baby steps toward change need to be celebrated.

Compass Points and Collaboration

Jennifer Vincent uses “compass points” to help colleagues understand differences in learning and collaborative styles.

Coaching Conversations: Overstepping and Realistic Modeling

In this podcast, Brenda Power and Krystal Nemeth chat about Krystal's experiences as a new coach, especially one situation when she was over-zealous in planning and leading a small-group demonstration lesson.

Match-and-Move in Coaching

Prompted by a rude clerk, Heather Rader reflects on the use of matching-and-moving while coaching.
 

Book Shopping as a Literacy Coach

Karen Terlecky shops for books in new ways now that she is moving from a classroom to a literacy coaching position.

Repurposing a Classroom Library for Coaching and Intervention: Hooking Reluctant Readers in Grades 3-5

Julie Johnson moves from a teaching to a coaching and intervention position, and finds the move requires some rethinking about her library of books.

Coaching Minute: A Conduit for Resources

Heather Rader explains how coaches can best share resources with colleagues.

Coaching Conversations: Defining Your Role

Brenda Power chats with Kathleen Collaro about the challenges of carving out time for coaching when teachers are clamoring for additional instruction support for struggling learners.

Collaborative Conferring

Bill Bass helps a group of teachers set up a conferring document in Google Drive that allows everyone (teachers, specialists, and administrators) to share insights on young readers they work with throughout the day.

Pits and Peaks

Jennifer Vincent mines a truly unlikely source for inspiration, and creates a document many teachers can use to express triumphs and struggles with technology.

Picture It: Live Demonstration

This photo captures the power of live demonstrations in professional development.

ABCs of Coaching

Heather Rader has compiled the perfect summer read for literacy coaches: an alphabet primer to help you be your best coaching self next fall.

First-Grade Nonfiction Retelling Small-Group Demonstration Lesson

Clare Landrigan leads a nonfiction retelling small-group demonstration lesson. The video includes a prebrief and debrief with the teacher.

Digital Clutter and Being Present with Teachers

Jennifer Vincent changes her approach to one-on-one appraisal conferences with teachers by eliminating "digital clutter" and finding other small ways to give those she is meeting with her full attention.

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