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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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Aligning Coaching and Teaching Teams

Jason DiCarlo has practical tips for getting coaches and teachers on the same page when it comes to aligning goals and strategies.

Coaching Excellent Teachers

Do even the most accomplished teachers need a literacy coach? Shari Frost believes they do, and has suggestions for making these coaching relationships work.

Coaching Minute: 100% of the Time

Do all teachers need a literacy coach’s support? Heather Rader has wise words of advice in this quick video tip.

Instructional Coach: A Position of Contradictions

Ruth Ayres writes about the inherent tensions in coaching, and ways to deal with them.

Quick! Hide the Chocolate: Challenging Coaching Relationships

Heather Sisson works through the challenges of helping a teacher who spends most of her time complaining about colleagues.

Coaching Minute: Quick Connections

Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan share the value of informal chance meetings with teachers they are coaching in this three-minute video.

Picture Walks Gone Wild: Supporting Teachers in the Appropriate Use of Picture Walks

Shari Frost grapples with the issue of picture walks that are too long, and how to guide teachers in leading picture walks that are more focused and purposeful.

Coaching Demonstration: Conferring with a Struggling Third-Grade Reader

Clare Landrigan works with third grader Reese as his teacher observes in this coaching demonstration conference.

Coaching Minute: Kinesthetic Transitions

Heather Rader has fun transition suggestions for use during demonstration lessons in this quick video tip.

Coaching Minute: Editing

Heather Rader has some suggestions for editing emails and other important writing in this quick video tip.

Mentor Texts for the Writing Process

Shari Frost shares children’s picture books which are about characters who write. These are wonderful mentor texts for writing minilessons.

Monitoring for Meaning Small Group

Clare Landrigan guides a small group of first-grade English language learners in a demonstration lesson.

How to Start a Writing Group

Do you have a goal of starting a writing group in your school or district? Ruth Ayres provides a step-by-step guide.

Slow Down: The Power of Two-Word Goals

Jennifer Schwanke is a minimalist when it comes to setting goals, and her advice may help you focus your expectations in the new year too.

Coaching Minute: Who I Know You to Be

Heather Rader shares a great phrase to use when building relationships with colleagues in this quick video tip.

Making Time for Classroom Visits

Jason DiCarlo explains why classroom visits are his top priority as a principal, and shares his schedule and prompts he uses while visiting to learn from students and teachers.

The Quiet Power of Language and Learning with Art

Andie Cunningham finds watercolors are the perfect tool for learning in a study group on a dreary winter day.

Coaching Minute: Little Things

In this brief video tip, Ruth Ayres reminds us it's the little things that matter most when it comes to coaching.

No Time for Collaboration

How can teachers and specialists collaborate when they are already stretched so thin for time? Shari Frost presents a case study from fifth grade.

Coaching Minute: Use Soft Words and Hard Arguments

Heather Rader explains the importance of using gentle words when giving honest but difficult feedback in this quick video tip.

Reluctant Teachers and Nonfiction

How do you work with teachers who refuse to change the quantity or quality of nonfiction reading and writing in their classrooms? Jennifer Schwanke has some suggestions.
 

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