Leaders Lounge

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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Making the Case for Literacy Coaches

If your district is considering cuts to its literacy coaching program, you’ll appreciate Shari Frost’s advice.

Reflecting on Student Work in Staff Meetings (Download a Template)

Jennifer Allen describes a protocol for analyzing student work in teacher study groups and staff meetings, and includes a template for discussing classroom artifacts.

Calendaring a Literacy Coach

The joy and challenge of literacy coaching lies in creating a good structure for the day. Heather Rader has suggestions for short- and long-term planning on the coaching calendar.

How Study Groups Are Like Self-Cleaning Ovens

With a few key elements in place, Brenda Power and Jennifer Allen explain how study groups can almost run themselves and get everyone involved.

Creating a Coaching Schedule

Tammy Mulligan and Clare Ladrigan give advice on creating schedules for literacy coaches that integrate district goals and teacher interests.

Supporting Successful First-Year Coaches

Heather Rader gets the inside word from novice literacy coaches about the support they need to thrive.

Quick Take: Protocols for Teacher Study Groups

In this three-minute Quick Take video, Clare Landrigan describes the teacher study group protocol she uses to foster shared understanding and allow for differentiated learning among teachers.

Not That Into Me

If you’re a literacy coach, those teachers who don’t want to work with you can make you feel like the wallflower at the prom or the last kid picked for the basketball team.  Heather Rader has positive, proactive suggestions for making the best of an awkward situation.

Three Little Phrases No Literacy Coach Can Live Without

Brenda Power shares trade secret phrases for communicating with colleagues.

Undercover Coach: Making Time to Work with Children

If you're a literacy coach, the most important question to ask yourself may be this: how much time am I spending in classrooms?  Shari Frost writes about how coaches can move beyond a quest for perfect demo lessons to a stance of learning alongside teachers.

Engaging Teachers with Coaching

Heather Rader has some thoughtful advice on broaching the subjects of clarity, purpose, and confidentiality when engaging with teachers early in the coaching relationship.

Coaching High Fives

Stephanie Affinito finds that simple, quick, and modest celebrations can be just what teachers need to get through a long day. She shares the value of these coaching high fives.

Navigating Conversations

We all know when we need to have a conversation that will help but feels tricky to enter. Instructional Coach Mary Brower offers sage advice for navigating conversations with principals.

Prepping a Fieldwork Site: Strategies for Launching Quality Partnerships

Teacher Educators Teach | Suzy Kaback reminds us that launching a fieldwork site is a critical first step in building respectful, relevant partnerships that invite complex learning. “What does this space encourage?” is a helpful question to guide the launch. 

The Coach’s Notebook: How to Capture, Organize, and Analyze Your Data and Responsibilities

Matt Renwick opens up his coach’s notebook and guides us in establishing a tool that supports teaching and learning.

Teaching from the Heart

Teacher Educators Teach is a neighborhood in our Leaders Lounge just for teacher educators. Julie Johnson shares how she tackled the problem of engagement and discovers practical ways to make connections.

The Gift of Time

Mary Brower offers a practical and thoughtful way to honor busy teachers—she gives them the gift of time. If you’re an instructional coach, you may want to snag this idea to strengthen your relationship with teachers.

Bridging the Gap (Session 2): Finding Your Footing

Mary Brower provides a second professional learning session to help ease the tension between teachers who have opposing views about literacy instruction. Mary provides a protocol for creating a school-wide document of foundational literacy beliefs.

The Digital Declutter: Developing a Life Beyond Distractions

Matt Renwick offers a no-nonsense approach to a digital declutter in an effort to manage his time. Inspired by the book Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport, Matt shares practical ways for educators to consider a digital declutter.

When Coaching Fails: How to Help Educators Who Resist Help

Matt Renwick dives into the reasons why coaching sometimes fails and what we can do when we encounter colleagues who are “help resistant.”

Why Don’t School Leaders Give More Feedback? 

Matt Renwick insists that school leaders don’t have to forfeit their identities as supervisors to engage in coaching conversations with faculty members.  He offers five tips to build relational trust today.

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