Lead Lit Article Type: Try It
Results
Opinion Exchange: A Workshop Activity for Study Groups
What do new teachers need to keep them going that difficult first year? In our first session with new teachers in October, our room was filled with the stories of...
Charting Isn’t Cheating
For the first few years of my high school teaching career, every time there was a major exam I was urged to take down or cover up anything that might...
Overwhelmed Coach
Everyone in education feels overwhelmed from time to time. Coaches can feel extremely stretched at particular times throughout the year. The months of November and March are the most intense...
Hollering About Informational Text
We set out over a year ago to increase the informational side of our bookshelves when we realized that our professional development mentor texts mirrored the elementary school discrepancy between...
Transcription: A Lens for Reflection
Having my picture taken is something I dread. Mostly because I know that later I’m going to have to look at the photo and I’m sure I won’t like what...
Collaborating with My Principal on Student-Centered Coaching
It is the beginning of a new school year, and I am tucked in a small private meeting room with my coaching colleague Heather, drawing timelines and outlines. I’m shifting...
Book Hooks
I write this article about the masterful work of Amy Simmons, a teacher in my building. Her official role is “instructional support teacher,” which means she is in charge of...
Personal Conferring Notebooks
How do you effectively and efficiently share formative assessment data between the teachers providing different types of instructional support when the population of students receiving extra instructional support exceeds more...
Curriculum Work: Making Meaning Together
To make dreams apparent to others and to align people with them requires not just mere explanations or clarification but the creation of meaning. ...
Coaching Minute: On the Go Follow-Up Tip
In this Coaching Minute video, Heather Rader shares advice for dealing with teachers who need support when you are in the midst of other responsibilities. A transcript is available below...
Exit Slips Open Doors
"It doesn't have to end here." So claimed the PowerPoint slide at the end of my professional development classes in the past. With this statement, along with my contact information...
Can I Quote You on That?: Capturing Classroom Conversation
Sometimes inspiration for my teaching life comes from seemingly disparate experiences in my personal life. I spent a recent Saturday afternoon surrounded by a gaggle of giddy women who had...
Coaching Monkey
As a kid, Curious George was my hero. Sometimes I had to cover my eyes when he was about to get into trouble, but I knew in the end he'd...
Tips from Literacy Leaders for Closing Out the School Year (ROUNDUP)
Here are some suggestions from Choice Literacy contributors for the best ways to close out the year, with everything from personal organizing tips to family events. Heather Rader, Instructional Coach...
Calendaring a Literacy Coach
My husband and I married when we were sophomores in college transferring to the University of Washington. He was pursuing architecture and I was in education. We arrived in our...
Creating a Coaching Schedule
We have been encouraging the literacy coaches we work with to create a year-long coaching schedule for their school. The main goal of these coaching schedules is to ensure that...
Starting the School Year: A Checklist for Literacy Coaches
It occurred to me at the beginning of last year that there are certain tasks I do each fall to organize myself for the work of the upcoming year. Over...
Word Choice for Coaches
Peter Johnston has written an entire book about the subtleties of our communications. In Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning, Johnston explores the places where work is partially correct. He...
Reflecting on Student Work in Staff Meetings (Download a Template)
Over the last four years our teaching staff has included reflecting on student work as a part of our staff meetings. To be honest, we struggled for probably three of...
Three Little Phrases No Literacy Coach Can Live Without
If there are three skills any literacy coach needs, they are the ability to engage with colleagues, diffuse hostile situations, and connect with people who have a different world view....
The Power of Linking Words and Perceptions
It does not take long before we start to attach labels to children in any classroom. We begin to sort, both by academics and behavior. Soon we find ourselves using...
