Lead Lit Article Type: Try It
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Word Study Half-Day Professional Development
Word study is one part of the balanced literacy puzzle, and it takes a long time to go deep and wide in understanding. A lot of times we assess students...
Vocabulary Development in Writing
“You guys have a picture of a bunny in the grass. It looks like he’s moving. What is he doing?” The kindergartners looked at the picture for a few more...
Have Coach, Will Travel
I have a confession to make: I secretly pine for the beautiful literacy coaches' spaces that I see on social media and wish that I could re-create them for the...
Supporting Teachers in Planning an Interactive Read Aloud
Fourth- and fifth-grade teachers have a change in their schedule this year that allows them an additional 30 minutes of literacy time each day, separate from their reading and writing...
Coaching in PLCs
In our last fourth-grade PLC meeting we had tackled the first two questions, “What do we want students to learn?” and “How will we know they learned it?” Standards had...
There You Are
If you live near deciduous trees, you've probably seen, when the leaves fall, squirrels’ nests lodged high in a V formed where a large branch meets a tree’s trunk. Every...
Book Talks Go Digital
What’s the first thing you do after you turn the last page of your book? I usually sit in silence for a few moments and soak in the lessons I’ve...
Crafting Action Plans with Teachers
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. —African Proverb Often as an English learners instructional coach, I get invited to observe...
Prioritizing Presence
I was so excited to be invited to a coaching cycle with Angie. Angie was a strong teacher, the quiet leader type, who was respected by peers and who just...
Home Language Is Love Language
There is the memory, as if it were yesterday: having brunch with a graduate school classmate, seated on an outdoor patio on a gorgeous Sunday morning in late spring. I...
Increasing the Stickiness of Minilessons
During a coaching cycle early in the year, a common goal that teachers set for their students is transference of strategies taught during the minilesson to their independent writing time....
Rethinking Retelling
First . . . Next . . . Then . . . Last. These popular sequential words are plastered on anchor charts in elementary classrooms and within retelling bookmarks in...
Classroom Library Reflection
I once read an article where the author proclaimed that everyone should read 50 pages of a novel before abandoning it. However, after you turn 50, the writer insisted, you...
Priming the Pump
The morning dew had just started to evaporate as bright summer sunbeams had begun to peek over the trees. A jogger and his dog were making their way down the...
Family Literacy Breakfasts
Max arrived at school early and alone this Friday morning. It happened to be a morning we were having a family literacy breakfast, an event that we run a few...
Jump Right In and Other Lessons Learned from Remote Coaching
Sit side by side. Read the room. Choose a meeting spot that works best for the teacher. All of these practical coaching tips, gathered over the years and put into...
Investing in Coaching Logs
The first time I was introduced to the concept of a coaching log, I am sure that I rolled my eyes, clucked my teeth, crossed my arms, and sighed, or...
Solutions to Predictable Problems with Writing in Kindergarten
The kindergarten and first-grade classrooms we visit have moved into their launching units in writing workshop. The writers are working to write small-moment stories across pages of a book. Predictably,...
Hard Topics in Reading
Using books with dark themes or settings in the classroom can give students the language to express their emotions, models for how to discuss and engage on these topics with...
From Observations to Questions
What an honor it is to be invited into a classroom. I’m always reminded that it is a privilege. When teachers invite me to observe an English learner in their...
Using Supplies to Inspire
I waited anxiously at the kidney-shaped table for my mentor’s arrival. Thoughts about the upcoming school year—different grade level, new staff—had me all worked up. As she entered the room,...
