Lead Lit Topic: Collaborative Teaching
Whether you’re collaborating with a veteran teacher who is confident about her classroom, or a novice who is completely overwhelmed with management issues, structuring collaborative teaching is one of the most fulfilling and important responsibilities for any literacy coach. Here are some possibilities for making the most of your collaborative time with colleagues.
Results
Teacher and Coach, Side by Side: Affirmations for Leaders in Maintaining a Supportive Presence
The pizza oven stood on the pavement at my parents’ house, awaiting the maiden voyage for that first pizza pie to enter the oven. It had been weeks since my...
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...
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....
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,...
Tips for Planning with Teachers
“So here’s what I’m planning for next week.” Michele, a third-grade teacher, held up her planbook for me to see. She had written her teaching points in pen across the...
One Teaching Point at a Time
Whenever we are learning a new skill, regardless of the content, regardless of our age, it helps when we break it down into steps. No one can jump on a...
Settling In
“Okay, writers, off you go,” Mrs. Smith says with a smile and a wave of her hand. The first graders scurry to their writing spots and open their writing folders...
Speech/Language Pathology and Literacy: Making Connections
Throughout the course of a school year, teachers who have some concerns about a particular student often approach me to talk it through. They may tell me they feel something...
Building Specialist Capacity
Specialized teachers and paraprofessionals are tremendous resources for classrooms, and the many adults who work in schools want to teach meaningful lessons to students. They just don’t know how. One...
Purposeful Post-Its
As teachers and literacy coaches, we love sticky notes, but we don’t love seeing them overused with no purpose. For example, we may have what I call “sticky-note queens and...
Coaching Minute: Using Foam Boards with Students
In this quick video, Jennifer Allen explains how using foam boards with students can increase engagement and extend learning between demonstration lessons.
Tracking Characters in Fourth Grade
Kathy Provost leads a demonstration lesson on tracking characters with fourth graders. The lesson includes prebrief and debrief sessions with their teacher Jaime Leger.
Coaching a Shift to a New Writing Unit
Melanie Meehan coaches a third-grade teacher who is transitioning between information- and opinion-writing units, emphasizing how charts might be used in the class effectively.
Together: Supporting Readers Toward Independence
Walking into Deb Frazier’s first-grade classroom, it was obvious the students were already engaged in their reading workshop choices. Students were sitting around the room in little nooks, on stools,...
Nurturing a Growth Mindset in Young Readers
The growth mindset, a term brought to life by psychologist Carol Dweck, is becoming an ever-present expression in our schools. In her book Mindset, she refers to the growth mindset...
Coaching and Tracking Conferences
I admire teachers who ask questions about conferring since conferring is at the heart of writing workshop, but it is one of the hardest parts. Unlike the minilesson, teachers don’t...
Picture It: Student Mentor Text Bulletin Board
Inspiration is at the heart of writing. Whether it be a well-known author from an author study or a classmate, students become inspired by other writers when the abstract becomes...
What Are You Working on Today?
Conferring with readers is the heart of reading workshop. Conferring is where you meet kids right where they are and teach them exactly what they need to know to move...
Coaching Collaboration: Visual Note Taking in First Grade
Entering a new coaching cycle with teachers is an exciting time. Teachers bring eagerness and a willingness to try novel ways of teaching skills and strategies, and collaboration is at...
From Worksheets to Workshops
At the beginning of my time at Miami Elementary School, I sent my teachers an email with my calendar and a list of ways I could support them. One item...
In the Trenches: Reflection, Not Perfection
As a middle school literacy coach whose job is to provide job-embedded professional development, I am fortunate to find myself in classrooms a good amount of the day. My stance...
