Lead Lit Topic: Guiding Teachers
Here is where you'll find information on guiding teachers.
Results
Coaching Cycles Matter
As a former classroom teacher, I remember the days, weeks, and sometimes months when I felt like I was standing in a wind tunnel with things flying toward me. Those...
Tips for Conducting Demonstration Lessons, or How to Avoid the “Am I Doing This Right?” Question
Teachers spend most of their day alone with their class, and each day they are required to make hundreds of "in-the-moment" instructional decisions. Here are just a few of the...
Where Am I Going and How Did I Get Here?
And you may ask yourself What is that beautiful house? And you may ask yourself Where does that highway go? And you may ask yourself Am I right? . ....
The Staircase Reading Response: Planning Session
In this first video in a two-part series, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan meet with fourth-grade teachers to assess student reading responses and plan a demonstration small group that Clare...
Resource Round-Up for Text Types
My colleague Samantha Munnecke and I had just finished facilitating our Introduction to Writing Workshop series when it was time to create a new course and respond to teachers’ content...
My Ideal Professional Bookshelf: What Does Yours Look Like?
Inspired by our discussions of an important book in our professional lives (see Part 1), our literacy teacher support group decided to take our work a step further and create...
An Ideal Professional Bookshelf: The Important Book for Teachers
This year, our literacy teacher support group is doing a lot of book talk—about favorite books, memories of reading, and current reading obsessions—to help ground us in our classroom practice....
Teaching Is Like . . .
Early in the year as I prepared to meet with different groups of educators, I recognized that I needed a quick but meaningful way to build relationships. It was also...
When Is Coaching a Waste of Time?
I met Lisa, a new literacy coach, for dinner early in the fall. She’d just come from an afternoon meeting with Mary, a fifth-grade teacher. They had discussed designing a...
Just Tell Me! Evaluation and the Coach’s Dilemma
Coaches are not evaluators. We are a teacher's side-by-side partner; a confidential listener, encouraging teachers to take risks, helping them to hone their skills to become the best teacher for...
Coaching Minute: Reading Habits
Heather Rader explains why professional reading needs to be a priority for literacy coaches in this quick video. A transcript is available below the player. Do...
Courage to Change: A Professional Development Activity
We love to use picture books to inspire conversation around change in our leadership meetings. Recently we tried a new book and loved how it worked. We used Courage...
Drop the Rope
Change is hard. Coaching change is even harder. Those moments of tension we experience can be brutal. We feel defensive, hurt, or even useless. How do we find the strength...
Above the Clouds
The few days before my trip to Boston had been stormy, dreary, and overcast. I knew the forecast predicted rain at my destination, but as I was leaving for the...
Coaching Conversations: Easing Your Way into Positive Relationships
In this conversation, Sharon Thompson chats with Brenda Power about how important it is for new coaches to listen, and the hazards of going where you aren't wanted. A full...
Leadership 101: Knowing When to Step Back
My school literacy team met last week. The literacy team includes specialists and grade-level team leaders. The agenda was a typical one: Our media specialist shared new books available in...
Picture It: Mentoring Organization
Here you see Mandy Robek has sorted her markers into color bins so kindergarten students can easily find what they need and return it to the right place. Valuable teaching...
Writing Conference Role-Plays: Learning to Listen In
In the writing process, the teacher and student face the task of making meaning together. They start on a trip of exploration together. They find out where they are going...
Classroom Visits for Professional Development Insight
Have you ever seen the people at the mall with clipboards, pestering every person who walks by, asking them for five minutes of their time to take a survey? Have...
Learning from Students
I have long known that a teacher can render, ruin, or restore a child’s love of reading and writing. On the “ruin” side of things, I think of my brother,...
Coaching Minute: Listen and Be Brave
Deb Gaby has wise advice about the coach's role with teachers in this brief video.
