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Literacy Walks: Seek, Name, and Strengthen Promising Practices

Instructor
Matt Renwick
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Literacy Walks: Seek, Name, and Strengthen Promising Practices

Details

How do schools improve? Certainly not by viewing teachers as problems to be solved. Rather, literacy leaders can support teaching and learning by adopting the belief that every school is filled with possibility. One way to reframe our perspective is to shift how we supervise and support teaching and learning.

Through the implementation of literacy walks, leaders seek out promising practices, note and name them during formative visits, and lead coaching conversations with teachers. The outcome is not only school improvement, especially in literacy, but also a community of learners who engage in continuous improvement as a natural stance toward our profession.

Matt Renwick leads instructional leaders in implementing and strengthening instructional literacy walks.

What You’ll Learn

  • Describe why an informal, nonevaluative approach to classroom supervision and support leads to improvement in trust, relationships, and instruction.
  • Develop an understanding of your school’s strengths and areas for growth with an environmental walk. 
  • Implement a process for regular classroom visits that builds trust and relationships first before engaging in coaching conversations.
  • Adopt and/or develop a framework for instruction that provides a focus during instructional walks and language during coaching conversations.
  • Document teaching and learning objectively and with a stance of curiosity vs. judging and evaluating. 
  • Facilitate a coaching conversation that supports teacher reflection, introspection, and renewal.
  • Collect and analyze literacy walk data to understand schoolwide trends and patterns and inform future professional learning needs. 
  • Build the capacity for teachers to become leaders in their own building through peer observation/coaching experiences.

What You’ll Get

  • eight keynote lesson presentations
  • access to 70+ site articles and videos to deepen your learning
  • PDFs to help you implement instructional literacy walks
  • Observation Template and Documentation Form to identify and encourage promising practices

This course is included with Literacy Leadership and Literacy Team memberships.

Course Curriculum

1
Defining Literacy Walks: Part 1

Matt describes why an informal, non-evaluative approach to classroom supervision and support leads to improvement in trust, relationships, and instruction.

2
Defining Literacy Walks: Part 2

Matt describes why an informal, non-evaluative approach to classroom supervision and support leads to improvement in trust, relationships, and instruction. Part 2 includes additional articles, videos, and resources.

3
Understanding the Literacy Walk Process: Part 1

Matt leads participants in implementing a process for regular classroom visits that builds trust and relationships first before engaging in coaching conversations.

4
Understanding the Literacy Walk Process: Part 2

Matt leads participants to implement a process for regular classroom visits that builds trust and relationships first before engaging in coaching conversations. Part 2 includes additional resources, articles and videos.

5
Literacy Walks in Action: Part 1

Matt models how to document teaching and learning objectively and with a stance toward curiosity rather than judging and evaluating.

6
Literacy Walks in Action: Part 2

Matt models how to document teaching and learning objectively and with a stance toward curiosity rather than judging and evaluating. Part two includes additional resources, articles and videos.

7
Guiding Teachers Toward Independence: Part 1

Matt collects and analyzes instructional walk data to understand schoolwide trends and patterns and inform future professional learning needs.

8
Guiding Teachers Toward Independence: Part 2

Matt collects and analyzes instructional walk data to understand school-wide trends and patterns and inform future professional learning needs. Part two includes additional resources, videos and articles.

Meet Your Instructor

Instructor
Matt Renwick

Matt Renwick is an elementary school principal who writes at Read by Example and tweets @ReadByExample. He is a veteran public educator, working first as a classroom teacher and now serving as the school leader at Mineral Point Elementary School in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Matt’s educational writing and consultant work focus primarily on literacy instruction, school leadership, and technology integration. He has spoken at national conferences, including ASCD, ISTE, NAESP, and NCTE, and has facilitated workshops and professional learning experiences. Matt is the author of Digital Student Portfolios: A Whole School Approach to Connected Learning and Continuous Improvement (2014) and the ASCD Arias book 5 Myths About Classroom Technology: How do we integrate digital tools to truly enhance learning? (2016). His next book on leading like a coach will be out in 2022 from Corwin.

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