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Practical Literacy Coaching
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Practical Literacy Coaching
A Collection of Tools to Support Your Work



June 2009 | 180 pages | Corwin

Strengthen your effectiveness with proven tools developed by coaches who have "been there"!

This rich compilation of ready-made tools will enhance your literacy coaching by building skills across a wide range of responsibilities such as communication, literacy research, and technology. In an engaging, no-nonsense style, veteran coach and literacy consultant Jan Miller Burkins describes how to use each tool, provides action steps with reflection questions, and explores important aspects of coaching, including:

  • Defining roles—what you are, what you are not
  • Finding your "fit" in new coaching environments
  • Using forms in ways that motivate and support teachers
  • Assessing your impact based on a school's or district's mandate

 
Foreword
 
About the Author
 
Preface
Sharing Our Work

 
How This Book Came to Be

 
Suppositions

 
From Philosophy to Action

 
Conclusions: A Word About Imagination

 
 
Acknowledgments
 
Introduction: Three Metaphors for Literacy Coaching
Metaphor I: Coaching Pie

 
Metaphor II: Nesting Dolls

 
Metaphor III: Phases of the Moon

 
Closing Thoughts

 
 
1. Defining and Clarifying Your Role
Opening Thoughts: Finding Ourselves

 
Coaching Connection: Living Horizontal in a Vertical World

 
Related Research: Four Schools, Three Literacy Coaches, and 160 Teachers

 
Tools for Defining and Clarifying Your Role

 
A Coaching Story: Crossing Lines

 
Coaching Connection: Wet Cement in the Threshold

 
Taking Chapter 1 Personally: How Are You Defining and Clarifying Your Role?

 
 
2. Stepping Into the Work of Literacy Coaching
Opening Thoughts: Big Shoes

 
Coaching Connection: Sitting Big

 
Related Research: What Can a Coach Do for You?

 
Tools for Stepping Into the Work of Literacy Coaching

 
A Coaching Story: Quality Over Quantity

 
Coaching Connection: One Piece at a Time

 
Taking Chapter 2 Personally: How Are You Stepping Into Your Work as Literacy Coach?

 
 
3. Stretching Yourself
Opening Thoughts: Risky Business

 
Coaching Connection: Coaches Worth Their Salt

 
Related Research: Reflecting With Others

 
Tools for Stretching Yourself

 
A Coaching Story: Reading With a Different Lens

 
Coaching Connection: Yoga and Honoring Resistance

 
Taking Chapter 3 Personally: How Are You Stretching Yourself?

 
 
4. Developing and Supporting Learning Communities
Opening Thoughts: Smart Work

 
Coaching Connection: Red Grapes or Green Grapes

 
Related Research: Learning to Learn

 
Tools for Supporting and Developing Learning Communities

 
A Coaching Story: Modeling in Professional Learning

 
Coaching Connection: The Rubik's Cube

 
Taking Chapter 4 Personally: How Are You Developing and Supporting Learning Communities in Your School?

 
 
5. Coaching Individual Teachers
Opening Thoughts: Records on the Run

 
Coaching Connection: Thinking Outside the Mailbox

 
Related Research: Feedback and Situated Identities

 
Tools for Coaching Individual Teachers

 
A Coaching Story: Learning to Script Lessons

 
Coaching Connection: Just What I Needed

 
Taking Chapter 5 Personally: How Will You Work With Individual Teachers?

 
 
6. Documenting Your Work, Managing Your Time
Opening Thoughts: Matters of Time

 
Coaching Connection: Drumming Class

 
Related Key: Energy and Time

 
Tools for Documenting Your Work and Managing Your Time

 
Coaching Story: Play Fast

 
Coaching Connection: Machines That Make the Work Harder

 
Taking Chapter 6 Personally: How Do You Document Your Work and Manage Your Time?

 
 
References
 
Index

“This engaging resource lends an authentic voice to the challenges that literacy coaches face in their daily work and offers clear solutions for meeting those challenges. An excellent array of practical tools supports literacy coaches as they strive to establish collegial partnerships, reflect on their coaching roles, and refine coaching practices to facilitate effective learning communities.”

Maryann Mraz, Associate Professor, Reading and Elementary Education, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Author, The Literacy Coach's Companion, Grades PreK–3
Key features

Limitless in their application, the resources in this book are organized as tools for:

  • Defining and clarifying your role
  • Taking care of yourself
  • Recording what you see and hear in classrooms
  • Supporting professional learning
  • Documenting your work

Sample Materials & Chapters

Preface

Chapter 1


For instructors

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Paperback
ISBN: 9780872074736
$26.95