Fantastic Information

Robin L. — Mon, 19 May 2008 11:07:26 -0500

I have been a teacher for several years and have a lot of experience teaching older children. However, as a new mother, I have no experience teaching a baby! I too read Goodnight Moon and a variety of other books to my 5 month old but I have been wondering what the next steps were going to be to help become a book lover like I am. You have given me some fantastic information that I will use as a mother and that I will share as an educator. Thank you!

Robin L.

http://her-education-blog.com/

A new approach to helping young readers: literacy coaches

Leslie Madsen Brooks — Sun, 11 May 2008 00:18:05 -0500

The very first book I read my son when he was a teeny tiny infant was Goodnight Moon. He's now 2.5 years old, and I've probably read the book 500 times. Our shelves overflow with other children's books, he's learning the alphabet, and can recognize individual letters. As an avid reader myself, I love watching him learn. We're lucky that he attends a preschool where reading and literacy are highly valued, but I'm always on the lookout for ways that I can further influence his learning--and more importantly, his love of learning. Imagine my delight, then, when I discovered that there are blogs by literacy coaches--blogs packed with tons of information on early literacy.

But what is a literacy coach? The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) explains that

Literacy coaches are teachers who have content and instructional expertise in literacy. They are released from teaching so they can promote and support high quality literacy instruction through direct, school-based work with other teachers. [. . .] The main benefits of literacy coaching are: increased teacher willingness and ability to collaborate, peer accountability, and teacher knowledge about other teachers' classrooms; increased levels and quality of implementation of new instructional strategies; and support for new teachers. Many respondents indicated teachers became more receptive to change. Several cited coaches' ability to keep equity goals in the forefront of teachers' conversations and practice and help teachers use differentiated instruction with at-risk students.

If you're interested in literacy coaching--in how it works, in becoming a literacy coach, in implementing literacy coaching practices in your classroom--you're in lucy because there is lots of information online from sources teachers trust, as well as from new organizations around which experts are coalescing. For example, the Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse offers a number of briefs about literacy coaching, including articles about coaches' qualifications, how administrators can best work with coaches, and literacy coaching in classrooms of English language learners. The National Council of Teachers of English also has a page of links to resources on literacy coaching, including how to get started with literacy coaching, a listserv on literacy coaching, and standards for middle- and high-school literacy coaches. The International Reading Association also offers a page of literacy coaching resources, including books, articles, standards, and best practices. The Carnegie Reporter also has a long article about the evolving roles of literacy coaches.

Once you've made your way through all these resources, it's time to turn to blogs about literacy. These blogs will keep you updated on the latest research and best practices in literacy coaching and preK-12 reading.

Literacy.coach is written by a pair of literacy coaches. Don't miss the rich link love in the "Saturday Literacy Roundup" posts.

The Miss Rumphius Effect is "the blog of a teacher educator discussing poetry, children's literature and issues related to teaching children and their future teachers." I particularly enjoyed her post "Learning to Read and Learning to Love It." An excerpt:

All these thoughts bouncing around in my head have me thinking about how you get kids to love reading while they're learning to read, with the emphasis on enjoyment, not how fast, how accomplished or how soon it happens. Helping your child learn to read shouldn't be about bragging rights (MY child read Harry Potter at age 7), it should be about modeling and encouraging a healthy love for a skill that will last a lifetime.

What the Research Says offers "early literacy research distilled for educators." The blog is packed with short excerpts from literacy research, as well as brief commentary from the blogger.

Two Writing Teachers is the blog of Ruth Ayers and Stacey Shubitz. Particularly useful is their page of tools to support teaching reading and writing. Ayers and Shubitz are particular adept at combining words and text on their blog--and demonstrating how they use the same cross-media approach in their classrooms.

Literacy is Priceless is a blog packed with teaching tips and links to K-3 literacy resources. The resources recommended seem fabulous, and I like how bloggers Anna and Melissa integrate technology into their practice.

The tagline for Literate Lives is "Good books and how to use 'em with kids." What more is there to say? This blog offers summaries and reviews of a broad spectrum of fiction and nonfiction books for children, as well as some personal reflections.

Creative Literacy is a blog by an educator and mom who seeks her own "reading and writing identity" as she nurtures reading and writing in young people.

Read, Read, Read is "a collection of children's literature as viewed by a fifth grade teacher." Like many of the other teacher-bloggers mentioned in this post, Megan Germano offers book reviews and personal reflections on teaching and reading.

Susan at Literacy Coaching: Stories from School shares anecdotes from the classroom and from literacy coaching.

How are you promoting literacy in children's lives? And what resources do you recommend?

Leslie Madsen-Brooks helps university faculty improve their teaching. She blogs at The Clutter Museum, Museum Blogging, and The Multicultural Toy Box.

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Fantastic Information

A new approach to helping young readers: literacy coaches