Literacy Coaching: The Essentials

This book achieves something which is rare in professional development books. It demonstrates how to integrate core instructional elements into successful practice.... It should become a central text for study at the classroom, school, and district level.
- Anthony J. Alvarado, former Superintendent, District 2, New York and former Chancellor of Instruction, San Diego City Schools

What do literacy coaches do? Who do they coach? How does it work? Katherine Casey is a veteran literacy coach, and on the first page of Literacy Coaching she gets down to business: "I coach teachers in their classrooms, demonstrating lessons, working alongside teachers as they teach, problem solving together how to better meet the needs of their students." From there she presents the most authoritative, comprehensive, and focused guide on literacy coaching available.

Literacy Coaching takes you inside today's main coaching models, exploring their roles and responsibilities. Beginning with what coaches do, Casey provides real-life examples of what you'll need to know and what abilities the job requires, as well as crucial but often overlooked details such as how to build a relationship with your principal and how to assess the strengths and needs of the teachers you'll work with. Then she presents a variety of professional development structures that help you deliver smart, targeted instructional support where and when teachers need it most. Literacy Coaching gets into the nitty-gritty, offering experience-honed advice on these and numerous other important coaching functions:

• gathering materials, gaining entry, and getting started
• developing trusting relationships
• taking notes while observing teachers and students
• using data to uncover areas of instructional need
• teaching side by side with a host teacher and debriefing afterward
• coaching strategies and language
• running powerful workshops, visitations, and meetings

Filled with examples of completed instructional observation forms, graphic organizers, correspondence and conversations with faculty and administrative constituencies, and classroom vignettes that illustrate how coaching really looks, Literacy Coaching is the ideal companion for a practicing coach or consultant and especially for teachers who want to become one.