Reading Coach

My early reading experiences reflect the history that Vogt and Shearer (2011) describe in the first chapter of Reading Specialists and Literacy Coaches in the Real World. The basal reading programs of the 1970s and 1980s included “leveled readers, phonics activities, and a great deal of comprehension skill practice, usually found on the pages of the accompanying workbooks. The programs also included highly structured, detailed teacher’s guides, with different lesson plans for each of the three instructional groups” (Vogt & Shearer, 2011, p.13).

Early reading success is the foundation of a student’s knowledge and self-esteem. The foundation also provides future opportunities for growth. Students must learn to read proficiently so that they are able to learn more in future grades, post-secondary schools, and the workforce. Beverly Tyner’s Small-Group Reading Instruction: A Differentiated Teaching Model for Beginning and Struggling Readers states “In the United States, which offers few career opportunities for the illiterate, teaching children to read proficiently is the most important single task in education.” (Tyner, 2009). Beverly Tyner created the Small-Group Differentiated Reading Model which incorporates research-based strategies for teaching beginning reading skills and skills

(Counselors Affecting Reading Everyday). My plan would involve developing one-on-one counseling sessions where the students would start off by taking a learning style inventory as well as a reading interest inventory. The purpose of the learning style inventory would be to help the students as well as their teachers to understand how each individual child learns and processes information. The reading interest inventory would serve the purpose of helping the students to find a particular type of text that they may enjoy reading. Upon completion of the learning style inventory and reading interest inventory, the students would begin meeting with the counselor to receive one-on-one reading opportunities using books that students self-select based on their interest. This one-on-one meeting will serve to meet the needs of those students who stated that they did not have anyone at home to read with. The students will utilize the school’s Accelerated Reading program to take quizzes on the books they read with the counselor. After earning their first five Accelerated Reading points, a book will be purchased for the student based on their interest. This incentive plan will serve as a means to provide personal books for those students that do not own any as well as attempting to help them to get over the fear or taking reading tests. During these weekly meetings, the counselor will provide a variety of reading text (based on student

Building relationships and collaboration is essential to being a literacy coach. A key ingredient for serving as a successful literacy coach is the ability to apply adult learning principles, because coaches need to be able to provide the best possible professional development for teachers. Coaching is not linear, but rather a process of working with teachers that did not necessarily translate into a “quick fix” for higher student achievement scores. (Kristine Tucker) The first standard of skillful collaboration, for middle and high school literacy coaches should be to develop a school-wide literacy team to conduct a literacy needs assessment. It is important to develop a cohesive team of people, which will work towards a common goal and will enforce literacy practices across all content areas. Literacy coaches primarily work with teachers

In every school across America, effective practices of reading instruction are being discussed. Calkins (2012) suggests that over 85% of students being tested on grade level literacy standards are non-proficient. Research suggests that students, who are unable to read proficiently by third grade, are not predicted to ever learn to read or have successful lives when they reach adulthood (Martinez, 2008). For these reasons, it is important that districts implement literacy models and instructional reforms that have been well researched and shown to be successful. The instructional reform method of Balanced Literacy is being used throughout the country to meet the challenging standards of the Common Core. Teachers will need

Over the years, she has persistently worked with teachers and children in grades K-4 to increase the school’s reading scores. She readily tries new teaching strategies, which led to the implementation of guided reading in our school. Gale assisted in the training and execution of this research-based practice with overall success and approval by our entire faculty. She continues to conduct workshops and when asked, enters a classroom to offer suggestions and training for those teachers in need of extra assistance. Gale is swift, structured, and reliable which makes her someone teachers go to when they have questions, need assistance; and when they are new to the school and require further understanding and

L. Ms. L told me that her job is to supports, supplements and extends classroom teaching, and works collaboratively with other teachers to implement a quality reading program that is research-based and meets the needs of students. She also performs assessment and diagnosis that is vital for developing, implementing, and evaluating the literacy program in general. She is instrumental assessing the reading strengths and needs of students and provide that information to classroom teachers, parents, and specialized personnel such as psychologists, special educators, or speech teachers, in order to provide an effective reading program. Ms. L also acts in the capacity of providing leadership as a resource

The second research question the independent evaluator chose to ask was how does the program affect the reading coaches? This question was extremely general and could be answered in a number of different ways; Margo chose a questionnaire that was answered by Team Read coaches to determine whether or not they were impacted by the Team Read Program. The results were generally positive as Trish McKay had felt the same way about the results, as they were looked upon in a positive light. The questionnaire was administered towards the late stages of the school year as students were beginning to wind down all programs and head into summer. This questionnaire differed in response from one area to the next on certain questionnaire questions which directly gives the Team Read program information and data that can be interpreted to change policy

Jo Ann is a tenured literacy teacher at Arbor Intermediate School. Areas of concern have been noted with Jo Ann in regard to fully transitioning to the Reader’s and Writer’s Model of instruction. In addition, Jo Ann is inconsistent with maintaining program fidelity and tends to revert to methods not in line with the curriculum. Specifically, there tends to be a heavy reliance on worksheets to keep students academically occupied as well as not carefully monitoring students as they work independently in the classroom. Jo Ann is often found at her desk which does not allow for a review of student work, ensuring student engagement, nor the opportunity to work with students for the purpose of small group instruction. During formal observation Jo

Educating when all is said in done is an ethical endeavor. An educator's obligation is to improve the educational world of their students (Borah, 2012). One way this is conveyed is through teaching reading. Reading is one of the most important skills an individual can possess and requires many resources to promote success. Although an educator main goal is to provide reading excellence among their students, this cannot be completed without the assistance of a reading coach. A reading coach job is specialized in identifying reading challenges and aiding direction to classroom educators (IRA, 2000). Below I have created a graphic organizer that will compare and contrast the roles that a teacher and reading coach projects in implementing successful

This is a very important component in education to be aware of and when you are a teacher. I interviewed a first-grade teacher at my local elementary school to gain more information about the processes that our local schools go through for professional training, interventions, and in the classroom to ensure that students are developing their abilities in reading. My main focus was on what our school’s process was, how support is given, professional training offered, and what more is needed to be done to increase success for students.

In the primary grades, children should have a well-designed phonics program that promotes knowledge of letters, sounds, words, and phonological units (Dorn, Soffos. 2001. P. 21). The literacy coach should help the classroom teachers prepare for their literacy lessons by providing literary resources needed, modeling to show how certain components of the literacy block should look and making sure the teacher understands how to teach the skills they are working on at the time. For example, if a teacher is unsure how to effectively teach reading groups to beginner kindergarten readers, the literacy coach can model how to do so, provide the teacher with additional help and support, and even let the teacher observe other teachers teach. The literacy coach should also make sure the teachers have everything they need to assess students and that the teachers understand the importance of the assessments and how to get information from them to lead new

he most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Indeed, the future success of all students hinges upon their ability to become proficient readers. Recent scientific studies have allowed us to understand more than ever before how literacy develops, why some children have difficulty, and what constitutes best instructional practice. Scientists now estimate that fully 95 percent of all children can be taught to read. Yet, in spite of all our knowledge, statistics reveal an alarming prevalence of struggling and poor readers that is not limited to any one segment of society:

A literacy specialist role has a leadership component that requires expertise knowledge in the areas of assessment and research data. Through this knowledge and understanding, they can help students, teachers, and schools set literacy goals and actually accomplish them. Research states, “Schools that have literacy coaches or a literacy specialist, who is involved in setting literacy goals and accomplishments, promote teacher and student literacy improvements and achievements (Journal of Language and Literacy Education, Volume 3,

After the survey was over, Lucy was walked back to the class where she laid down and began to read a book right away.