Workshop Title:  Literacy Coaching Standards
Consultant:  Kathy Egawa
NCTE, in partnership with five other professional organizations, worked with its leaders to create standards for adolescent literacy coaches (Fall, 2005). What are the standards and what are the implications for your district or school?  Click here to see a sample agenda for this workshop.  Each workshop is customized to meet the particular needs of the district, but this is one example. 

Workshop Title:  Literacy Leadership: Supporting Your Coaches to Improve Instruction
Consultant:  Mary-Catherine Moran
There are many factors that will impact the long term success of a literacy coaching program including strong administrative support, recognition and celebration of success, and data analysis on an ongoing basis. In this workshop, practices implemented by administrators across the country to support their coaches will be discussed.

Workshop features:

• Reflection
• Professional Development Objectives
• The Principal’s Role in Peer Coaching
• Celebrating Success
• Solutions to Coaching Challenges
• Ongoing Support Structures for Literacy Coaches
• Scheduling Option for Maximum Benefit
• Suggested Forms for Recording Program Goals
• Assessing the Effectiveness of Your Collegial Support Program
• Implications for the Admininstrators
• Resources for Implementation and Further Study

• Role of Reflection
• Professional Development Objectives
• Factors Influencing Collegial Relationships
  • Process of Creating and Sustaining a Culture of Collegial Support
  • Building and Sustaining Trust
• Elements of Effective Communication
  • Pausing
  • Paraphrasing
  • Thoughtful questions
  • Paying attention to self and others
  • Presuming positive intentions
• Communication Roadblocks
  • Facilitating difficult conversations
  • Understanding your role and creating a balance between advocacy and inquiry
• Implications for the Literacy Coach
• Resources for Implementation and Further Study 

Workshop Title:  The “Coaching Continuum”: Formats for Collegial Support, and Recommendations for Effective Implementation
Consultant:  Mary-Catherine Moran
In this workshop, learn about the model of a “Coaching Continuum” that includes Study Groups, Demonstration Lessons, Observing Classroom Practice–The Coaching Cycle (Rita Bean, 2004), Planning, Observing, Analyzing/Reflecting, Conferring, Focused Classroom Visits, Literacy Professional Development (Content Presentations).

Also learn about a protocol for determining the best match between the coaching format and the needs of the students and teachers. For example, how do you determine if a demonstration lesson will meet the professional development goals that you have articulated, and how do you make sure that the professional development goals that have been chosen are based on student need.

The Coaching Continuum assumes that it is important to provide various points of entry to professional development. For example, if a teacher is not familiar with a particular method or material, it would be important for the Literacy Coach NOT to begin by observing the teacher using that very same method or material! The Literacy Coach would be advised to provide resource management (by reviewing the curriculum materials) or some content presentations individually or in small groups. When learning something for the first time it is important to build background knowledge, see others engage in the practice, and experiment with the practice over time. It is also important that a rapport is established with the folks working closely with the Literacy Coach.

Change in practice requires an understanding of why ongoing instructional adjustment is an important and integral part of teaching and learning. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to the Coaching Continuum and suggestions will be The “Coaching Continuum”: Formats for Collegial Support, and Recommendations for Effective Implementation provided on how to engage literacy coaches in deep reflection about their own learning, and how this understanding can impact their relationships with the teachers they work with.

Workshop Features:

• Reflection
• Literacy Coaching Continuum (from least intrusive to most intrusive)
  • Resource Management
  • Content Presentations
  • Study Groups
  • Demonstration Lessons
  • Focused Classroom Visits
  • Co-Planning
  • Co-Teaching
  • Observing Classroom Practice–The Coaching Cycle of (1) Planning, (2) Observing, (3) Analyzing/Reflecting, and (4) Conferring (Rita Bean, 2004)
  • Resources for Implementation and Further Study