Chapter 10

School, Community, and Family Partnerships

"When teachers are asked to identify their greatest problems in working with struggling readers, they often mention the lack of parental involvement in providing additional support" (Bean, 2015, p. 241). This is a problem I often encounter in my own classroom. Parental involvement is extremely important! Teachers play an important role in involving families in their child's academic success. Bean (2015) suggests a number of ways in which reading specialists can work with parents and families as:

* School personnel must have an understanding of and appreciation for the families whose children they serve. Often times, teacher do not live in the community they work in.  As an educator, it is important for us to get to know our students and their background (Bean, 2015).

* Work with families to help them understand the school's academic and behavioral goals and expectations. Teachers often depend on making phone calls to communicate with their students' parents. Social media has become a form of communication between teachers and parents. For example, teachers may create Twitter accounts where they communicate with their students and parents (Bean, 2015).

* Create an environment that welcomes parents into the schools. Encourage parents to take part in their child's school community. Invite parents into the classroom for career day and allow them to speak to student's. Have parents read a book and share the book with students and create projects with them based on the reading (Bean, 2015).

* Parent involvement should extend through the grades. This should not only take place in the primary grades. Parent involvement should continue throughout all grades (Bean, 2015).

If teachers and parents work together to help their children, student success will occur!

Share the Wealth

I find Reading A-Z as great resource for teachers! Reading A-Z is used in a number of different schools across the United States and Canada. It provides teachers with easy-to-use resources such as: 

        *books correlated with the CCSS.

        *lessons, decodable books, reader's theatre, activities related to each individual leveled reader                (29 different levels), and assessments.

        *fluency passages used to improve children's reading rate.

Reading A-Z provides teachers with over 1,000 leveled readers in different genres which meets the needs of every student. The leveled readers are both projectable and printable. I find this to be useful in the classroom as I am able to project different texts that I allow my students to use in reading centers. Another great feature to the level readers is texts can be provided to students in Spanish. This is great for teachers who have any ELL learners. 

Reading A-Z gives you a break down of each of the individual reading levels. It is useful for teachers to know which level their students are on based on their grade level. I also use Reading A-Z as a supplemental for guided reading. For my low students, some of the guided reading books provided by the reading curriculum we currently use, I feel are sometimes still too hard for my low group. Reading A-Z comes in play when I need to provide my students with a lower level reader. With each leveled readers, I am provided with lesson plans, vocabulary words, and activities that correspond with each reader.

Blog #9: Chapter 7 What Coaches Do to Improve Instruction

Working with Individual Teachers

Bean (2015) discusses ways that reading specialists can develop a sense of trust between the teachers they are working with and themselves in order to be successful in their work (pg. 162-163). The following are different activities that can be used when working with individual teachers:

1. Demonstrating or Modeling: Modeling is key! It is important for coaches to model strategies that may be beneficial inside the classroom. Allow teachers to be apart of the lesson. Provide teachers with specific steps. After the demo-lesson, designate time to allow teachers to ask questions and comment. Schedule a follow-up. This might include, "observing a teacher presenting the same type of lesson that was modeled as a means of determining what the teacher learned" (Bean, 2015, p. 167).

2. Co-Planning: Co-planning allows the coach and the teacher to "build a collaborative relationship" (Bean, 2015, p. 168). If the teacher welcomes the coach, this will allow the coach to help plan different lessons that focuses on developing a specific skill or strategy. 

3. Problem Solving: Coaches can assist teachers with problems they may be having in the classroom. For example, how to implement a specific strategy in the classroom, how to manage centers during reading, how to talk to parents of a struggling reader. Coaches act as a resource to teachers (Bean, 2015).

4. Observing: As a coach, it is important to observe teachers and provide them with immediate feedback. Observations allow for the coaches to see what the teacher is teaching, provide them with additional strategies, and help improve classroom practices. Bean (2015) discusses a coaching cycle. The cycle focuses on "facilitating the teacher's growth and the coach is seen as a resource" (Bean, 2015, pg. 169). The cycle includes planning, observing, analyzing/reflecting, and conferring. 

5. Giving Feedback: It is important to provide teachers with feedback immediately. Bean (2015) provides suggestions to follow when providing teachers with feedback in a "carefully balanced and respectful manner" (pg. 182). The suggestions are as followed, (1) be specific, (2) behave in ways that reduce defensive behavior, (3) provide teachers with balanced feedback, and (4) celebrate success.

Jigsaw #2: Expert Group

Jigsaw #2 - Expert Group

LTED 667

Caitlin Coll, Jacqueline Dasilva, Rasmir Muslah, Nicole Sexton

All of the articles read dealt with the relationship between the coach and the teachers. Each

article portrayed particular ways the coach can elevate the performance of the teachers

and best benefit the students and the school community. We utilized the information

from the articles to create a sample scenario between a coach and a teacher.

Scenario:
Ms. Ramos is a novice teacher in the first grade at Kennedy School. Upon observation, the reading

specialist noticed that the students in the room were struggling to comprehend the text being used; however, the teacher was not implementing different strategies to help the students direct their understanding. After the lesson, the reading specialist requested a meeting with the teacher at the teacher’s convenience to discuss her views on teaching comprehension strategies and to co-plan a lesson together. Before the meeting, the reading specialist brainstormed ideas that the teacher could use to assist the students in developing the skills needed to comprehend texts. In order to best prepare, the reading specialist implemented the idea of an outcome map to get a clear idea of what needed to occur for the students to be successful in the area of comprehension in Ms. Ramos’s class. When it came time to finally meet, the reading specialist was prepared to have an open discussion with the teacher on how to best implement strategies to support comprehension.

Meeting Interview:

RS: Reading Specialist

MR: Ms. Ramos

RS: How would you describe the lesson I observed? What do you think went well, and what do you think did not?

MR: I would say I was able to keep the students focused and on task. However, I struggle with finding differentiated strategies to direct my students’ needs.  

RS: What are your views on teaching comprehension?

MR: It’s a hard concept to teach because there’s so many parts to it. There are many different comprehension skills that are needed in order to make meaning of a text.

RS: What would you describe as the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson I observed?

MR: I think the strength in my lesson was having my students engaged in the activity and discussion. However, I feel my weaknesses were with assessing my students background knowledge of the topic beforehand in order to guarantee comprehension.

RS: How would you feel about us co-planning and teaching a lesson together?

MR: That would be great! My students are struggling with comprehension, maybe I need a different approach.

After the meeting, the coach created a list of further ways to help Ms. Ramos in the area of teaching reading comprehension to her students. The list included:

1. The coach suggested different books and article to Ms. Ramos that can be used as a reference in regards to teaching different comprehension strategies to readers.

2. The coach suggested to Ms. Ramos attending a professional development workshop on reading comprehension.

3. Another suggestion made to Ms. Ramos was observing other novice teachers in the building. This will allow for Ms. Ramos to observe and see how other teachers and teaching their students to create meaning of a text.

Blog #8: Coaching

Chapter 6-Coaching: Improving Classroom and School Literacy Instruction

According to Bean (2015), coaching is those individuals who support teachers, provide guidance or feedback that allows educators to become more proficient. Today, many schools have adapted an interactive framework of instructional coaching as a way to guide teachers and allow for effective teaching to take place in the classroom. The interactive framework includes three different elements: (1) the model, (2) the context, and (3) the coach. These three elements "affect how coaching will be defined, implemented, and evaluated within a given school" (Bean, 2015, pg. 142). 

Bean (2015) discusses four different models of coaching that may be implemented within a school.
*Peer Coaching: In peer modeling, the coach models for teachers and a discussion takes place after to talk about what they observed and how to apply what was observed in instructional practice (Bean, 2015).
*Resource Model: Coaches assist teachers in organizing reading groups, instruction, how to implement different strategies, and help those who have concerns about their struggling readers and need ideas on how to help their students succeed (Bean, 2015). 
*Teacher as Learner: The goal of coaching, in this model, is to assist the teacher in achieving their goals and help facilitate teacher learning (Bean, 2015). 
*Implementation Model: Teachers may be given a specific program to follow.The coaches role is help teachers in following the program. Whereas, in the goal oriented approach, there is opportunity for some choice. Teachers may decide what they implement in their classrooms and coached support teachers. 

Research shows that there are several key factors that should exist in a school in order for coaching to be effective. Bean (2015) states these factors to be: (1) Support is needed from both the district level and school level. (2) Support is needed from the school principal. (3) A trust-worthy relationship needs to be developed between the teachers and the coaches. 
(4) There needs to be a positive climate and culture within the school between all staff members (Bean, 2015). 

Based on research, Bean (2015) points out the four different important qualifications of literacy coaches.
1. Know your stuff.  Coaches need to have "up-to-date knowledge of literacy instruction and assessment and the research that undergirds that knowledge" (Bean, 2015, pg. 151). 
2. Experience. Coaches should have enough experience in the classroom as they will be providing teacher with knowledge of what they know.
3. Ability to work with adults. Coaches seem to be less comfortable with knowing how to work with adults. It is important from them to work together to help the students succeed in the classroom.
4. Effective interpersonal and leadership skills. Coaches must be good listeners, understand and provide positive feedback to teachers.

The interactive framework is essential for good coaching! In Brown Middle School, it is evident there is an effective interactive framework put into place. It is obvious that the principal has a clear understanding of the role of a literacy coach. Having Ms. Smith not only work with teachers but also work with teachers side-by-side was a great decision on both the principal and teachers. The principal altered schedules so that planning time would be provided which is extremely important. There is a trust-worthy relationship built between the principal, reading specialists, and teachers. In Green Elementary School, the school's climate is different from the Brown Middle School. The principal did not collaborate with the teachers to decide on who would fit the role best of the new literacy coach. The literacy coach was asking teachers to do things that were the opposite of what their reading program promoted. Teachers became frustrated in the classroom. The reading specialist became frustrated as well because the approach presented in the reading program was what teachers needed to do in the classroom, according to the district supervisor. There was a lack of communication and collaboration between administration, literacy coaches, and teachers. 

Blog #7

Professional Development Workshop-Fluency

Hi Everyone! :) After several attempts I was not able to upload my video to YouTube. For this reason I have shared a link with you all. Using this link, you can access my presentation. Since the video is long it will take a couple of minutes to download.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HmDbUvzy2crbMdcz1_dRRcAbi6bS12s_

Please let me know if you have a hard time accessing the presentation. 
I hope you enjoy it! :)

Blog #6: Leadership

Chapter 4: Leadership of the Reading Specialist

Bean (2015) describes leadership as "any activities or set of activities associated with working with others to reach or accomplish a common goal, that of improving students learning, especially literacy learning" (pg. 83). Reading specialist have a lot of roles to fill as well as serving as a resource to others. Bean (2015) describes different ways in which reading specialists can be a resource to both teachers and students.

*Inform teachers of new ideas and materials. Reading specialists can read articles and summarize them for teachers and share the information with them in a creative way. One way the information may be shared is by creating a flyer. "Teachers tend to appreciate these short summaries that alert them to some possible ways of improving classroom instruction for their students" (Bean, 2015, p. 97). Teachers value suggestions from reading specialists. When new materials are ordered for the classrooms, reading specialists may They may also order "try out" the material with a small group of students (Bean, 2015, p. 97). 

*Spread the word about effective teaching and teachers. Encourage shared leadership. "A major task of a leader is enhancing the capacity to others" (Bean, 2015, p. 97). When a novice teachers seeks help, the reading specialist may identify specific teachers who may assist the novice teacher. This may include classroom observations from both the teacher and the reading specialist (Bean, 2015).

*Focus on the student. Every teacher wants their students to be successful! Unfortunately, there are some students who struggle with specific reading areas. It is important for the reading specialist to help teachers implement different strategies in the classroom to help their struggling students (Bean, 2015). 

*Be available and follow through on your commitments. It is important for reading specialist to be seen in schools. Bean (2015) discusses the importance of reading specialists taking the time to stop in and visit teachers. It is also important for reading specialists to follow through on commitments being made. Scheduling is important to all teachers and they should be informed if there is a change in their schedule (Bean, 2015). 

*Be flexible. "Flexibility is important in terms of working with individual teachers" (Bean, 2015, p.100). Reading specialists may be able to serve as another teacher in the classroom. For example, reading specialists may conduct a small guided reading group, may provide suggestions to the teacher on guided reading, and working with the classroom teacher to plan lessons together and once the lesson is taught, together they can talk about the results and the next steps (Bean, 2015). 

*Be a willing helper! Reading specialists who are willing to offer a helping hand, often develop better relationships with teachers. Often times teachers can be overwhelmed with work and can use that additional hand in the classroom (Bean, 2015).

Overall, reading specialists serve as a resource for not only teachers but also for administrators and other individuals involved in working with struggling readers.