I ALREADY DO THAT!
HELPING THE RELUCTANT TEACHER
Dr. Elizabeth A. Erickson
Grandview University
2nd Annual Literacy Coaching Conference
Corpus Christi, April 2010
SESSION GOALS

What research states about secondary
coaching

My journey as first year coach
 The
context
 Challenges
 Successful strategies
PURPOSES OF LITERACY COACHING
(CASEY, 2006)
Help design and facilitate professional
development
 Work with teachers, demonstrating instructional
strategies and guiding teachers as they model
 Evaluate students’ literacy needs and collaborate
with teachers on how to meet those needs
 Provide teachers with opportunities to learn from
each other

IRA CRITERIA (2004)
Be excellent classroom teachers and teachers of
reading
 Be able to observe, model, and provide feedback
to teachers
 Be knowledgeable about reading processes,
acquisition, assessment, and instruction
 Have experience working with teachers to improve
instructional practices
 Be excellent presenters to lead groups, facilitating
reflection and change.

RESEARCH STATES . . .
“ . . .the advent of literacy coaching occurred
before a significant body of research could offer
guidance concerning how to implement it to its
optimal advantage” (Walpole, McKenna, draft).
 “. . .coaching is situated and will take on new and
different relational dynamics in different contexts”

(Rainville, Jones, 2008, p. 440)

“ . . . coaching is embedded within schools and
classrooms and is responsive to the specific
challenges faced by teachers in their daily work
with students” (Steckel, 2009, p. 14).
“It is essential to consider coaching in the
context in which it occurs. The embedded
nature of coaching makes it a powerful agent
of change but also often frustrates its success”
(Steckel, 2009, p. 14).
MY STORY: CONTEXT
The smallest (1170 students) HS of five in an
urban setting
 District Graduation rate-82%
 ITEDS- city (59.3) this school ( 52.8 ) on
reading, 2009
 4th years SINA, first year Title I
 Poverty rate 74.6%
 41 % White/59% Non White (9% ELL)
 Bottom 5% of student achievement in the state

MY STORY-THE CHALLENGE

Bring reading scores to proficiency
 Minimum
“safe harbor”
 Scores from 52.8 – 57.5
 Proficient Goal 79.3

Work with primarily English/reading faculty
MY VISION
‘Blank page’ to start-little direction
 Team building
 Vision

School is an exciting place of thinking & inquiry
 Work with students’ strengths
 Curriculum should teach big ideas, led by essential
questions to explore
 All reading should be on individuals’ levels with as
much individual choice as possible within the concepts
of curriculum
 Textbooks should be used as resources only

TO START . . .
Met with English department on their needs
and desires
 Collected baseline data on observations in all
English classrooms
 Asked faculty to be ‘invited in’

OBSERVATION DATA

Organization of the lesson
Are strategies evident?
 Are the vocabulary lessons within tier two?
 Is there guided practice?
 Are students engaged?


Classroom environment

Is student work displayed?
PROBLEMS?
Don’t ever tell me what to do
 I already do that!
 We did that 20 (30) years ago
 Do you have to come in my room?
 OK, I complied. Anything else?
 I have a reading endorsement
 It is not us, it is the kids.
 Fix the kids.

SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES

Teacher Conversations
 School
had 25 minute advisory daily, not used
 1-2x/month facilitated conversations on the schoolwide vocabulary building goal
 Group
grounding
 Modeled 1 strategy
 Gave theory
 Exit slips varied depending on what I heard from faculty

What three aspects in your classroom would
improve student achievement?
 Based
on ‘Am I looking in a mirror or a window”
activity & comments like “just get the kids to work”

Results
 Comments
coded, then created into an activity for
the second PD session using word sorts vocabulary
SECOND SESSIONContinued with theory on tiered words
 Had faculty practice using own text, types of
words to teach
 Exit slip, ‘What is your role in PD?”
 Results

 Very
‘politically correct’
 We know what is expected- how do we model?
THIRD SESSION

Sharing of vocabulary strategies that are currently
modeled and are working in your classroom

Started having faculty share good ideas and student
work
Exit slip, “How comfortable do you feel about
addressing the reading needs of your students? If
not comfortable, sign up for a conference at your
convenience
 Results-6 new faculty wanted help!

FOURTH SESSION
More sharing of vocabulary activities from
faculty
 Modeled double-entry journals
 Kicked off a reading incentive
 Exit slip, “If you were to sign up for training,
what area would you prefer?”

 Gave
handout with several strategies we could
model
THREE READING INCENTIVES
First-modeled thinking while I read strategies
for faculty
 Gave 6 bookmarks with 4 questions
 Ask students to read 2 books of choice in 5
weeks using 6 bookmarks for each book &
discussing the books with advisory teachers
 Modeled in two advisories
 Results-32 students ‘won’ a trip to a book store
and chose a $10. book with grant money

2ND & 3RD INCENTIVE

Modeled double-entry journals for faculty

Gave students 2 weeks to read one book of
choice, fill out 6 entries, and discuss with advisory
teacher

Results-55 ‘winners’

Third incentive pending---using a metacognitive
‘reading map’ created by the 9th gr. reading t’er
HALF-DAY PD

Student engagement

Modeled
 use
of texting from cell phones to journal
 clickers
 anticipatory sets to start lessons
 word ladders
BOOK FAIR
Had the first Scholastic Book Fair for this
school
 Scholastic piloted a high school
 Teamed with local university
 Results

 Much
excitement from students
 Earned $550. for books to place in classrooms

Teachers who create a thematic mult-text unit
will receive book sets
PARENT NIGHT
Still pending
 Slip Knot lead singer, ‘Cory’ is a native of this
city
 Asked him to share his past and how
graduation became possible
 Will add ‘centers’ for younger children, places
for our reading incentive winners to share read
alouds from books purchased by school

11TH GRADE IRIS
Needed 11th test data to make safe harbor
 Created 3 IRIs at grade level
 Showed students data from each, modeled how I
think as I read & how to use QAR for test questions
 Discussed percent/percentile and sustainability (if
you can do well on one IRI, sustain efforts for the
ITEDs
 Motivated students to do well for themselves and
for the school (we compete for sports . . .)

BOTTOM LINE . . .
Build bridges with faculty
 Model ideas, show theory
 Get students excited
 Get resources for teachers
 Get teachers to share successes
 Offer to teach a class, so teachers can observe
each other
 Be very visible in halls and classrooms

REFERENCES



Casey, K. (2006). Literacy coaching. The essentials.
Portsmouth, NJ: Heinemann.
International Reading Association. (2004). The role and
qualifications of the reading coach in the United States.
Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Rainville, K. N. & Jones, S. (2008). Situated identities:
Power and positioning in the work of a literacy coach. The
Reading Teacher, 61(6), pp. 440–448. International
Reading Association.
QUESTIONS?