Literacy Coaching Project

Introduction

This school year, I am the fourth grade Special Education inclusion teacher. At my

school, there is also a fourth grade resource teacher. As we spend a lot of time together and share

many of the same kids, based on their needs, I felt that it was most beneficial to coach my

colleague.

Kassie has been teaching full-time for four years, all of those years have been in the

fourth grade. In her class this year, she has a wide range of student abilities, personalities, and

IEP eligibilities. She teaches all four content areas to various groups throughout the day. Kassie

was honest in admitting that she dislikes teaching reading, and this could be attributed to many

factors! Her reading group is made up of ten students. Of those ten students, one is on the

Autism Spectrum, two have a Cognitive Disability, three are eligible under Other Health

Impairment, and four have a Specific Learning Disability.

If that is not enough to wrap your head around, those ten students vary in personalities

and behaviors that make teaching a challenge. Some students clash and cannot be together at all;

some students are reading at a Fountas and Pinnell level of L, while some are reading at level D;

some are very verbal, while some do not participate at all; some students never give up, while

others want your help every step of the way. In this class, and my school, there is a lack of home

support for many of our students. Assigning homework becomes pointless because it never

gets done, which makes it difficult for students to retain what they learned and practiced earlier

that day.
 According to Beans chart, the coaching that I did with Kassie fell into level one. I

conducted a pre and post meeting, observed her teaching a reading lesson, discussed the issues

she felt she had in her class, and provided her with literacy materials to use as she wished.

Pre-Coaching Conversation

The first thing Kassie and I did to kick off our new coach-mentee relationship was to

discuss what her issues were with her reading group. She shared that it was difficult to make the

gains she wanted because of the following factors: time constraints, lack of parent support, no

access to a suitable reading program (unlike that of a general education classroom), and a wide

range of student abilities. Kassie could not think of a specific strategy or program she wanted to

implement with her students, so we agreed that the next step would be an organic observation.

By organic, we meant that she would not plan anything fancy, like someone would for a formal

evaluation, but honestly teach what she had planned for the following day. From the

observation, we would discuss what happened and then I would provide some ideas of things she

could try.

Observation

I observed her reading group for thirty minutes. In this thirty minutes, she was reading a

chapter aloud from Mr. Poppers Penguins. During her read aloud, she would stop to check for

understanding, with questions are all so used to asking during reading. Some of the questions

she asked her group were: What is happening now? What do we think will happen next? How

do you think (character) is feeling? Why did (character) do (action)?

 While she was reading, I noticed four of the ten students were very attentive, throughout

the entire read aloud; five showed intermittent attention to the book as they looked at others, out

the windows, and at the clock; one student was quietly playing with their pencil. Many times she

had to pause her reading and gently remind those distracted students to pay attention. During her

questioning, just like any other class, there were three students who frequently participated,

while others sat and let the discussion move on without them. Blurting was a common

occurrence during this lesson and Kassie quickly remediated that by reminding her class to be

respectful by waiting their turn and raising their hand instead. The read aloud and questioning

portion lasted about fifteen minutes.

Kassie then transitioned her class into writing a chapter summary as a group using the

whiteboard. She used a very open discussion format when creating this group summary. First,

she started with the opening and the students contributed with help from her probing questions.

She reminded them that their summary is only the important information, like making sure to

include the characters, the problem or solution as it fits, and the setting. While she facilitated the

summary creation, the students were observed as follows; two students were talking to each

other, one student continued to play with their pencil, three students had their eyes on the board

and contributed their ideas, and four students were quiet and did not contribute to the summary

as they watched Kassie write on the board.

My initial thoughts as I watched Kassie teach organically are as follows: Maybe they all

need a book in front of them? Would it be more distracting to place a book in their hands or

should she utilize the Elmo/projector as she reads? How would they react in small group reading

circles? Do they need more frequent read-then-think breaks? Popcorn reading proves to be a

difficult technique for this group because decoding is such a struggle for many of these students.
Since I have this group for writing, I know it is extremely difficult to maintain attention from all

of them at the same time!

Providing Resource Materials

After conducting the organic reading observation, I pulled together some materials that I

thought would be most reasonable and beneficial to that group of students. The resources I

provided were arranged in order from least effort to most effort regarding implementation.

I found a resource about engaging read aloud techniques that offered suggestions on how

to get students more involved while doing a read aloud. Some of the suggestions included

providing a special reading chair that the student can sit on as they read to their peers, rolling a

reading die that tells them how much they should read out loud, and having a Mystery Word

chosen from the reading. I consider these ideas to be low effort because it does not require much

from the teacher or student.

One strategy that I particularly enjoyed stumbling upon was a Book Club-Reading Response

Journal. I felt that this would be appropriate for Kassies group because after every chapter, they

could work on the graphic organizers together (or independently depending on her assessment or

skill check). There are many Reading Response Journals, but the one I chose had over fifty

graphic organizers that could be used for fiction and non-fiction text - it was very multi-

functional! I consider this reading journal to be on the low effort spectrum because it does not

require the teaching to adopt any new reading habits, but rather gives students a way to show

their learning and to practice skills together.

The next resource I came across dealt with interactive read aloud. There are six steps to

implementing interactive read alouds. The first step requires the teacher to choose a focus skill
for the class. Some examples of focus skills include summarizing, vocabulary, cause and effect,

and so on. Once you have decided on the skill, you must choose an appropriate book that will

get your students to understand that skill. After reading that book on your own, stop and make

any notes that will help your instruction. Some things you can plan ahead of time include

marking important vocabulary to discuss, discussion points or questions, and places to think

aloud to practice the focus skill. It is also important to plan your engagement techniques before

you read the book aloud: Do you want your students to stop and jot, turn and talk, or quickly

reflect on something? The last two steps require the students to read independently while you

meet with a small group to reinforce the chosen skill. This approach to a read aloud requires

much more planning ahead of time than the previous approaches of implementing engaging

techniques and working on reading journals.

The last resource I (briefly) discussed with Kassie was the idea of implementing a

Reading Workshop. Honestly, I am not too familiar with Reading Workshop, but I think it is

something worthwhile. We agreed that this is a high effort strategy because it requires her to

completely change how she runs her reading group. Being this late in the school year and

anticipating all of the state testing and end of the year activities, we did not see that it would be

beneficial to follow this route with her group. On the bright side, we did decide to keep it on the

back-burner for next school year considering that we will both be teaching in a resource room

with new grade levels.

Teacher Implementation

After we discussed the new strategies I found, Kassie took some time to decide on what

she would try with her group. With the remainder of the school year, she decided to try the
engaging reading techniques (low effort) and aspects of the interactive read aloud (medium

effort). For the interactive read aloud, Kassie wanted to focus on implementing the first four

steps, leaving out the independent reading and small group based on how her class has been

functioning this school year. This allowed her to develop the habit of choosing focus skills,

appropriate text, and meaningful parts in the text to discuss. After the read aloud portion, she

shared that she would continue to keep the group as a whole to continue practicing the focus

skill.

Post-Conference

Kassie had three weeks of implementation under her belt when we met for our post-

conference. At our post-conference, we reflected on how she felt about the strategies, what she

thinks she could do better, what she would not do again, and how her students took to these

strategies.

She opened up by sharing an overall positive attitude about the strategies she tried with

her group. She noticed that all the strategies had some benefits and setbacks. Focusing on the

engaging reading techniques, the die rolling got everyone involved because they wanted to roll

the die, but it also took a little longer to get through the reading because everyone had to roll.

The Mystery Word seemed to be a hit with her class because she used candy as a reward, which

is a huge motivator for this group of kids! Kassie shared that these low effort strategies worked

well with her group and she would be interested in adapting them for other content areas.

Her students also did well with the modified interactive read aloud, but Kassie is

wondering how she would implement this to fidelity, just like how she would run Readers

Workshop in a resource setting with the variety of student abilities. She liked how the interactive
read aloud encouraged her to be more purposeful in her reading and she would like to continue

planning this way so that it becomes second nature.

Reflection

This literacy coaching project was an overwhelming, yet satisfying experience. The most

difficult part of this process was deciding which teaching materials I would show to my

mentee. After watching her teach her reading group, I went back and forth on what I thought

would help. Maybe she needs to teach them in small groups? But it is kind of late in the year

to make such a huge change. Maybe she really needs to focus on behavior? But it is only one or

two students who need constant reminding, that does not seem like a lot. Do the students need

close reading strategies? Would that even help them if they arent reading the book on their

own? It was such a challenge to narrow it down!

One thing I noticed myself doing was wanting to provide resources for Kassie to choose

from, allowing her the freedom to decide what she felt was best. I did not want to put only one

idea on the table and force her to implement it because that does not seem very beneficial to me.

We both went into this project with the mindset of Lets just try it and see how it goes, and I

think that played a huge factor into the successes we both experienced. I really appreciated the

honest relationship when it came to the idea of implementing Readers Workshop. We both got

the vibe that it would be too chaotic to try with everything going on, but I am glad we did not

shut it down completely.

If you asked me a year ago when I started this program if I wanted to be a literacy coach,

I would have said no because I wanted to focus purely on the students. However, now I find

myself teetering between classroom teacher and coach. After reading the first-hand accounts of
coaches, practicing on a colleague, and doing bits and pieces with our own class, I can see

myself wearing the Coaching Hat at some point in my career! This project has definitely

solidified my opinion on coaching being a crazy, overwhelming job, but oddly enough I did find

myself having fun finding the resources (once I narrowed my options down). Going through this

gave me a glimpse into how I would be as a coach and what my style would be. I value freedom

of choice and the willingness to try, and I think those two values are something I would

definitely bring into all of my interactions with my colleagues. My main concern or wondering

is how I would do this school wide. Would I get to work this closely with my colleagues? Is it

expected that I devote this much to every single teacher?

After reading the texts from Toll and Allen throughout the semester, my biggest worry

was not being able to find enough resources. Reading through their encounters, they had to find

an unbelievable amount of resources from the start and that scared me the most! What if Kassie

is disappointed with the resources I provide? What if the resources dont even work?
 Appendices

Meeting notes
Observation notes (snippet)
Post observation notes