Week 3 2016 Supporting the learning of others, introduction to coaching

 As you read this, I am in Texas visiting my 90 year old mother.  She is taking us to a tailgate party before the Texas A&M/UCLA football game. It should be interesting. I am an alum of A&M--my master's degree-- and this party is sponsored by the A&M Foundation for donors (my family has 2 scholarships there, one in memory of my father and one in memory of my older brother). I've never done a tailgate party before so I'll let you all know what this one is like! 

This coming week you will be learning about coaching and how to support the learning of others.  You already began that journey as you read about community building and working for change, including principles of adult learning (which you will revisit this week). So before you begin reading, respond to these questions:  How do YOU define coaching?  What do you think are characteristics of effective coach, the type that would be a supportive coach for you?  How does what you just wrote tie into ways to effect change and principles of adult learning that you read about and blogged about last week?  I"m looking forward to reading what you write.

As you read, think about what the literature says are characteristics of effective coaches and compare it to your own ideas. Then be sure you discuss the key ideas about coaching and being a literacy coach that you read about.  What was most surprising to you? What are your strengths as a coach?

Please do a virtual check in by Friday of next week.  Here is the link: VCI.

Have a good Labor Day Weekend!

Week 2 2016 Building a community of learners

As you read this blog, we have completed our first face to face meeting (and maybe you have visited a session at iPadpaloozaOU in Collings Hall.  What are some take aways from the afternoon?

The readings for this week focus on goals for literacy leaders, principles of adult learning, and elements of supporting change. In this blog, I want you to focus primarily on connecting your own experiences to the ideas about adult learning and supporting change.What do you think should be the goals for an effective literacy leader? What has supported your own change in your teaching practice? What makes an effective learning environment for you?

I'm looking forward to your discussion on your blog in coming weeks.  Let me know if you have questions.

SB

Week 15 Revisiting your view of yourself as a literacy leader

Each of you have come a long way on your journey to be literacy leaders where ever you are now and in whatever role you take on. I'd like for you to reflect on your growth as a literacy leader from the beginning of the semester.  Revise your glog to demonstrate that growth.  When you respond to this blog, embed your link to your glog in the comment.  Also briefly summarize where you think your greatest area of growth has been and why you think that is your greatest area of growth. Please do this by Dec. 3 at 5 pm.
Return to this blog after that time.  Using the links provided you, visit the glog of each of the other class members. What else do you see as their growth? Give one compliment about teh glog in general adn one compliment about how they have grown.  Please do this by Dec. 7 at midnight.  I'll be visiting as well.
By the time you read this, I'll have been in Kenya for about 10 days working with teachers there.  Part of our job is to help them become teacher leaders in early literacy. If I can, I'll upload pictures, or I'll add to this blog about my experiences, and what I am learning about myself as a literacy leader.

Week 14 Thinking about your learning

There is only one more week after this one in the semester. I have seen each of you grow as a literacy leader through your projects and blogs. I know I have grown in my understanding of what it means to rethink teaching and learning using new literacies as tools for thinking, collaborating, communicating. I've learned new things about myself as a teacher as well, and changes that have to come to my view of scaffolding, discussion, and time as well as what values I hold about teaching and learning that I don't want to change. I'd like you to think a bit about what you have learned, and about how this format has helped or how you may have had to change views of what it means to take a class when it doesn't meet face to face each week. So this week, while I'm in Africa, I'd like for each of you to respond to these  questions:
1. What are the 3 most important ideas that you learned about literacy leadership and coaching this semester? Why are each of them important to you? How will they inform your practice as a literacy leader, either as an informal one or as a reading specialist/literacy coach/director?
2. Which new literacy practices were supportive to you of your learning? Which ones do you think I need to modify and how to better support your learning?

Respond to these by 11/23. I appreciate your input and feedback.

Have a great Thanksgiving.  I am thankful for each of you and for the work you do to support the learning of the children that you teach.  

Week 13: Advocacy, Collaboration, Professionalism

This week you are only responding to my blog as we are meeting on Friday, Nov. 14 and Saturday, Nov. 15. chapters this week are related to advocacy, collaboration, and professionalism.  All three are key to being a successful literacy leader.  Think about your context. What opportunities are there for advocacy? As I write this on Nov. 5, I'm getting ready to be an advocate for research based reading instruction that is based on assessment of learners and is designed to meet their needs, and for teaching this in  my undergraduate classes. I will spend tomorrow afternoon with other professors and other stakeholders in a meeting to discuss "scientifically based reading methods" to teach children who may have dyslexia. I am an advocate for the preservice teachers and for children to ensure we are not mandated to teach one particular curriculum to teachers that they would unthinkingly use with all primary grade children. Next, think about collaboration. Why is it important? What does it mean to you? Finally, how do you define professionalism? I am going to have to try hard to remain professional tomorrow afternoon as I know we will be bombarded with messages about what others think should be taught in teacher education classes as well as the idea that if a curriculum package is good for some children with special needs, it is good for ALL children, and that it isn't really necessary to assess children to meet their particular needs.  Before reading, think about why advocacy, collaboration, and professionalism are important to a literacy leader. Write about what you think, and how you are defining each of those terms.  Then, when you read, compare what you said with what you think the authors are saying, and think about how what you read for the coming week is related to those concepts.
There are a number of chapters to read this week.  In the L&T book, everyone should read all of the chapters. In the WSQ book, half of you should read chapter 15 and half chapter 16. Finally, the EP&L part 5 has 6 sections, each of which has a reading specialist/literacy coach addressing challenges that a literacy leader or literacy coach might encounter as they are doing their job. I'll list below what the challenges are.  You should each choose a different one to read.  Be prepared to work with the other 2 people who read your WSQ chapter to share key ideas from your chapter and tie them to the concepts of advocacy, collaboration, and professionalism. Be prepared to describe the EP&L challenge you read about and answer questions about it.
 Previews to help you choose:
WSQ 15: What are new literacies/New Literacies? This chapter defines both of these concepts and provides principles for helping others integrate them into classrooms.
WSQ 16: This chapter discusses the role of parents in a literacy program, how to keep them involved adn how to connect to the community.
EP&L profiles: working with administrators (1), building credibility and relationships (2), working with resistant teachers (3), staying positive and involved (4), embedding literacy coaching in all of your other duties (5), becoming/staying organized (6)

Finally, bring a draft of Task 3 of the PD program development for peer review.  Bring a few ideas about possible grants as well, but remember, we will draft those in class. I would suggest that if you are in a school district that you look up your school foundation for grant requirements, and we will look for other sources as well. You won't be writing a blog this week as we will be together in class. Be sure to bring questions, ideas, etc.  I have chocolate for you.
See you all soon!

Week 12 Program Improvement 3--Strategies for small groups for program improvement

The previous 2 weeks have been broad strategies for whole school improvement and supporting change.  Sometimes, however, literacy leaders and coaches need to work with small groups for improving instruction, supporting achievement/learning, planning curriculum. Before you begin reading, review the guidelines for supporting adult learning from the E-P&L book and the L&T book that you read and we discussed earlier in the semester. For the first part of your entry responding to this blog entry, apply them to what you have learned about program improvement as a way of thinking how they might be used to facilitate that improvement. The four strategies for program improvement that you will read about for this week include creating implementation guides, using assessment data and student work to plan and reflect on instruction, and reflecting on units of study for revision to enhance student learning and engagement. Have you ever participated in any of these activities at your school? The second part of your response to this blog should include how you think these terms fit in with program improvement or one of the strategies you will read about: essential questions, data, student work, unit of study, academic vocabulary, standards, assessments, rubrics.

Everyone should read all four of the Strategies for coaching small groups for program improvement this week. However, each person will be responsible for leading the discussion or application activity for 1 or 2 of them, so be sure to negotiate who will do what in your blogs. I will describe what I'd like you to do/discuss below, and you can, of course add to what I am suggesting if there are key points that you would like to bring up or discuss with everyone in your group. This is also a reminder that Task 2 of the PD plan is due by Nov 3.  Please upload it in the PD plan dropbox folder on D2L.

Strategy 8: Be the coach/facilitator to create an implementation guide together using the form in the book for either literacy related early learning standards OR a set of PASSkills from Grade 5 in the ELA section (like vocabulary or research skills or comprehension).

Strategies 9 and 10: How do you think these strategies support each other in program improvement? What are the strengths and challenges of doing each, do you think, in your setting? How would they help the faculty you surveyed to make change?

Strategy 11: Describe a unit of study that you have taught this semester. What were The essential questions you wanted the students to be able to answer? What were some of the ways you would respond to the questions in the reflection form in the book? What feedback would you like from your group?

Happy Halloween!

Week 11 Program Improvement 2--how to support and sustain change

Thanks for your suggestions for my presentation in Slovakia. Adding some reflection on what their students might say really involved the participants.  I brought you all chocolate which we will have when I see you Nov. 14-15.

 
This week the readings focus on how to support and sustain change in a school's literacy program, regardless of the level of the school.  The example will be from elementary schools, so those of you in secondary (high school or middle school) need to think carefully how it applies to you. WE have gone through several changes in our undergraduate literacy program  and in our graduate one as well. Change for our undergraduate students was not easy as they had preconceived ideas (from listening to their peers) about what would be happening, and the change, even if for their own improved learning, made them uncomfortable. I think it is easier for our program to make change because there are 4 of us and we collaborate to think about new standards and how to build and enact the curriculum.  In your school settings, there are many more faculty to involve. Think about a change in your schoolwide or grade level/team/department's program that was discussed adn our implemented.  What are some things the literacy leader or school leaders did that facilitated the faculty making the change?  What are some things that got in the way? Tell me about them.
You will be reading a chapter (WSQ 5) that focuses on whole school curricular change to improve student achievement.  The second chapter (WSQ 11) is specifically about evaluation and change in a school program and the role of the literacy specialist.  You will all read both chapters.  I'm going to provide 3 different prompts for your own blogging and discussion this coming week. I hope it will make the blogs more like discussions.  I read blogs on Wednesday, so please make sure your blog is up by the day and time you decided on and you have responded at least once to the other 2 people's blogs by Wednesday evening and then remember, you need to go back again for the discussion aspect which I will read and respond to on Thursday afternoon.
I appreciate your involvement in this class as we all work to figure out how a hybrid class works and is different from a regular face to face class that meets weekly.  When I see you again on Nov. 14 I"ll be asking for advice on how to make things smoother.....I'm learning too.
Now for the prompts for your own blogs.....remember, you need to divide them up so each is addressed by someone in your group.
1. Respond to the reflection questions in the gray box on page 83 of WSQ 5
2. Also on page 83 of WSQ 5 is a second gray box titled Project Assignment. It sets up a scenario with three questions for you as a literacy leader. How would you answer them?
3. On page 163 of WSQ 11is a table that describes the 10 guiding principles that will help a literacy leader support change in a school.  Choose the 2 that either you find the most challenging for your setting or that are most germane to supporting change in your setting. There are self-reflective questions with each one.  Respond to those questions for the 2 principles that you chose.
Remember to respond and provide suggestions to each other about what the blogger wrote in response to the task. Let me know if you have questions..... (note:  make sure you have notifications enabled on your blog so you know when someone responds to your blog....)
Hope your week was good.