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Literacy Coaching: Learning to Collaborate
Literacy Coaching Learning to Collaborate Author:Barbara Walker Literacy coaches, learn to transform every interaction with teachers and students into an opportunity for learning! Renowned author, Barbara Walker, takes a positive approach to literacy coaching and explores the possibilities for teacher development and student learning in her newest book, Literacy Coaching: Learning to Collaborate. Drawing fro... more »m her experiences working with both pre-service and practicing teachers, Walker discusses the importance of learning to collaborate within the school and during classroom interactions in order to increase both teacher- and student-learning. She presents literacy coaches and teachers with a step-by-step process, the "cycle of literacy coaching" for adapting classrooom instruction and outlines best practice strategies for implementation, including the multiple decisions that teachers make before, during, and after a literacy lesson. The cycle is broken down into three steps for ease of use: *The pre-conference--teachers and coaches decide on the instructional procedures, which student to observe, the coaching procedures, what aspects of literacy to observe, and what student work to collect. * Implementation--the literacy coach observes the teacher and the students. *The post-conference--the literacy coach and the teacher reflect on the lesson and analyze what they observed. This analysis and the interpretation of the classroom interactions is integral. Using a gradual release model, Walker explains the different levels of support that a literacy coach can use as they work with teachers. She discusses coaching through modeling, "coaching in the zone," and coaching for independence. Finally, the step-by-step techniques provided help teachers and coaches determine at what point during the lesson instruction was modified to promote student learning.« less