Coaches face a huge set of responsibilities as they work alongside teachers to improve practice and increase student learning. Literacy coaches are expected to co-plan, co-teach, demonstrate lessons, and observe and provide feedback to support teacher learning. They should be able to lead study groups and hold large group workshops in an effort to collaborate with teachers and administrators. As a learning community, they explore the tools to assess students, to create appropriate instructional contexts, and to nurture students as fluent, flexible, and engaged readers and writers.
Providing on-going support for coaches through training and collaboration is essential. The consultants with Literacy for Learning, LLC have had years of experience in providing in-depth training and support. Our extensive experience in the development and design of large-scale professional learning projects and involvement with the various state wide literacy coach training initiatives, have given us opportunities to facilitate and work first hand in the training of hundreds of literacy coaches across the state. This unique perspective gives us an awareness of the intricacies and support systems needed to ensure successful literacy coaching.