While literacy coaches and specialists have been embedded within school sites and have served at district levels for some time, their role has recently changed to become more complex and varied in terms of providing assistance and support to teachers and students. The possibilities for making the best use of literacy leaders within a school setting are explored in this book that is filled with practical how-to’s for working as a literacy specialist in an elementary school setting.
Detailed suggestions, from a resource room map and ways to entice teachers into making use of the facilities to daily/weekly/monthly time schedules and supplies lists and budgets are included. Allen provides brief vignettes of classroom scenarios to create a complete understanding of methods she is using and also of her relationship with the teachers and classrooms she serves.
Pages are filled with practical applications such as sample teacher letters, criteria for teacher and student selection in an intervention program, student profile sheets, schedules, timelines, surveys, and forms. Agendas, diagrams, lists, resources, and tips for working with busy teachers within and outside the school day are offered and framed within stories and samples of teacher and student work. The specificity of her descriptions and examples of working with teachers will be greatly appreciated by literacy leaders, administrators, and teachers themselves. Additionally, she offers specific agendas and mini lessons along with references to popular professional literature by well-known experts such as Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi, Donald Graves, Georgia Heard, Katy Wood Ray, and Lucy Calkins. The book includes a multilayered appendix with popular titles that teach reading comprehension and writing skills, along with a listing of professional books suitable for teacher study groups.
Allen provides details in how to work with teacher groups to promote independent as well as collaborative thinking about best teaching practices in literacy. She explains, through stories and descriptions of in-service activities, how she builds communities of teacher-learners within the study groups she facilitates. In addition, she offers her own philosophy about influencing school reform initiatives. Besides shared leadership, she advocates teacher choice in selecting personal professional growth activities and is decidedly passionate about teachers, not programs, being the key to increased student learning and achievement. She emphasizes the importance of collegial dialogue — something many busy educators have little time for — and the power of “think time” for teachers to sort out new ideas and safely try out new practices.
She has teachers teach the language arts through becoming active readers, writers, and discussants themselves. Perhaps one of the most intriguing strategies she uses is one where she encourages teachers to practice their own writing skills as a means of perfecting their teaching of writing through exploring “the seven stories of their lives” with snapshots in time. Writing lessons are framed and practiced with personal writing and then transferred to the classrooms using the teachers’ own writing as samples/models. This seems to have provided a turning point in her relationship with the teachers with whom she was working and in their growth in becoming excellent teachers of writing.
A somewhat disconcerting piece for some readers might be her references on several occasions to a budget that is able to afford professional books for teachers’ personal ownership, videos, snacks, and other supplies beyond the reach of many. While she explains that she has written grants, this may not be something to which other literacy leaders have access and they may become frustrated with ideas they cannot implement without additional financial support.
Also missing from the suggestions is the common literacy leader dilemma of having to assist a failing teacher who does not want assistance. Allen focuses on those teachers on staff who are productively engaged and who may encourage their reluctant colleagues as their enthusiasm and success become apparent. Unfortunately, postponing engagement with recalcitrant teacher-learners is not always a viable option for literacy leaders within a school site.
This book will be of primary interest to those who are embarking on or who are currently serving as literacy coaches or specialists at school sites. However, it also gives clear guidance to administrators who are often at a loss in understanding how to best use this potentially valuable resource.
Although Allen presents a somewhat limited perspective of literacy leadership based only on her own personal techniques and methods in serving as a literacy leader in her two schools, her reasoning for her decisions is heavily referenced in research-based theory and practices. Her efforts are grounded in mutual respect and empathy for the difficult job of assuring that all students become literate, motivated learners.
This is a quick, easily read book filled with useful and engaging ideas. Allen’s voice offers the reader a conversational, collegial tone that is never condescending and that models the very style she seems to find so successful in her work in schools. It is easy to see why her colleagues trust her; she speaks with conviction, understanding, and empathy for the difficult job of ensuring that all students attain adequate and optimal achievement in literacy.
Pages: 183 Price: $18.00 ISBN: 1-57110-4199-4
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