Ok...I have to jump in here. My title is Reading Specialist. I have certification from my state as a reading specialist. Literacy coaches, at least here in MD, are often reading specialists who take on a specialized role of working with teachers. I know in other states, the title and qualifications for reading specialists and coaches vary from Maryland. I will tell you from personal experience and data collection...RARELY do little pull out groups for intervention work well enough to pull kids to grade level unless they are a. very small- 3 or less students, b. are in addition to the school day--kids get additional time above and beyond their regular reading time. c. and are very targeted to specific student needs. So, I made the conscious decision to plug into classrooms and coteach with teachers on a daily basis. This accomplishes a couple of key things...it reduces the teacher student ratio for kids who are struggling. It allows me to share best practices with a colleague and actually coach her on a daily basis...though I will also say I learn as much from my colleagues as they do from me. It is improving reading skills for my students at risk. Standardized test scores are going up, in many cases dramatically,...but more importantly, we can see improvements in reading on a daily basis. There are kids who don't improve enough and need more intensive services. We take the last 30 minutes of the day which if often wasted time...the last 15 minutes are spent packing up...doing jobs etc... and do pull out reading programs for the kids who need additional time. We keep the intensity of services high by adding this as additional time to their regular reading instruction and keeping the groups very small. My current group is 4 students. I don't think it is an either/or thing...coaches and reading specialists benefit students IF they are given the time and resources to do the job right. I personally feel I benefit more students by helping their teachers get even better than they already are...but I am in the classroom EVERY DAY with them and we plan together as well. AND, just because I know a lot about reading as a reading specialist, it did not mean I was prepared to work effectively with colleagues. I needed to learn how to coach...and it has taken me years to master. Jennifer In a message dated 5/2/2009 11:50:52 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
These descriptions of Reading Specialist and Literacy Coach seem backward to me. In my experience, Reading Specialists are the ones who take kids out for small group, targeted work, while Literacy Coaches work with classroom teachers.... i.e., coaching them. So I'm very confused. Renee **************Eat Great & Lose Weight FASTER! Start the South Beach Diet Online - FREE Profile! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221822996x1201398599/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B213623126%3B35100424% 3Bk) _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
