I think what we need to remember is that each district, or maybe school decides the role of the reading specialist or literacy coach. When I was teaching 4th grade (8 years ago) we had a reading specialist at our school (not all schools had them, each school decided how they wanted to spend their money). We were a Title 1 school. Anyway, the reading specialist only worked with 1st and 2nd graders and sometimes 3rd graders. The idea was to get to them early. She did small group pull-out and 2 reading recovery students a day. K-3 had 20 students to 1 teacher, while the upper grades had 33 to 1. The upper grade got no support. Year after year (we had the reading specialist for 5 years) we would get 4th graders 2 years behind in reading. It was not uncommon to have 2 or 3 come in reading at beginning 2nd and another 6 or so reading at running record levels of 20 and 22 -in each classroom.
The principal decided something needed to be done. She decided to replace the reading specialist with a literacy coach. The idea was that the literacy coach was there to help teachers -work side by side with them modify teaching techniques and learn together. It was not an us/them situation. The idea was if teachers improved their teaching knowledge, strategies, and techniques then the students would benefit. Also, all grade level teachers would have access to the coach. Building capacity in teachers would benefit the students. I was thrilled. I applied for the job and was a literacy coach for 7 years. My focus was to work with the teachers. I did not do a pull out program. The primary teachers were upset with the plan at first (and maybe some still are) but we had teacher book clubs with professional books, we watched videos of Strategies That Work and Reading With Meaning. We had great conversations. I worked in classrooms, with teachers, modeling instruction, we planned together. I stayed with a teacher a minimum of 3 weeks and went to that classroom 5 days a week. I worked with 4 different teachers during a cycle. There were great changes on campus. Our scores went up the first year, and then a big jump of 34 points the 2nd year. Did we still have upper grade students behind in reading -yes, but there were less of them. The big payoff - teachers were changing their teaching practices. Guided reading was one of our focuses and it made a difference. We continued slow growth the next 4 years, then we got a new principal with a different vision and scores declined. I ended up leaving the school because our philosophies did not mesh at all, and coached elsewhere in the district. The school is now on school improvement and is on its 3rd principal in 4 years. This principal is a good one though - I see positive changes coming in the future. I am back in the classroom now because schools got a directive from the district office that due to the budget, no school may have a literacy or math coach. Coaches were paid with Title 1 money, so I am not sure why this decision was made. I think they felt they would not have enough Title 1 money to cover the salary. Each school determines how they spend their title 1 money. We still do, except it cannot be used for a coach. OK. So I guess after that long response, it all boils down to leadership and community, and the effectiveness of the principal to lead and teachers to teach. Jan On 5/2/09 7:06 AM, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: > In our district, we have no reading specialists. Just literacy coaches. The > literacy coach is geared to work with all classrooms (K-6) in > literacy-related areas. She takes small groups of struggling readers in > various grade levels to do reading related skill work in her office. These > children have been showing no or little growth throughout the quarter or > semester. Or they were previously ear-marked by the previous teacher. The > work that she does is created to target specific skills that all these > children need work on in the 5 areas of literacy. I do not get a copy of > any sort of lesson plan, or content area of what she does, since it is > usually supporting all areas of reading. She has tested the students prior > to this and targets one small area to work on for 6 weeks or so. Then > reassesses who needs intervention next, after her small group is done. > Reading specialists usually hold masters' degrees(although not always), > and do work with struggling readers on a multitude of issues. Sometimes, > it's one on one, sometimes its two students. Often, they have push-in or > pull out programs that work all year, or for a semester, or sometimes for a > couple of years. The reading specialist works closely with the classroom > teacher to intervene on the lessons being taught in the regular classroom. > Sometimes, the reading specialist tests the student, sometimes files a > report for the classroom teacher to submit the documents for further > testing, or for more services, or less services. Many times, the reading > specialist has a closer relationship with the classroom teacher, and often > gets the written lesson plan of how each child in her class has done in > which skill area. > Often, each district has chosen to name or rename the type of service > they want for their district. In our district, we have had the name of the > person changed and the role of the person changed a number of times, even > over the course of 5 years. Someone always seems to find a "new and more > improved" way of operating, and wants to try it out. > Just a thought, > Diane > _______________________________________________ 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.
