I am thrilled to have my esteemed colleague, Katherine Casey, as my first guest blogger! Katherine is a nationally-acclaimed literacy coach and author of Literacy Coaching: The Essentials, and will lead the Promise of Coaching Institute in Seattle (January 8-9, 2009) and Portland (January 29-30, 2009).
For her first guest blog, I have asked Katherine to share a [...]
Entries from September 2008
September 21, 2008
Special Guest Blogger: Katherine Casey
September 17, 2008
Who Deserves the Best?
I’m sitting here with a friend in a coffee and art shop, digesting one of the best burgers I’ve had in a while. My friend teaches at Madrona K-8 School in Seattle, and we’ve been chatting about her school which is comprised of mostly low-income African American students. What is particularly striking about Madrona K-8 [...]
September 13, 2008
It’s Normal to Feel Overwhelmed
My current role as a literacy coach is different from the one I played in Baltimore City Public Schools. In Baltimore, I was a school-based coach, working in two schools. Now, I serve as a consultant, working with an entire school district that has officially adopted the writing workshop model. Of course, a handful of [...]
September 9, 2008
The new NCTE Ning!
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has a Ning! What is a Ning, you ask? It’s an online networking community like Facebook and myspace, but designed just for literacy professionals. On Ning, you can network and share files…you can even ask Kylene Beers to be your “friend,” which I think is so amazing. [...]
September 4, 2008
Assessing Student Writing with Teachers
As you begin to set professional development goals with your teachers, you may want to consider helping them use ongoing writing assessments as part of their curriculum planning. The K-8 Continuum for Assessing Narrative Writing (downloadable pdf file) was developed by the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project is a valuable tool for introducing this practice. This [...]
September 4, 2008
The First Week of School
Sharpened pencils, stacks of crisp paper, and eager faces. Aren’t these the images we have in our minds before the school year begins? For me, there is something about an unopened box of Crayolas (especially the 64-crayon package with the built-in sharpener) that stirs both nostalgia and excitement. By the first week of school, of [...]
