The Literacy Coach's Survival Guide: Essential Questions And Practical Answers

by Cathy A. Toll

Often, literacy coaches are former classroom teachers who have little or no coaching training. Although confident in their knowledge of reading, literacy coaches may feel daunted when faced with the practical aspects of coaching. This book provides tools and tips to guide literacy coaches as they work in schools to promote more effective literacy instruction. Author Cathy A. Toll has organized the book around three How Do I Promote Change? What Does a Successful Literacy Coach Do? and How Do I Coach in Difficult Situations? to answer the main questions you may have about coaching. The first section will help you better understand various issues of educational change, and view change as beneficial. The second section will assist you with the practical matters of coaching, such as starting out, working with individuals and groups, and approaching problems in a helpful manner. The third section shows you how to overcome challenges, with information on dealing with resistant teachers and responding to pressures from administrators. The questions addressed in the book are listed by topic in an appendix for easy reference. Plus, a narrative bibliography is included to provide a discussion of the professional literature and topics covered in the book. Literacy coaching is best when you approach it with the belief that coaching is at heart about relationships and growth. This book will show you how to be a literacy coach who is successful in supporting teachers and, most important, students. The International Reading Association is the world's premier organization of literacy professionals. Our titles promote reading by providing professional development to continuously advance the quality of literacy instruction and research. Research-based, classroom-tested, and peer-reviewed, IRA titles are among the highest quality tools that help literacy professionals do their jobs better. Some of the many areas we publish in -Comprehension
-Response To Intervention/Struggling Readers
-Early Literacy
-Adolescent Literacy
-Assessment
-Literacy Coaching
-Research And Policy

Genres: Professional Development, Teaching

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 8, 2004

Reviews

[Rosemary Daly · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is ok... just not what I really expected. My own fault - I ordered it without checking the description. Nevertheless, worth looking into.

[Jess Farrar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book is obviously targeted at helping literacy coaches, it has a lot of practical advice for anyone who works with people (so most everyone who is employed...or interacts with the world!) This book will be a useful reference for many careers I may find myself in. Topics covered include change (dealing with it, helping others through it), laying the groundwork for successful employment at a new position, communicating effectively with colleagues individually and in groups, working with people whose opinions differ from yours, as well as many other topics.

A few things that stick out:
1. "Take a few minutes every week to note the things you have accomplished" (133). What great advice for everyone who feels swamped at work and/or works in a challenging situation.

2. The idea that you can't be an expert in everything and that you shouldn't strive for that. Rather, you should know how to find answers and focus on continuing to move forward. (54)

3. When a colleague (or in your personal life, friend, family member) asks for advice, don't rush to answer. Rather, first respond with silence to allow the person some time to truly express their thoughts. (65)

4. As a literacy coach, regular conferences with teachers are essential. Records should be kept from these conferences. Now, what I also took from this is that people working together should have regular one-on-one conferences with each other. Although a literacy coach should not be a supervisor of a teacher, I am thinking that this message of regular conferences could be carried over to a boss with her employees. This makes the employee feel this his concerns are important and that he is supported.

[Laura Giessler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was surprisingly easy to read. It made me very eager to meet Cathy Toll, so I am so disappointed that she is no longer coming to speak to us next month! She sounds like a very wise person, and I appreciated her genuinely respectful approach to dealing with others, including teachers. She cuts to the chase when she says, "In my experience, though, what's referred to as respect often means being friendly and polite while manipulating others into doing what you want them to do." She offers very practical and challenging advice for an alternative route, beginning with listening and developing trusting relationships and rightly points out that without these ingredients, it doesn't matter how much knowledge someone has to share. This is a book I will want to return to and re-read.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful and practical information for a beginning literacy coach. I enjoyed the practical organization of the text as well as the fact that much of this information was beneficial to me as a teacher too!

[Esme Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly helpful and easy read. Textbooks are usually so dry and hard to get through, but this text teaches with a lot of examples and has a lot of great advice. I would definitely recommend it to any teacher looking into becoming a literacy coach.

[Lou Broughton · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy, quick read that provides practical answers for many challenges a literacy coach faces. I do wish it had more information on demonstration lessons and tips for managing the schedule each six weeks.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great resource for literacy coaches.

[Malbadeen]

HELP!!!!
I'M DROWNING!!!!!

[Morgan]

Very practical and an easy read. Would recommend to other reading teachers.

[Ann Yanchura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical and easy read that gives many good suggestions for how to approach the job of literacy coach