The Reading Specialist by R.M. Bean Chapters 6, 10, and 12

The Reading Specialist from the Inside Out

CHAPTER SIX

Coaching

Improving Classroom and School Literacy Instruction

A good coach will make [his] players see what they can be rather than what they are.

-----ARA PARSEGHIAN (former football coach University of Notre Dame)

• Literacy coaching can be helpful in supporting teacher and student learning.
• The interactive framework of coaching can mold the work of academic coaches.
• Effective knowledge, skills, and dispositions are essential for academic coaching.
• Similarities and differences between elementary and secondary levels and the importance in understanding those differences.

Coaching takes on an all new meaning when discussed in the academic context. In this context coaching makes sure that teachers use strategies and techniques that follow the prescribed curriculum that works best for the students. This chapter shows the coaching models used in most schools. Bean categorizes this approach to coaching into two pieces; prescriptive and goal-oriented (2015).

Prescriptive

This method provides little or no spontaneity or choice on the part of the teacher, and more times than not uses a scripted teaching method to provide a routine, monotonous method of instruction. This type of model also determines what teachers work with a specific program and even how the teachers themselves work together.

Goal-oriented

Choice is the method of this type of reading program where goals and outcome-based learning are determined by setting goals along with an adopted literacy framework. A reading specialist provides the leadership to accomplish the district goals for literacy.

My beliefs follow the notion that teachers should maintain as much autonomy as possible as long as it is in the best interest of the student. If a teacher relinquishes autonomy, creativity and choice are lost. Opportunities to adjust techniques and strategies to the needs of the learner are vital when dealing with the struggling reader. What works for one students may or may not work for another or even among groups.

CHAPTER TEN

School, Community, and Family Partnerships

It takes a village to raise a child.

----AFRICAN PROVERB

• Epstein (1995) Six types of parental involvement
• How reading specialist can work with parents and community to enhance student literacy learning.
• Essential notions or guidelines to be considered in developing effective parental involvement programs.

Most teachers would agree that one of the most difficult aspects to deal with in education is the lack of parental in providing support to school curriculum or attending to the child’s behavioral issues and needs. Parental involvement and support is crucial and positively related to numerous factors including test scores, attendance, and graduation rates. According to Epstein(1995 in her research-based framework, these are the six types of parental involvement.

1. Parenting: assisting families establish environments that support the developing learner.
2. Communicating: designing and using effective forms of home to school communication with programs about children’s growth.
3. Volunteering: recruiting, organizing, and providing opportunities for volunteers to support student learners.
4. Learning at Home: family involvement in support of their children’s growth.
5. Decision-making: including parents in school decisions.
6. Collaborating with the community: coordinating various community resources and services, and providing services to the community.

Another aspect of equal importance is the reading specialist’s task of helping teachers understand what readers bring to the classroom or what they may be lacking. I believe it is vitally important for teachers to be aware of student skills brought to the classroom or the lack of some of those skills and assist them in providing opportunities to supplement those deficits to allow the student to read and thrive.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Reading Specialist as Lifelong Learner

Addressing Challenges and Changes

• Ways in which reading specialists can continue their professional learning.
• Ways for reading specialists can prepare for interviews.

All educators must remain lifelong learners. Continued learning for the reading specialist can be achieved in a variety of ways. Professional learning by way of formal participation in courses either online, in print, or face to face, becoming a member of professional organizations that match grade level and school responsibilities, pursuing advanced degrees and professional development, as well as networking with other coaches are important as a means of remaining passionate about their profession and maintaining an eagerness to improve instruction for their students and school. Setting lifelong learning goals will also help reading specialists prepare to change or modify past or current teaching behaviors for students and the coaching of fellow teachers. Another important aspect of the learning for a reading specialist is to remain up-to-date on local, state, and federal guidelines.

• American Library Association (www.ala.org)
• Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (www.ascd.org)
• Association of Literacy Educators (www.aleronline.org)
• International Society for Technology in Education (www.iste.org)
• Learning Forward (www.learningforward.org)
• Literacy Research Association (www.literacyresearchassociation.org)
• National Association for the Education of Young Children (www.naeyc.org)
• National Council of Teachers of English (www.ncte.org)
• Association of Middle Level Education (www.amle.org)
• Report of the National Reading Panel (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000)
• Reading Next (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004)
• Adolescent Literacy (Ippolito et, al., 2012)
• Developing Early Literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel (2008)(www.nifl.gov)
• Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth (August & Shanahan, 2006)

Reading specialist must remember why they chose to become reading specialists such as concern for the reading struggles their students, the desire to become more proficient at teaching reading, as well as finding best practices for teaching the struggling reader. These types of questions will more than likely come up in a professional interview, and reading specialists need to reflect on these reasons in order to adequately explain their thoughts and professional goals to a potential supervisor. Enthusiasm for teaching reading is another aspect a reading specialist must be willing to express. Future reading specialist interviewees may wish to familiarize themselves with briefs available on the Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse (www.literacycoachingonline.org).

Along with supporting teachers and learners, reading specialist must remember to validate themselves and stay up to date on current trends; both good and possibly harmful. Reading specialists and all teachers must remain focused on the learner and best practices to address learner’s needs.

Bean, Rita M.,(2015) The Reading Specialist, Leadership and Coaching for the Classroom,

School, and  Community, 3rd edition, New York, NY, The Guilford Press.