I am happy to announce that my newest book for reading coaches, Coaching the Threads of Reading: Strategies for Teacher Success has now been released. This book goes beyond the usual tips found in most literacy coaching books on how to set up a coaching schedule, build rapport and work with teachers. Coaching the Threads of Reading: Helping Teachers Build Reading Success discusses the actual instructional skills and strategies that teachers need to help students of all age levels develop into strong and efficient readers. The book offers specific chapters for working with K-3 primary grades, 4-8 intermediate grades and 9-12 high school content reading.  School purchase orders may be sent to Southwest Training Development, 20118 North 67th Avenue, Suite 300-159, Glendale, Arizona 85308.  For credit card orders, click here.

List Price: $28.95

Getting to meet the author of a book that children love to read or listen to  is one of the greatest ways to add interest and excitement to your classroom. Many children’s authors are now offering free, short, 10-15 minute, virtual visits via internet calling services such as Skype in addition to their author websites and Facebook pages. While you can certainly contact your favorite authors directly to find out if they offer Skype interviews, you can find a list at the School Library Journal website: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6673572.html.  Here, you will find not only a list of authors who are currently offering free, virtual classroom visits but some tips on what to do to get ready for a successful meeting. Have students either read or listen to the book in advance and then brainstorm questions that the class wants to ask the author. Arrange an area in front of your computer camera where children can come up to ask questions of the author. The more organized you and your students are during the brief interview session, the smoother and more worthwhile your author visit will be.  Be sure to contact your district Technology Coordinator well in advance of your meeting so s/he can work with you to make sure that Skype is not blocked and will work as well as possible for your call. Be sure to have students bring books to read with them “just in case” the technology has some glitches and they have to wait a bit for the call to take place. This is a great opportunity to really build interest and excitement so take advantage of this opportunity to connect with the author’s your students love.

If you have read Marzano’s research in Classrooms That Work, you know that helping students identify similarities and differences is considered a “high yield” strategy for teaching content and helping students improve academic performance. You can use this technique with literature by asking student to write about how two stories connect to one another. Students should describe all of the ways that the two stories are similar and then how they are different. Provide a graphic organizer to help students organize their information prior to beginning to write their paper.

I was appalled by Arnie Duncan’s recent comment that professional development dollars are being “wasted” in school districts across the country.  While there may be districts out there who still use their money for “drive by” professional development which we know is ineffective, most of the districts that I see are using job-embedded coaching and targeted PD to help teachers improve their skills.  As a result of these erroneous ideas, the feds have cut Title IIa funds to schools this year.  This is a travesty at a time when so many demands are being placed on teachers to help children reach higher and higher levels of performance.  The recent cheating scandal in Atlanta Public Schools is a perfect example of what happens when teachers feel pressured to show high scores but are still at a loss as to how to help struggling readers meet the goals.  Taking away professional dollars  at a time when teachers need targeted and specific support to reach the goals of NCLB  is exactly the opposite of what should be happening.  Clearly, Arnie Duncan needs to spend more time visiting schools where PD is effective and  money used wisely instead of listening to teachers from the” doom and gloom” crowd who resist changing their old ineffective ways to methods that are proven effective.