Literacy Coaches Working with Teachers and Students

            In this article in The Reading Teacher, Bethanie Pletcher (Texas A&M University/ Corpus Christi), Alida Hudson (Texas A&M University/College Station), Lini John (The Woodlands Christian Academy), and Alison Scott (Tomball Independent School District) share strategies for balancing the role of literacy coach (working primarily with teachers) and reading interventionist (working directly with struggling students). Here’s how they see the tasks of a hybrid literacy professional:

-   Providing supplemental reading support for small groups of students;

-   Giving reading assessments to students to support core instruction and intervention;

-   Meeting regularly with individual teachers for coaching, including modeling lessons;

-   Meeting with teacher teams to help with planning lessons and analyzing assessments;

-   Presenting PD for the school faculty;

-   Leading discussions, book studies, and strategy studies with groups of teachers;

-   Meeting with administrators to discuss school goals, analyze student assessment data, and strategize how best to support teachers and students.

Based on their experience working in a variety of schools, the authors say coaches need to:

-   Get the support of school leaders and coordinate with their goals and activities;

-   Pick topics that balance the needs of students, teachers, coaches, and school leaders;

-   Start small (resisting the impulse to take on too many coachees and students);

-   Hold brief but efficient coaching conversations with teachers;

-   Stick to a schedule (while being flexible for unexpected events).

-   Leverage the skills of highly effective teachers.

On this last point, Pletcher, Hudson, John, and Scott suggest freeing up colleagues to observe each other and build the confidence and impact of the best teachers. “Although the one-to-one coaching conversation is a highly beneficial practice among coaches and teachers,” they say, “overall school improvement will be limited if the knowledge and experience of expert classroom teachers is not harnessed… This not only builds teacher capacity but also alleviates some of the demands on the school literacy professional and empowers teachers.”

“Coaching on Borrowed Time: Balancing the Roles of the Literacy Professional” by Bethanie Pletcher, Alida Hudson, Lini John, and Alison Scott in The Reading Teacher, May/June 2019 (Vol. 72 #6, p. 689-699), https://bit.ly/2YeHbvF; the authors can be reached at

bethanie.pletcher@tamucc.edu, alida.hudson13@gmail.com, linijohn20@gmail.com, and alison.scott31@yahoo.com.

(Please Note: The summary above is reprinted with permission from issue #785 of 
The Marshall Memo, an excellent resources for educators.)