Assessing Our Work as Literacy Coaches RESOURCE ROUND-UP


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Assessing Our Work as Literacy Coaches
RESOURCE ROUND-UP

What are some useful tools for literacy coaches who are trying to assess what's going well and what's not by late fall?

Jan Miller Burkins has a simple survey evaluation form she distributes to colleagues available at this link:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/369.cfm

The Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse is a joint project of the National Council of Teachers of English and International Reading Association. They have posted a self-assessment for coaches. Many coaches would find it a little unwieldy and intimidating at 13 pages in length, but it should give your coaching team lots of ideas for useful questions and topics to cover in your own assessment:

http://tinyurl.com/3cu5zl

It's hard to know if you are succeeding if you don't begin with good baseline information. You can get this information by surveying teachers about their needs and interests. You may want to survey teachers as the year closes, so that you can begin January with a clear sense of how to match your coaching team's strengths with particular needs.

Gayle Brand's Professional Needs Development Assessment survey is terrific because it's so short - teachers can complete it in five minutes or less (even at the end of a staff meeting), yet it still gives coaches a wealth of information on how to support colleagues:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/106.cfm

Erin Marr and Pam Hahlen's menu of options is more whimsical, but its fun tone masks a wonderful tool for determining what sort of delivery colleagues prefer for professional development (i.e., in-class collaborative teaching, help with lesson design):

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/169.cfm

Finally, if you're assessing your work as coaches, you'll also want to look at how you are spending your time. Jennifer Jones offers the "Plan Book Scavenger Hunt," an activity you might want to try in a literacy coaches meeting before the end of the year. Analyzing how you've spent your time individually and collectively through the fall months will give you a sense of whether or not your goals match the way you are allocating your professional time:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/355.cfm