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Jennifer Allen
Jennifer Allen is a literacy specialist in grades 3-5 for the Waterville, Maine, school district, where she works as a reading coach and leads professional development programs for teachers in a wide range of formats. Jennifer has presented her work to regional and national audiences through state literacy organizations, the International Reading Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. She has written and published video and print workshops for Stenhouse Publishers, and is the author of Becoming a Literacy Leader: Supporting Learning and Change (
Stenhouse, 2006). Jennifer has chosen the topic of supporting new teachers as a year-long focus for her writing for Choice Literacy. She will post monthly updates on her progress in developing and leading a comprehensive program for a small group of teachers in her home district throughout the coming school year.
Jen leads small workshops for literacy coaches sponsored by Choice Literacy, featuring videos from her school site. (For more information on how to enroll in one of these seminars, click here.)
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Professional Study Groups
New and Veteran Teachers Learning Alongside One Another
Volume 1 Number 5 February 2010
It's no secret to those who know me that I am passionate about professional study groups. Nothing energizes me more than new thinking, reflecting on professional resources, and conversations with my colleagues. Study groups are that place where novice and veteran teachers meet to learn alongside one another. I believe that it is through collaborative partnerships between colleagues that we can support new teachers to overcome roadblocks they face in the classroom. Study groups are also a playground for learning - a place to bridge theory and practice. . . .
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Using Student Work to Guide Instruction
Volume 1 Number 4 January 2010
Welcome to this month's New Teachers Digest! I have been thinking about student work and how we use it to inform instruction. I have also been thinking about the messages we send students, as well as the type of feedback that we provide to help them move forward as learners. I hope you enjoy these new features and old favorites from the Choice Literacy Archives. . . .
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Linking Assessments and Curriculum Planning
Volume 1 Number 3 December 2009
Welcome to this month's New Teachers Digest! When I think back on my first couple years of teaching, I am amazed when I compare what was expected of me to what is expected of today's new teachers. This gap couldn't be more glaring when I consider assessments and curriculum planning. New teachers today are supposed to quickly master complicated assessments, and then analyze the findings and use them to plan instruction. It's an enormous task, and no wonder this is where so much of our energy goes in supporting new teachers. This month's digest is designed to help you help the new teachers in your midst as they connect their assessment data to classroom practice. . . .
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Assessing Professional Development:
Focus on Feedback (PD PORTRAITS)
Jennifer Allen
Designing professional development opportunities that meet the needs of all teachers has always been a challenge, and not something I should take for granted. Just because a format or session worked once, doesn't mean it will continue to worth with different groups of people. Over the years I have found that planning effective development is built around three key elements . . .
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Fostering Relationships and Building Learning Environments
Volume 1 Number 1 October 2009
Welcome to this month's New Teachers Digest! Early in the year, I find supporting teachers is often about welcoming them to the school community and helping them create comfortable environments for learning. Chatting about room layouts and cozy areas for literacy can be less threatening to new teachers than discussions of assessments and classroom management (though those often come up too). I hope you enjoy these new features and old favorites from the Choice Literacy Archives. . . .
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Implementing RTI: Keeping Students at the Heart of Our Conversations
Jennifer Allen
The latest acronym you are likely to hear in any educational conversation is RTI, otherwise defined as Response to Intervention. Those three letters are popping up everywhere, from educational catalogs promising the perfect "program" that will fix all students struggling in literacy, to professional books on the topic. . . .
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Planning a Year of Study Groups
Jennifer Allen
I am not sure about your schools, but we are knee-deep in what seems like many initiatives. We are realigning curriculum in all content areas, beginning the process of curriculum mapping as a district, and continuing to follow through on our school goal of improving our formative assessments. There is a lot going on, with each initiative competing for time against others . . .
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Using Mentor Texts in Study Groups:
Play and Practice
Jennifer Allen
I often find myself in information overload, with so many new ideas and so little time to play with them. I look forward to monthly study group meetings with my colleagues because we explore new thinking together and bounce ideas off of one another. Study groups have become my playground for learning, the place where we bridge theory and practice. . . .
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A Reason to Learn
Jennifer Allen
As a literacy specialist and coach, I find myself spending a lot of time thinking about professional development. I am passionate about learning, and often knee deep in designing and facilitating professional development programs for colleagues. But I have also figured out that not everyone is as passionate about learning as I am. . . .
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Relevant Support for New Teachers
Jennifer Allen
As a literacy specialist and coach, I find myself spending a lot of time thinking about professional development. I am passionate about learning, and am often knee deep in designing and facilitating professional development for new teachers fresh to the profession. I wondered if the new teacher support that we provided within our school was actually relevant to their immediate needs. As a seasoned teacher with almost 20 years of experience I fear I am losing perspective when it comes to what new teachers really need. . . .
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Reflecting on Student Work in Staff Meetings (TEMPLATE)
Jennifer Allen
Over the last four years our teaching staff has included reflecting on student work as a part of our staff meetings. To be honest, we struggled for probably three of the four years to find meaningful ways to look at the work. You may read this and wonder how we could be so behind the times - hasn't everyone been doing this effectively for years? But the truth is, this has been a process in which we have been revising and now fine-tuning our routines for making the most of our discussions about student work. . . .
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Study Groups, Instant Messaging, and Writing
Jennifer Allen
I am so out of the loop or should I say SITD (Still In The Dark) when it comes to IM (Instant Messaging). As I sit and write, I even have a cheat sheet next to me of the "Top 50 Most Commonly Used Text Terms." This list was slipped into my mailbox by a young teacher after our last study group, when she realized just how clueless I was about the language of IM. . . .
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On the Lookout: Considering Study Group Topics for Next Year
Jennifer Allen
You may be thinking that we are in the arctic freeze of winter (at least we are in Maine), so how could I possibly be thinking of study groups for next year? I agree that it is too early to set up study groups for the 2008/2009 year, but it is never too early to be scoping out and sifting through the latest resources. . . .
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Cartwheels, Backward Rolls, and Literacy Coaching
Jennifer Allen
Just as in gymnastics, the new teachers that I work with have needed less direct support from me over time. I find that I am still providing teachers in their third and fourth year of teaching with support - it just looks different than it did during that crucial first year. I am no longer in many of their classrooms on a weekly basis, nor do we have set meeting dates. As a literacy leader, I try to be there when they need me, but also give them space to grow as individuals. . . .
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Creating Structures to Sustain Our Work
Jennifer Allen
I wish I could bottle the inspiration I felt after listening to Bruce Morgan, Debbie Miller, and Ellin Keene at a recent NCTE presentation. They spoke about professional learning experiences that are successful and promote sustainability. Bruce and Debbie agreed that in their experience as classroom teachers, the most powerful professional development experiences were those in which they have had opportunities to reflect on and talk about their instructional practices with colleagues. Ellin Keene shared that the professional learning experiences that are most successful have a "spirit of experimentation." . . .
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To Fart or Not to Fart?
Reflections on Boy Writers
Jennifer Allen
Not everyone around the table agreed that allowing students to write about farting was appropriate. The topic shifted from appropriate topics, to how we each define "quality" in writing, to strategies to motivate boys to write in the classroom. The conversation flowed naturally. Teachers disagreed with one another without any sense of tension. The conversation pushed all of us to think about the boundaries we establish within our classrooms. and the stereotypes we make regarding gender. . . .
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From Compliments to Naming the Craft:
5th Grade Writing Workshop Share Session (VIDEO)
Jennifer Allen
This whole-class share session in Lesley Fowler's 5th grade classroom is the culmination of a nonfiction writing unit. Over the course of the year, we moved from having students compliment their classmates during these share sessions, to writing down specific aspects of the piece they enjoyed or had questions about during the reading. We found adding this brief writing element to the share sessions has made all the difference in helping students connect their writing and that of their peers to the lessons on craft we present throughout the year. . . .
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Got Space?
Jennifer Allen
Upon my return to school this year, I was determined to create a resource space for the third grade teachers. As I looked around the closet space, I couldn't find any empty space except for behind the door. So the door it was! I created a Literacy News Resource Board on the back of the closet door in the 3rd grade book closet. . . .
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Playing with Group Observations: Reflections on Learning with New Teachers
Jennifer Allen
The new teacher group is winding down. Our next and last meeting will be in June. Leslie Lloyd, the group's co-leader and I find ourselves constantly reflecting and refining the group as we go along. I find each month we approach some aspect of the group from a slightly different angle. This month Leslie and I played around with the classroom observations. Each month participants talk about the value of being able to observe other teachers and the time taken to debrief as a group. This month we had new teachers Jeni and Jess observe together. . . .
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Building the Reading Community Among Teachers
Jennifer Allen
The starting point for teaching reading is always our own lives as readers - tuning in to our processes as proficient readers, and then tapping that knowledge to help the children in our care develop new skills and strategies. One of the most important things I strive to do as a literacy coach is build self-awareness in my colleagues of their reading. . . .
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Reading Workshop for Teachers: Understanding Our Own Learning (VIDEO)
Jennifer Allen
In this four-minute video from a monthly study group meeting of new teachers, Jennifer Allen and Leslie Lloyd take the group through a book preview and reading activity as part of the workshop. The discussion after the activity highlights the importance of becoming aware of our own processes as readers in order to understand the literacy of students. . . .
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Learning from the Shadows
Jennifer Allen
This past month I decided to try something a little different. I asked Jeni, a teacher in her third year to shadow me for a full day. New teachers have always made their observations alone. Selfishly, I wanted to be part of the observation, debriefing, and hear their thinking firsthand. . . .
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The Power of Layered Coaching
Jennifer Allen
I have to admit I did not anticipate the power of these peer observations. Each month the new teachers enthusiastically return to the group eager to share new ideas gathered from their classroom observations in hopes of implementing them in their own rooms. Many of the new teachers have stated that the time given to observe other teachers is truly a gift. Others have said that the built-in time to observe is one of the best components of the new teacher support system. . . .
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Portable Anchor Charts for Literacy Coaches
Jennifer Allen
I have to admit I have gone a little foam board crazy. I started with a foam board on revision strategies, and now we have moved to boards that include our strategies for alternative leads - leads for narratives, leads for nonfiction animal books, and also leads for biographies. Foam boards are durable, easy to store, and perfect for displaying ideas. . . .
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How Study Groups Are Like Self-Cleaning Ovens
Jennifer Allen and Brenda Power
One of our favorite inventions ever is the self-cleaning oven. Set a timer, lock the oven door, and a few hours later - voila! You have a clean oven, and can feel virtuous about it, even though it required almost no effort on your part. Study groups can be like self-cleaning ovens - put a few key elements in place, and they can almost run themselves. We used to spend hours looking for the perfect activity or icebreaker for groups, but over time we've found that a standard format with regular components works best for us. . . .
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January New Teacher Group Update: When Life Happens
Jennifer Allen
It was noontime when I received a call from my daycare provider, Sandy. She told me that my daughter, Samantha was coughing a lot. I had an important meeting scheduled for the afternoon with several district principals, literacy specialists and the superintendent. I decided that I would still go to my meeting and just put a call in to my doctor. . . . . .
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Keeping It Simple: Reflections on the December New Teachers Study Group
Jennifer Allen
I sit reflecting on last week's new teacher group. It's December and we have met together monthly since the start of school in September. The monthly agendas have taken on a predictable pattern and we are starting to build relationships within the group. The uncomfortable silences have been replaced with chatter about books we are reading... . . .
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Word Choice Lesson: A Collaborative Coaching Session with a New Teacher (VIDEO)
Jennifer Allen
When I work with a new teacher in his or her classroom, it's a collaborative experience. We design and teach together over time, sharing what works and what doesn't. In this video, you'll glimpse a snapshot in time of the collaborative teaching Jessica and I are doing within a revision unit of study. On this day, we are teaching her fourth graders about the importance of word choice... . . .
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Literacy Room for Teachers Tour (VIDEO)
Jennifer Allen
In this four-minute video tour, Jennifer Allen describes how she arranges and displays materials in the "literacy room," the space she has created in her grades 3-5 school as a hub for her professional development work with colleagues... . . .
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The Power of Observation
Jennifer Allen
This month we incorporated peer observations into our regular morning agenda of the new teacher group. The new teachers enthusiastically embraced the time given to observe other teachers. I am confident this will be time well-spent each month for participants. Everyone felt that observing other teachers in the school was a valuable part of their day. . . . . .
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Teacher Study Group: Writing Focus (VIDEO)
In this video of a teacher study group, Jennifer Allen leads a group of grades 3-5 teachers as they launch their monthly meeting in October. Jen follows her own guidelines for launching a successful study group... . . .
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Launching Teacher Study Groups:
Guidelines and Resources
Jennifer Allen
Teacher study groups are becoming more popular in schools, fueled in part by the surge of interest in adult book clubs in the U.S. over the last decade. In study groups, teachers typically work together with a facilitator to explore a topic of interest in-depth -- reading and discussing a book about the issue, trying out new practices in classrooms, and returning each week or month for more conversation... . . .
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Launching Literature Circles: Coaching, Collaborating and Reflecting (VIDEO)
In this eight-minute video, literacy specialist Jennifer Allen and fourth-grade teacher Carolyn Bridges launch literature circles for the first time in Carolyn's fourth-grade classroom. Jessica, a new teacher, observes in preparation for launching literature circles with her own students. Jessica uses an observation form designed by Jennifer. . . .
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Assessment and Curriculum Mapping (VIDEO)
Jennifer Allen
In this three-part video from a new teacher study group for grades 3-5 teachers, Jennifer Allen demonstrates how teachers can use assessment data to develop instructional plans for individual students and create curriculum maps for an entire class of students at the same time. . . .
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Reflective Observation: Helping Teachers Observe, Analyze, and Guide (TEMPLATE)
Jennifer Allen
Our new teacher support group includes monthly observations of peers, with time scheduled following the observations for group discussion and analysis of what everyone saw. I wanted to develop some observation tools the teachers could use that wouldn't intimidate the observer OR the teacher being observed... . . .
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Organizing a Literacy Resource Room for Teachers (PHOTO ESSAY)
Jennifer Allen
When I moved from a position as a classroom teacher to a new role as a literacy specialist and coach, the one thing I asked for above all else was a room of my own for collaborating with colleagues, displaying resources, and leading study groups. There wasn't much available, so what I had to work with was a large, bare basement room... . . .
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Planning a New Teachers' Professional Development Program
Jennifer Allen
The monthly professional development days are designed to provide a safe and supportive environment for new teachers to share challenges, ask questions, and look at how the literacy curriculum fits within the big picture of a school year... . . .
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