21st Century Middle School Literacy Coaches
The Teacher Academy has trained two hundred literacy coaches in response to Governor Easley’s NC Middle School Literacy Coach Initiative. The General Assembly appropriated funds to support the selection and hiring of coaches in middle schools across the state. The literacy coaches work in the classroom seventy-five per cent of the time collaborating with sixth through eighth grade classroom teachers to improve reading, writing, and content learning through the infusion of literacy skills into the daily instructional practices. As a teacher-leader, coaches also design, prepare, and deliver professional development in their schools in order to create a process that supports both the development and implementation of a school-wide literacy program. Literacy coaches participate in a three year training program targeting the following areas: - Adult learning, presentation skills, and teambuilding
- Contracts, coaching, and pre- and post- conferencing
- Qualitative Reading Inventory(QRI-4), early literacy, and writing strategies
- Instructional strategies, action plans, and reflections in the content areas
- Differentiated instruction and using brain research to improve classroom instruction
- Teacher leadership
- Classroom management
- Working with English language learners
- Building professional learning communities
During the three year training program, Middle School Literacy Coaches also participate in four summer academies: Instructional Technology, Using Data to Drive Instruction, Learning Styles, and Cooperative Learning.
"One of the most unheralded and hopeful developments in public education is the emergence
of school-based coaches." Hayes Mizell, NSDC’s distinguished senior fellow |
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