When introducing myself, I often get a funny look when I mention my job title, Reading Coordinator. I admit, it feels like an odd title. I’m waiting for someone to ask, “What exactly do you coordinate? Tea?”
The title dates back to our first reading specialist, who preferred “coordinator” versus “specialist”. The label seemed to suggest a more systemic approach to literacy and reading versus a small, scale technical one. In other words, a reading specialist might know the nuances of helping an individual student overcome reading difficulties. A reading coordinator works to develop literacy practices across the entire school by working with teachers as well as students.
My responsibilities typically get evenly divided between teaching reading intervention courses, assessments, and staff development. For my first AVReading Newsletter of the year, I would like to briefly outline some of the literacy resources I can make available to you this year.
AVReading Newsletter and Website: On—or around—the first of each month, you will receive a digital copy of my newsletter. In it, you will find literacy related news and
information along with various lesson plans and strategies. Newsletters are also posted at avreading.org where you can find back issues from previous years.
Assessments: I have access to all sorts of reading data that might help you plan your classes or plan your approach with an individual student. In cases where we have little or insufficient reading data, I administer both informal and formal reading assessments. If you have a section that seems to really struggle, you can forward me your roster and I can send you the reading data on your students with some general observations about those numbers.
Coaching: After reading a newsletter, you might be interested to see how one of my strategies looks in front of a class. You can either visit one of my classes in the Reading Lab (Room 132) or we can schedule a day for me to do the activity with a section of your class. Or you can invite me into your class to watch a literacy strategy to get feedback.
Textbook and Text Analysis:
Whenever your department considers the purchasing of new texts, I can help you determine which of those texts is the best one for your purposes. I have rubrics for both print texts and for digital online texts.
Developing Classroom Libraries: As we explore more inquiry based approaches, the need for classroom libraries grows. A critical component of a good classroom library is finding books that will be accessible to the many different levels of your students. I help teachers find the right books for their various themes and offer assistance in the ordering and maintenance of those libraries.
Curriculum Writing: Engagement is an important element of creating a dynamic educational environment. I frequently meet with teachers across the curriculum to discuss ways to design units or lessons that might engaged all students, but especially those who have been traditionally disenfranchised. I am especially interested in finding innovative ways to reach students and help them to be more involved in their academic growth.
Literate Space: A bulletin board between Room 132 and 133, while designed more for students, can also be a good place to find new reading strategies and approaches.
Literacy Planning Committee: The Literacy Planning Committee is a group of content area teachers from across the disciplines, who meet to study and discuss ways that our school and our classrooms can improve literacy instruction. Each year, we choose a theme of study (ie. Vocabulary, homework, comprehension strategies) and make that our concentration for the year. This year, since AVID is implementing a reading program called AVID Weekly, we will join forces with them. All are welcome to the group. See me for more details about how to join.
While I hope to have a chance to speak to the full faculty a little later this year, do not hesitate to stop by Room 132 to say “Hello” and to tell me a little about what you are currently teaching and how it is going. Best of luck on the new school year! Know that you do not need to face it alone.
See the full issue of AVReading here.
