| Being a literacy coach or a reading coach can be | | | | of this article. It will help you to map out your |
| extremely rewarding, but if you are new to the job, | | | | planning for your work with colleagues, staff and |
| where do you begin to tackle the tasks? After three | | | | students. This will then enable you to achieve a |
| years of on the job training, I found the beginning | | | | collaborative success that all the stakeholders can |
| and I will share it with you so that you can achieve | | | | share. |
| success, too. Select a theme for your coaching work | | | | Overview of the Process |
| and that theme will focus and guide your selection of | | | | First, select a theme. |
| prompts. What are prompts? For those coaches who | | | | That theme will run throughout all of the prompts. |
| are charged with supporting staff development and | | | | Then, introduce and model the picture prompt genre |
| training for the purpose of guiding the teachers | | | | of writing. This is connected to the speculative task, |
| towards strategies that will improve student | | | | so that follows this. |
| performance on state assessments, prompts is a | | | | Next, use the written response from the picture |
| familiar term. Prompts are what the student looks or | | | | prompt/speculative writing story as the text from |
| reads and then that forms the basis for the child's | | | | which you create open ended and story response |
| response. A prompt may be a picture, a poem or an | | | | prompts. Yes, it's more than okay to revisit the |
| excerpt from a book that the child responds to in | | | | writing and to use it for different purposes. |
| written form. | | | | Read Alouds-you should also include read aloud |
| Assessment writing is a genre unto itself. It has a | | | | stories that relate to your theme. These may also |
| style and form which is often evaluated against | | | | support the open ended and story response tasks. |
| rubrics and checklists. By carefully selecting the | | | | Building upon this background, you work with your |
| prompts, you are starting off on the path towards | | | | students to model and practice persuasive writing. |
| success. It is the student's response to the prompts | | | | The theme continues into the prompt you create for |
| that is written in the test booklets and that is what | | | | this genre. |
| is ultimately scored by the evaluators. In some | | | | Last but equally important is the poetry response |
| districts, student placement in courses or teacher job | | | | task. Locate a poem in which the title or the verses |
| placement is changed or challenged based upon the | | | | reflect the theme. Students advancing up to the SAT |
| results of the high stakes assessments. Therefore, it | | | | in high school will see that the poem becomes a |
| is important to have a great beginning. So back to | | | | famous quote. |
| the beginning, choose a theme that will guide your | | | | In conclusion, by tying these tasks together, you |
| selection of prompts, including but not limited to the | | | | have scaffolded the learning experience. You have |
| picture prompt, the poetry prompt, the speculative | | | | provided background information and sources that |
| prompt, the persuasive prompt, the story response | | | | the students can draw upon when they are crafting |
| and the open ended response prompts. | | | | their responses during the actual high stakes |
| While that may sound overwhelming, take a deep | | | | assessment period. |
| breath and have a pencil in hand as you read the rest | | | | |