Literacy Coach

Introduction

“Every school day in the United States for the past decade, more than 3,000 students have dropped out of high school (Joftus), 2000).” This is becoming an epidemic because literacy is simply not just being able to read or write your name. The rigors for the literacy curriculum have become much more complex and require students to be able to comprehend and state their input on different reading texts from a variety of sources. A vast amount of the funds from the federal government has been targeted towards the reading for primary grades. Secondary students such as high school students may find it difficult to transition to a higher reading level because of the complexity. “But children who are reading on grade level in the primary

In the article, Middle School Literacy Coaching from the Coach’s Perspective, researchers dissect the issue of being an effective literary coach in the middle school for young adolescents. In other words, what does the literacy coach in the middle school for adolescents foresee his role as a literacy coach?

The article breaks the research problem down into three phases that a coach must conquer in order to be an effective coach in the middle school setting. First, the literacy program at the middle school level range from “remedial reading to language arts block to no reading at all” during the course of a school day (Smith, 2012). Phase two states that a literacy coach must overcome the expectation of students knowing the material without receiving any reading instructions. The third phase is the fact that middle school grades lack the instruction of higher level thinking and reading

The author gave a general back ground of literacy coaching by giving information on literacy coaching as a progression. According to statistics given by the author article. “Middle School Literacy coaching from the coach’s perspective” literacy coaching has become an increasingly popular profession. It also gives a major fact of literacy coaching, ”a major draw of coaching is its potential to impact teacher learning and improve classroom practice, providing an instructional link between standards and increased students achievements (Elements Rothman,2000).” The researched allowed the coach’s to develop their perspective on these roles; coaching roles, teacher change, and student learning. Coaches based their perspectives on their findings from their questions; “Did my work make a difference? Have teachers change efforts impacted student learning? After each coach gave their perspective, they all concluded that literacy coaching in middle school has an enormous potential to “improve instructions and increase student achievement, but also forces a number of