Much has been written about the roles and responsibilities of literacy coaches, including the ways in which they can effectively communicate and work with teachers. Teachers, however, are often less certain about their roles and responsibilities when working with coaches. Many teachers also lack a clear picture of the varied opportunities…

This article explores how Black teachers have used liberatory literacy practices through a lens of care when working with Black students. The prioritization of care is particularly important for Black students as they often experience a lack of care within schools due to labeling, stereotyping, and a lack of racially and culturally diverse…

As schools continue to focus on elementary student achievement and literacy growth, the role of the elementary school-based literacy coach is as imperative as ever. However, as a lever for reform and professional learning, the literacy coach role remains underspecified, variable, and often misunderstood in practice. This article aims to address…

The advent of Generative AI technologies, such as ChatGPT, in November 2022, necessitated immediate and critical attention from the educational research community. The impact of GenAI in education, though not yet clear, has the potential to be transformative. More specifically, the focus of this paper is on how to integrate GenAI into elementary…

Negative societal beliefs and language ideologies about Black Language speakers continue to shape how Black Language is perceived from deficit perspectives in schools. However, educators must challenge these negative ideologies by amplifying the rich linguistic features that Black Language speakers already have by positioning these language…

Serving both teachers and students in a hybrid literacy professional role requires thoughtful planning and reflection. In this article, the authors reflect on their work over the course of one school year to determine how to manage time effectively to combine the job descriptions of reading specialist and literacy coach. Strategies are presented…

As children of immigrants are increasing in number across the U.S. classrooms, schools need to develop strategies to engage with immigrant families. Structural and attitudinal issues in the school system create challenges in communicating with immigrant parents. Immigrant parents have high expectations for their children's academic achievement…

All teachers must be literacy leaders in their classrooms and schools. Recent concerns surrounding teacher quality and literacy teacher preparation prompted the current inquiry, which examined the diverse ways in which literacy teacher educators cultivate literacy leadership among preservice teachers. The authors used a one-shot qualitative…

"Boy books" are frequently promoted as a surefire way to increase reading motivation and engagement among young adolescent boys. This study challenges the "boy book"/"girl book" dichotomy, suggesting that particular book covers may discourage boys from reading novels they might otherwise enjoy. It also presents…

In this article, the authors report findings from a yearlong study that addressed teaching first-grade students to make inferences and engage in inferential discussion about children's literature. Because of the importance of both inferencing and discussion for comprehension, a collaborative team of two researchers and a classroom teacher focused…

With the goal of supporting students' writing and content area learning using play as a pedagogical model, teachers' action research projects involved kindergarten and grade 1 students collaborating to create texts for a range of purposes. The authors analyzed the project activities for their starting points or motivators, student and teacher…

Identifying researchers whose work has influenced classroom practice, raises questions about the nature of research and its relationship with practice, and the means through which knowledge is distributed. We argue that normally, influence arises through lines of research more than individuals, that knowing-in-practice distribution systems should…

Technology-enhanced classrooms offer dynamic possibilities for teachers and students. The teacher's role can shift from being an expert in control of the class to being a coach who challenges students to use technology to explore the world and share their findings in innovative ways. Such redefining of roles, however, involves risk and often…

The adoption of the Common Core in many states across the country means we need to explore instructional approaches that promote student language use in order to meet many of the complex linguistic standards that comprise the Common Core. In this Teaching Tip, we provide a blueprint for a 4-week collaborative discussion mini-unit that a second…

Interviews and observations were conducted in five schools using a Response to Instruction and Invention framework to investigate (a) changes in role-expectations and functions for educators, (b) perceptions about their changing roles, and (c) skills needed to be effective in this systemic effort to improve literacy instruction for all students.…