Work with the adult reading partner to plan lessons.
Follow the CAR Example: After observing a couple of Mrs. G’s shared reading lessons, the coach noticed that she was using the same three or four words across texts and throughout an individual book. The words were Like, Same, Different, and More but when the coach looked at the student’s communication systems, there were many more words available to them.
This prompted the coach to prioritize the guiding statement, the adult’s preplanned comments demonstrated the kinds of comments the students may want to say using words and symbols that are available to the student.
When the coach spoke with the adult reading partner during their debriefing session, they decided that it would be helpful to co-plan the next couple of lessons and select texts from Tar Heel Shared Reader that would interest the students and had comments that reflected words that were available on student communication systems. The coach was also prepared to work with the adult reading partner to write new comments if the texts they wanted to read did not have comments, if the available comments did not use the words the students had available to them, or if there were not multiple sets of comments for each page of the text.
Co-teach or support the adult reading partner throughout the lesson to demonstrate priorities from debriefing session. The coach might help the adult reading partner focus on one aspect of the guiding statements.
Follow the CAR Example: When reflecting on the observation of a shared reading lesson, the coach noticed that the adult reading partner did a great job implementing the guiding statement, the adult paused and looked expectantly at the students before reading each page. However, the adult never implemented the guiding statement, the adult paused and looked expectantly at the students after reading each page. Instead, the adult immediately demonstrated her preplanned comments.
After talking to the adult during the debriefing session, they determined that it was not a lack of understanding for the need to pause but simply a habit that had been formed. Together they decided that it would be helpful for the coach to support the adult throughout a couple of lessons by providing cues if the adult forgot to pause after reading each page.
Tar Heel Shared Reader provides additional activities that focus specifically on the Big Ideas and guiding statements presented across the professional development modules. These additional activities help the adult reading partner think about and apply the concepts they are learning.
The content activities may be used flexibly by the coach in three ways:
- when the coach observes an adult reading partner and thinks there may be a misunderstanding about specific Big Ideas and/or guiding statements,
- when the coach and the reading partner determine a Big Idea and/or a guiding statement is a focused priority,
- when the coach wants to review specific Big Ideas and/or guiding statements during a community of practice. In a community of practice, the content activity is meant to refresh ideas and encourage collaboration and discussion with colleagues.
Follow the CAR Example: The coach observed several shared reading lessons of different adult reading partners. She was very pleased to notice that they all were using preplanned comments. However, she also noticed that many of the comments were not things students might typically say (e.g., This is a bear, say bear; This word means…, Which picture shows the…). The coach made a note to herself that rather than pre-planning or having personalized coaching sessions with multiple adult reading partners, it might be more efficient to do the content activity, What Students Might Say, at the next community of practice. This way she can support the conversation with the whole group and have the group support one another through discussion and collaboration.
Activities to be completed with the adult reading partner are listed under each guiding statement.