Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Centre (KERC) has many ways in which we support the education of students in the North. One resource teachers can access at KERC is the Literacy Coach. As the Literacy Coach at KERC my responsibilities are to provide expert advice and support to teachers and administrators on strategies to improve literacy instruction and increase student achievement.
Three reasons for any teacher to work with the Literacy Coach?
1. Resources and Research
Classroom teachers are busy!
As teachers, you have great ideas for what you want to do with your class, but you often lack the time needed to properly prepare. Due to this, lessons, units, projects, etc. don’t always get carried out the way you had hoped they would. Working with the Literacy Coach can help that. Together we can collaborate to create resources to use in your classroom. The Literacy Coach can spend time doing research on your behalf. I can read through different articles and help you determine which are worth you spending your time reading, or not. I can help create lessons, units, assessments, project plans, etc. By working together with the Literacy Coach, the classroom teacher will be able to get more accomplished in less time.
2. Strategies and Instruction
Sometimes things just don’t work!
Many of us have experienced a lesson not playing out just how we had hoped it would when we planned it. You may use a strategy with one class and it works beautifully, and then the next year it doesn’t work at all. Sometimes no matter what we try, we can’t get through to our students on a topic. The Literacy Coach can help with this as well. The classroom teacher can contact the Literacy Coach with a situation they are struggling with and together we can talk through situations and discuss different strategies. Perhaps I’ll introduce strategies you haven’t heard of or tried before. I will do research and come back with some suggestions to try. I can also visit classes and model strategies, or simply observe a class so we can break it down together, and try to determine what isn’t working and how we can improve upon it.
3. Support
You just want to talk.
Teachers work better in collaboration with others than they do in isolation. Sometimes a classroom teacher just wants to talk. They want to make sure they are on the right track and get some reassurance, feedback, and advice. I am available anytime to talk about what’s going on with literacy, in any classroom.
You and your students can all benefit by making use of the different resources made available by KERC. Get in touch with me, the Literacy Coach, I would love to hear what all is going on in the different classrooms around the district, and help out where I can.
I can be contacted at the KERC offices, by phone (807) 737-7373 ext 44, by email bskene@kerc.ca, or on facebook Brooke At Kwayaciiwin.
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