INTRODUCING: THE HIGH-IMPACT LITERACY COACHING PROGRAMME
Are you looking for a way to make a real difference in your school and with your students this academic year?
Do you want to TAKE ACTION and ACCELERATE the literacy progress of the BMLs (and all students) in your school, RIGHT NOW, without trying to figure it out all on your own?
We hear you.
These past couple of years have showed us that we need to focus more intensely on the kinds of learning experiences that have the biggest impact on students’ learning. One of the most effective ways to do that is through literacy.
Why is that?
Very simply – a student who has strong reading and writing skills is more able to independently access learning concepts and benefit from that learning. They continue to make progress, moving forward and reaping all the cognitive rewards that come from that progress. Sadly, the opposite is also true: students with weak literacy skills do not get to experience the full benefits of independent learning and can develop widening gaps over time.
It’s clear that literacy is truly the gateway to educational success.
This year, we realised that teachers need EXPERT HELP and a PLAN to fast-forward their students’ literacy skills. That’s why we’ve developed the ‘High-Impact Literacy Coaching Programme’ starting this January.
In a nutshell, this Programme provides guided, step-by-step coaching with a team of literacy specialists. They will help you implement a solid plan for literacy acceleration in your school. It will take place over 6 live, online sessions, within a small group, between October 2022 to March 2023.
In the sessions, participants will jump straight to the ‘meat and bones’ with a fully-developed plan of action. This will provide them with the steps they need to take in order to start getting RAPID results. Each coaching session will target one specific area of focus.
Throughout the duration of the Coaching Programme, you will frame your thinking around a whole-school or whole-department perspective; BUT you will only be required to work with a minimum of one group/class for implementation of the Plan. Then, moving on from that experience, you will learn how to extend your reach and impact so that you can use the same plan, across your whole school, on your own.
WHO IS THIS COACHING PROGRAMME FOR?
This Programme is for anyone in charge of, or concerned about increasing literacy achievement in their school; however, it is designed specifically for an educator who can implement and instruct students (e.g. this is not suitable for someone in a non-teaching role). For example, you could be:
- a BML/EAL/ELL teacher or coordinator
- a learning support specialist
- a literacy coordinator
- a language teacher or bilingual teacher (yes, even if you’re teaching another language!)
- a primary teacher in charge of literacy development or;
- a secondary English teacher
These are just a few possible suggestions.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
This unique programme is made up of 6 LIVE, focused Zoom sessions with a maximum of 12 educators. Sessions run from October 2022 – March 2023. This Programme is run by our Co-Founders – Francesca McGeary and Alison Schofield – both of whom are highly-experienced literacy specialists and interventionists.
The format is designed around the ‘SHOW-GO-DO’ model which means that the consultants show you the PLAN and give you everything needed to GO and EXECUTE it (e.g. additional resources). Then, they ask you to follow-up (‘DO’) with those specified activities in your school. You’ll come back to the next session having completed the action; ready to share your results and hear feedback. There is always time for specific questions during the session.
You will have the month to follow-up with the activities. On average, you can expect anywhere from 3 – 5 hours of follow-up in the month.
WHAT KIND OF RESULTS CAN YOU EXPECT?
This High-Impact Literacy Coaching Programme is designed with two goals in mind:
1. To give you high-level, on-the-job expertise implementing a school-wide (or department-wide) ongoing literacy programme and;
2. To observe tangible PROGRESS in your students’ literacy development as a result of your focused efforts, in just a few months.
You can expect to walk away with new expertise that will allow you to increase your students’ achievement levels in reading and writing. Within the coaching timeframe, you will actually be able to see your students’ improvements and you will have a framework for replicating or scaling this success to a wider group.
WHAT SPECIFICALLY WILL THIS COACHING PROGRAMME TEACH YOU?
- How to understand your unique school/student body profile and why this matters as a starting point
- How to gather, manage and pull focused insights from your students’ baseline literacy data and progress
- How to implement a user-friendly system to monitor and track your students’ ongoing progress
- How to provide short, intensive and focused interventions for any struggling or ‘stuck’ students
- How to introduce, roll-out and maintain an ongoing reading and writing acceleration programme across any grade or year-level (from Grade 1/Year 1 and up)
- How to scale your results from one class (or a smaller target group) to a wider group or even whole-school
- How to provide moment–to–moment mini–lessons in reading and writing to help your students move onto the next level of difficulty
- Learn how to find and use the right resources without investing in expensive, pre-packaged programmes that are not always a fit
- How to collaborate with colleagues to get them on-board with your Plan and strategy
WHAT ARE THE DATES AND TIMINGS OF THE COACHING SESSIONS?
The first session is on Wednesday, 26 October, 2022. Each session is one hour long. Depending where our participants live (timezone), we will announce the timings based on the Coaching Groups we create. Last year, we ran two coaching groups to meet the needs of different timezones of participants.
* In the first session, participants will select the remaining dates together for the following sessions.
WHAT IS THE COST?
The investment is £1,900 per educator and includes all the resources needed to get started.
HOW CAN YOU REGISTER?
You can register by emailing Alison Schofield directly at alison@educatorsofbmls.com by 7th October, 2022.
* Please note, space is limited!
YES, YOU WILL RECEIVE A CERTIFICATE
Upon successful completion of the High-Impact Literacy Coaching Programme, you will receive a certificate. You must attend all sessions and participate fully.
WHY SHOULD YOU GET LITERACY COACHING WITH FRANCESCA & ALISON?
Alison and Francesca have a wealth of experience working as specialist teachers in schools of all kinds.
They have also been school improvement consultants hired to raise standards in teaching, learning and operations.
Alison and Francesca also created and ran the Literacy Intervention Programme (LIP) in Dubai, UAE for 9 years – an intensive literacy acceleration programme for children between the ages of 4 and 18. Through that initiative, they helped over 1,500 struggling children accelerate their reading and writing skills with their unique techniques.
This Coaching Programme will incorporate many of their tried-and-true methodologies.
If you have any further questions about the High-Impact Literacy Coaching Programme, please feel free to get in touch: alison@educatorsofbmls.com