Call for submissions

Dear Teacher Leaders:

On behalf of The International Reading Association, I would like to invite you to submit to an important reference volume for literacy coaches. The working title is Working Toward Balance: A Collection of Tools for Literacy Coaches and Other Instructional Leaders.

I hope that this book will fill a niche in the libraries of literacy coaches and that it will grow to become a dependable reference for those of us in the field. I am interested in collecting protocols, forms, rubrics, and tools of any kind. For detailed author guidelines and a tentative outline of the book, please see the attached documents. For additional questions, please e-mail Sarah Warfield at sarahwarf2@gmail.com.

I know that practicing literacy coaches and other teacher leaders are constantly developing original documents that make their jobs easier. If you are willing to share, please send us tools you use for organizing and facilitating your work.

The deadline for submission is November 15, 2007. All submissions will go through the peer-review processes typical for edited volumes. We anticipate publication in the fall of 2008.

If your document is selected to be included in Resources for Literacy Coaches, you will be listed as a contributor and you will also receive a complimentary copy of the book when it is published. Please note, however, there will be no financial remuneration for contributions.

I look forward to working with you to develop a resource to support the critical work literacy coaches and other teacher leaders are doing in our schools.

Please invite your colleagues to contribute as well by sharing this information with them.

Sincerely,

Jan Miller Burkins
Literacy Coach
Chase Street Elementary

Athens, Georgia

Author Guidelines

Dear Potential Contributor:

Thank you for your interest in submitting a document to Working Toward Balance: A Collection of Tools for Literacy Coaches and Other Instructional Leaders. We are excited about the opportunity to provide this valuable tool to those who are working to impact the literacy learning in schools. The guidelines vary based on the nature of your submission. Please carefully follow the instructions below.

General Information

Note: Please send all submissions to sarahwarf2@gmail.com and type “resource book submission” in the subject line.

While there are two parts to this book (see tentative outline, attached), we want to place equal emphasis on tools for coaching (Part I) and tools to support literacy instruction (Part II). Please, consider submitting to both areas.

All submissions are due by November 15, 2007. Please attach a curriculum vitae or a brief description of your work experience as it relates to instructional leadership and/or literacy coaching.

Not all submissions will be published. All submissions will undergo a rigorous peer-review process to ensure that our final manuscript is of the highest quality. You may be asked to revise or edit your document before it can be accepted for publication. We will not make substantive changes to your submission without your permission.

It is critical that ownership of anything submitted be established in order to prevent copyright violation. If you developed the form in collaboration with someone else, as a courtesy, please include the names of others involved with the work, along with written permission to publish. Please, do not submit previously copyrighted materials. At the request of IRA, we are asking that all contributors to this project fill out a copy of IRA’s standard contributor agreement. If your submission is selected for publication, we will ask you to complete this form.

Specific Guidelines

If your submission to Resources for Literacy Coaches is a form, please follow the directions below:

• Please submit everything electronically and include your first initial, last name, and the word “form” in the name of the file (EX: jburkins observation form blank; jburkins observation form complete).
• As applicable or appropriate, please submit a completed version for readers to use as an example of how to fill out the form and a blank copy of the exact form. Completed versions may be handwritten or typed, as long as they are legible.
• Please format your form in 12 pt. New Times Roman with no less than one-inch margins.
• Please include a brief explanation of how and why you developed the form. What informed your thinking? (Limit 200 words.)
• Please cite any references that you used in the development of your form and include a complete reference in APA format.

If your submission to Resources for Literacy Coaches is a protocol or some other tool for facilitating group work, please follow the directions below:

• Please submit everything electronically and include your first initial, last name, and the word “protocol” in the name of the file (EX: jburkins introductory protocol).
• Please format your protocol in 12 pt. New Times Roman with one-inch margins.
• Please follow the format below. Please use bold face type to mark each section:
• Purpose(s) of the protocol (Examining student work; Facilitating discussions around a text; Establishing a learning community; etc.)
• General description of the protocol (Limit 100 words)
• Estimated timeframe for implementing the protocol
• Step-by-step process for implementing the protocol. Please include suggested time parameters for each step and tips/and or suggested points the facilitator might want to make.
• You are not limited to tightly adhering to this format! As you can, please follow the general components and adapt them as necessary to best explain your protocol.
• Please include a brief explanation of how and why you developed the protocol. What informed your thinking? (Limit 200 words.)
• Please cite any references that you used in the development of your protocol and include a complete annotation.
• Please limit your protocol to 1-2 pages.

If you are submitting another tool of some kind (rubric, checklist, survey, etc.), please use the guidelines listed above and adapt them to fit your submission:

We do not want to limit this resource to our thinking. If you have a tool that will support the work of literacy coaches and other teacher leaders, please share it with us even if it does not fit a format we have described here. We invite you to “think out of the box” in order to be resourceful and creative.

If you would like to submit to a running, annotated list of websites, professional organizations, read alouds, or commercial agencies …

Please simply include the item with an annotation (100-word limit). These submissions will be compiled for publication.

If you have other ideas for us …

Please tell us what we have forgotten. If you have other ideas for tools or resources that would be valuable in this book, please let us know. We want this to be a rich toolbox written by coaches for coaches, and your suggestions and contributions will make it stronger.

If you have any questions …

Please contact Sarah Warfield at sarahwarf2@gmail.com.

Again, thank you for your interest. I look forward to working with you.

Jan Miller Burkins
Literacy Coach
Chase Street Elementary
Athens, Georgia

Table of Contents

Working Toward Balance:

A Collection of Tools for Literacy Coaches and Other Instructional Leaders

Part I

Tools to Support Coaches

Chapter 1: Tools to support creating our own environments

(Examples include job descriptions, calendar tools, tools for scheduling, a list of resources for developing a literacy coaching library, a checklist of things to do the first weeks on the job, etc.)

Chapter 2: Tools to help coaches take care of themselves

(Examples include tools for balancing home and work lives, lists of ways to say “no”, a list of tips for managing stress, a list of motivational quotes, etc.)

Chapter 3: Tools for working with individuals and groups

(Examples include tools for building trust and developing relationships, protocols for establishing learning communities, protocols for facilitating conversations about text, etc.)

Chapter 4: Tools to support teachers as independent learners

(Examples include tools to support teacher self-reflection, peer observation forms, rubrics for teacher self-evaluation, rubrics for self-evaluating lessons, prompts for reflection, etc.)

Chapter 5: Tools for supporting classroom visitation

(Examples include observation/visitation feedback forms, prompts for conferencing with teachers, tools for documenting conferences with teachers, tools for scheduling visits to classrooms, etc.)

Chapter 6: Tools for making sense of data

(Examples include tools for summarizing qualitative or quantitative data, goal setting charts and action plans, rubrics for examining student work, tools for developing classroom profiles, etc.)

Chapter 7: Tools for understanding and appreciating diversity

(Examples include protocols for identifying stereotyping, prompts for initiating conversations about differences, protocols for exploring our personal identities, a list of resources related to diversity, etc.)

Part II

Tools to Support Literacy Learning

Chapter 8: Tools to support teacher understanding of the reading process

(Examples include tools that simplify or illustrate how the reading process works, examples of running records that include interesting reading behaviors for analysis, lists of reading behaviors specific to guided reading levels, etc.)

Chapter 9: Tools to support coaching in Writer’s Workshop

(Examples include rubrics for evaluating student writing, lists of mentor texts by topic or genre, lesson plan formats, lists of websites that support writing instruction, lists of resources, etc.)

Chapter 10: Tools to support Guided Reading

(Examples include running record forms, lesson plan formats, tools for documenting reading behaviors, tools to support flexible grouping, etc.)

Chapter 11: Tools to support Read Aloud and Independent Reading

(Examples include lists of picture books that are appropriate for older students, lists of books that are useful for teaching particular comprehension strategies, sample reading logs, tools for student reflection on text, etc.

Chapter 12: Tools to support Work with Words

(Examples include tools for collecting vocabulary words, templates for word study, lists of activities for utilizing a word wall, etc.)