Elevating Literacy Expertise Through Coaching
Examine a variety of practices and structures to shape your literacy coaching and deepen your knowledge of effective literacy teaching.
In this 8-week online course, you’ll explore a variety of ways to coach teachers and foster their independence, reflection and analysis of literacy teaching and learning.
- Literacy Coaches & Teacher Leaders
- Course Number: EEDUC 6404.80
This online course is for literacy coaches, teacher leaders, and administrators who want to understand the link between coaching and teacher professional growth. You will explore a range of tools, strategies, and resources to improve literacy teaching and learning across your school. You will also evaluate different models of content-based coaching, including cluster coaching and intervention coaching to determine which best supports teacher’s needs.
Course Outcomes
- Use professional resources and observational tools to sharpen the analysis of the teaching of reading and writing
- Design an effective coaching session with a teacher: pre-lesson conference, classroom visit, and post-conference/coaching session to support the teaching of reading and writing
- Select particular kinds of coaching to meet the needs of specific teachers including intervention, cluster coaching, as well as individual coaching sessions
- Employ generative coaching practices to support teacher independence and growth
- Use language that opens conversation and promotes the analysis of teaching and its effects on learning
- Link coaching sessions to professional learning ensuring sustained impact on literacy instruction
- Develop ways to work with teachers who are hesitant to participate in coaching
Linda Murphy, Associate Director, Literacy Programs
Linda has worked in school districts in New York in a variety of roles and settings. Prior to her joining the center at Lesley University, Linda held positions as a principal of an intermediate school, a Director of English Language Arts, Social Studies and Reading, a district trainer for Literacy Collaborative Intermediate, a Reading Recovery Teacher Leader and a classroom teacher. Linda holds licenses in Elementary Education and School District Administration.
This option must be taken for 3 graduate credits. Take the course individually or as a required course in our 12-credit Online Graduate Certificate in Literacy Coaching and Teacher Leadership.
Required Texts
You are responsible for purchasing/having access to the following professional texts for this course:
- Fountas, I.C. and Pinnnell, G.S. (2025). The Literacy Coaching Playbook: What to Know, Say, and Do. Heinemann.
- Fountas, I.C. and Pinnell, G.S. (2022). The Fountas & Pinnell Literacy Continuum, Second Edition: A Tool for Assessment, Planning, and Teaching, PreK-8. Heinemann.
- Fountas, I.C. and Pinnell, G.S. (2018). The Literacy Quick Guide. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
- Fountas, I.C. and Pinnell, G.S. (2017). Prompting Guide, Part 1, for Oral Reading and Early Writing. Heinemann.
- Fountas, I.C. and Pinnell, G.S. (2017). Prompting Guide, Part 2, for Comprehension: Thinking, Talking, and Writing. Heinemann.
Interested in professional learning at your school or district? Schedule a meeting with one of our faculty trainers.
Reaching All Learners Speaker Series 2026
The Reaching All Learners Speaker Series brings you cutting-edge ideas and strategies to make learning engaging, inclusive, and meaningful for every student. These sessions will inspire fresh approaches to teaching and help you create classrooms where all children can thrive as literate, confident learners.
The New Benchmark Assessment System 2.0 (System 1, Levels A-P)
This two-day workshop will help you learn how to use the new BAS 2.0 system to pinpoint student strengths and needs as readers, including oral reading behaviors, fluency, comprehension, writing about reading, and phonological awareness and early phonics skills.
The New Benchmark Assessment System 2.0 (System 2, Levels K-Z)
In this two-day workshop learn how to use BAS 2.0 to pinpoint students’ reading behaviors and instructional needs with word-solving, fluency, and comprehension.