"Math is language, too," Phyllis and David Whitin (2000) remind everyone in their informative book about reading and writing in the mathematics classroom. This means that students in elementary school math classes are learning two distinct, yet related languages--one of numbers, the other of words. These languages of numbers and words are combined…

Many articles and books have been written advocating for the use of literacy coaches in professional development and/or describing what literacy coaches should do. Some research has been conducted on the day-to-day practices of coaches, such as, how many hours they spend doing what (Alverman, Commeyras, Cramer, & Harnish, 2005; Deussen, Coskie,…

The Adolescent Literacy Collaboratory is one model for sharing literacy leadership responsibility at the secondary school level. With the help of computer technology (PCs), it brings teachers and literacy leaders from multiple departments and multiple schools together to learn from and with one another in overlapping professional learning…

Like authors who create settings as integral components of engaging narratives, thoughtful literacy coaches and other educators who plan and implement professional development consider elements of settings to engage teachers in continuous learning. Many teacher educators, researchers, administrators, literacy coaches, and K-12 teachers understand…

Technological tools and the connections they offer represent a virtual podium to enhance coaches' roles. They can serve to support professionalism, minimize a sense of isolation, help develop content knowledge, keep coaches informed of innovations (and innovators) in practice, clarify coaches' roles and responsibilities, increase their…

Research in the last three decades has established a clear link between parental involvement and children's educational attainment (e.g. Fan and Chen, 2001; Desforges and Abouchaar, 2003). While most of what people know is based on mother-child interactions (Waldfogel, 2006), increased attention has been paid to the specific influences fathers and…

In December 2008, 35 professionals from research, policy, practice and the media participated in an online survey about a range of key literacy issues. This is the second time that this annual survey has been carried out in the in UK. Participants were asked to indicate whether a certain topic was "hot" (i.e. currently a topic of debate and…

Across the nation, from large urban centers to small rural districts, many schools have turned to literacy coaching as a means to improve teaching and learning. While much has been written about the advantages of having a literacy coach on staff and there has been some research on school-level coaching practices little attention has been paid to…

The complexity of literacy coaching can be daunting. Coaches face a huge set of responsibilities as they work with teachers to improve practice and increase student learning. From mentoring new teachers to conducting demonstration lessons to facilitating professional development meetings, coaches get pulled in many directions at once. This…

This paper is intended for early childhood caregivers--teachers in centers and those caring for children in homes. It is intended to help caregivers learn more about how children develop the ability to "use words" to communicate their thoughts and needs and ask questions, and to "understand language they hear" in conversations and in books. Why is…

In March 2009, Movement for Canadian Literacy (MCL) commissioned "Resources for Results", a private research and evaluation firm, to conduct a baseline study to explore the effects of the recent economic downturn on literacy and essential skills programs across Canada. The "Resources for Results" research team interviewed 35 people from across…

The purpose of this study was to translate and standardize Concepts About Print (C.A.P.) into Greek, and to assess its psychometric properties. Particularly, this study evaluated the reliability and validity of the Greek version of C.A.P., and item difficulty and discrimination index and examined whether there were differences between boys and…

Community Book Club began as an experimental approach intended to combine professional development for teachers and family literacy for the parents of the preschoolers involved in an Early Reading First project. We collected data on 11 book club meetings over a 2-year time period. Meetings were held at local churches and at each meeting,…

This paper explores limits and possibilities for students' book bags as data sources in educational research. A discussion of the feasibility of book bags as data sources is followed by a brief description of an ethnographic research project focused on literacy and schooling in families of General Education Diploma (GED) students. The larger study…

This descriptive study examined the impact that an early literacy promotion program, Reach Out and Read (ROR), had on the literacy beliefs, frequency, and quality of literacy activities among low-income, multiracial families, particularly the Latino community. The study also explored parents' perceptions of ROR and its impact on them, their…