Empowering Teachers to Build Language and Literacy Through Strength-based Coaching, by Betty and Kori Bardige

This session is part of the Follett Growing Readers Series

We know from research that language is key to both literacy and social-emotional development, and that children who develop robust vocabularies and communicative confidence are primed for ongoing success. New measures of quality focus on rich language and responsive communication. Using strength-based coaching to share research-informed language-building strategies, directors can build upon the assets that parents, teachers, and children bring. Helping teachers become more intentional about their language-building practices can spark upward spirals of classroom quality and child language development.

Language plays key roles in literacy, cognitive, social-emotional development, and learning. As young children’s language skills and vocabulary improve, they get more learning opportunities and gain more from conversations with both adults and peers. This learning creates an “upward spiral” that fuels ongoing and increasing success. Strengths-based coaching can activate similar spirals for teachers.

In this webinar, presenters will share up to date research on language and literacy and its implications for practice. Through an example of strengths-based coaching, we will illustrate how a dialog between research and practice fueled upward spirals of classroom quality and children’s language development. As the teacher became more intentional and reflective in her practice, she noticed the children’s growing curiosity and competence. This spurred her to make further changes – and to elicit more information and resources from the coach. Soon parents were included in the upward spiral. As the children developed richer language they sought and elicited more from adults, which spurred richer language. As the teacher experienced greater success in terms of her own goals for the children, she sought and elicited more from her coach, spurring higher classroom quality and still greater success.

We will share research and resources on both language development and mentorship in our presentation, handouts, and responses to participants’ questions

Attend this session and you will be entered to win a CUSTOM Door prize from Follett Early Learning!

When you attend the Growing Readers Series webinars, you will automatically have a chance to win a collection of books and/or other resources customized to your specifications with the personalized expert guidance of the literacy specialists at Follett Early Learning.

All sessions are 1.5 hours long, and include a brief announcement from our sponsor. 2:oo PM – 3:30 PM Eastern Time.

Can’t participate in our webinars at the appointed time? Never fear! All of the webinars are recorded. To view the recording, simply register now and you will receive an email with a link to the recording when it is ready to be viewed. You can still download the certificate by watching the recording to the end when the certificate link is announced and displayed on the screen. *Please be advised that you will only be eligible for the great door prizes if you participate in the live session.

See the schedule of upcoming webinars.