Building Academic Literacy in the Content Areas: Perspectives on Practice from Literacy Coaches and Content-Area Specialists

May 3, 2007

BILLERICA, MA: Adolescent literacy coaching specialist Nancy Shanklin presented the keynote speech at "Building Adolescent Literacy in the Content Areas: Perspectives on Practice from Literacy Coaches and Content Specialists," an NECC regional conference on adolescent literacy. Shanklin defined the literacy/instructional coach—she stressed that the terms are interchangeable—as the “mediator between the vision that a school and a district has about adolescent literacy and the instruction that’s happening in classrooms.”

Focusing specifically on literacy/instructional coaching in math and science, Shanklin drew on Standards for Middle and High School Literacy Coaches, published by Carnegie Corporation, to describe the skill set literacy/instructional coaches need to bring to their work with math and science classes. They need not only a firm grasp of the content, she said, but also familiarity with the discipline’s history, philosophy, and habits of thinking, as well as discipline-specific skills such as the ability to model the logic of solving a math problem or to write clear lab reports.

Shanklin outlined five key instructional coaching strategies: 1) study groups to develop a common vocabulary and understanding of strategies, 2) action research and professional learning communities, 3) demonstration teaching and lesson study, 4) one-on-one coaching with preparation and debriefings, and 5) peer coaching to build a coaching culture through a school.

Nancy Shanklin directs the Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse, a joint project of the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. The Clearinghouse is located at the University of Colorado at Denver, where Shanklin is an associate professor of literacy in the School of Education and Human Development.

Approximate run time: 1 hour 4 minutes