Kathy Tuchman Glass & Karen Power A LEADER’S GUIDE To Reading and Writing in a PLC at Work Elementary
We are nearing the two-year mark of a global health crisis. The impact of its effects on our students, schools, and communities is both highly visible and surprisingly hidden. Our student’s physical, emotional, and social needs continue to be a top priority, but meeting students where they are academically right now is also incredibly critical. Admittedly we are not on the bandwagon of catching them up but rather accelerating their learning towards emerging goals, allowing them to stretch and grow as learners from where they are right now.
So our question becomes, with an incredible range of learners in our grade-level classrooms, is a PLC even possible during the constant disruption educators are facing during a pandemic? An enthusiastic yes, but students are not the only ones that will require adjustments and modifications moving forward. A Leader’s Guide to Reading and Writing in a PLC at Work can be a grade-level team’s guide and a school community's reference tool to ensure equitable outcomes for each student.
Authors Kathy Tuchman Glass and Karen Power are champions of literacy and aligned standards, assessments, teaching, and learning as the focus of the four essential questions of a PLC while keeping instruction at the heart of each response. “The chapters represent a natural progression of a team’s work as members move from establishing a plan for a curriculum all the way through to determining the methods and strategies for classroom instruction” (p. 3).
Throughout the book, the authors consistently summarize the evidence-informed findings of a multitude of practitioners and researchers, “Once again findings show clarity and consistency in embracing the significance of classroom practice in the pursuit of equitable opportunities for all students” (Chenoweth, 2017, Reeves, 2020, & Zavadsky, 2012, p. 218-219). Yes, all students. This is the heart of our equity work as a leader. Leaving no learner without, behind, or forgotten. Literacy is their ticket for endless opportunities now and in their future.
“Literacy—an essential prerequisite for full engagement in our society—equips students with the gateway to widespread learning through reading, writing, speaking, and listening. It is incumbent on leaders to ensure teams infuse literacy instruction across content areas, with careful attention to the gifts a diverse classroom and world afford. As a leader, your challenge remains: to afford students this equitable opportunity to thrive through sound literacy instruction” (p. 229).
Challenge Accepted!
