Reading Coach

The role of the reading coach

The Startup Reading program provides reading lessons through a combination of an on-demand reading lessons, following the lesson directions in a workbook and a weekly online meeting for a Reading Coach session. Students in the program will typically complete two to three lessons within a week and then the Reading Coach will use the online meeting to review the student’s understanding of the lesson, completion of the workbook directions, review any issues in the students understanding of the lesson and confirm the lesson plans for the upcoming week.

Prior to the first Reading Coach lesson, you will know the student’s assigned placement in the program and the lesson plans that will specify the four weeks of engagement.

A lesson plan will include one or more video sessions that review specific strategies in learning to read along with one or more workbook pages. The next page provides an example of a lesson plan for Book 6, Page 9, Two Syllable Words, Session 2:

You can view the lesson in this lesson plan by clicking the link in the green box.

Students will expand their knowledge by learning the “er” Vowel Team.
Students will continue to practice dividing words into syllables.
Having students highlight or circle the Vowel Team adds a visual emphasis that further helps them notice and recall the Vowel Teams when they are reading.

Click on this link: Two-Syllable Words with “er”, page 9 part 1 Two-syllable words, double same consonants to begin the lesson

Helping a student Startup Reading is a team effort:

The Reading Pal is the family member or designated person who creates the schedule for the student and participates in the viewing of the lesson with the student, stopping the lesson periodically to have the student respond to the teacher’s questions or to give an answer to the question being asked. The Reading Pal also confirms student engagement with the teacher’s directions to make notations in the workbook. A typical at-home, online reading session is expected to be 30 minutes and will include a warm-up exercise, a reading lesson, and an exercise in the workbook. Typically a student will complete two to four reading sessions in a week.

The role of the reading coach is to conduct the follow-up, online meeting with the student, review their understanding for each of the reading skills in a lesson, record progress since the last coaching session, and recognize the student’s efforts and progress in building a foundation in reading skills.

The combination of a recorded reading lesson with follow up from a reading coach is a means to:

Deliver consistent lessons within the student’s schedule
Verify the student watched the video lesson
Review the completed the workbook page
Confirm the student understands the reading skill addressed in the lesson
Verify the student can demonstrate that reading skill by reading the words, phrases or sentences in the assigned workbook pages

Since early March 2020, we have been conducting reading coach sessions via an internet connection and have found the role of the reading coach works equally well via an online internet session as in a classroom.

What does a reading coach need to be successful?

First and foremost a reading coach needs to have product knowledge, they must know the content in each of the lesson plans assigned to a student. The quality of the reading coach session depends on several factors. You will be most effective if you:

Know the reading lesson, the workbook material and can explain how the a reading strategy works.
Are able to convey that you care about the student’s success.
Demonstrate a warm, engaging, and professional attitude that these assignments and sessions are critical to the student’s progress in learning to read.
Provide feedback that acknowledgers the progress the student has made and provide inspirational validation to the student’s capabilities to become a “super reader”

Preparation

A Reading Coach should prepare for a session by reviewing each video lesson and workbook page in the student’s upcoming lesson plan. Notes on progress from the last session should be reviewed to enable the Reading Coach to be fully aware of the where the student ended the previous lesson and the areas needing reading practice within the context of the past and current lesson plan assignments.

Starting the Coaching Session:

The Reading Coach will open the session with an enthusiastic welcome, indicating that “Are we ready to have fun in this session?”.

The first order of priorities is to determine the status of the assignments since the last coaching session. The reading coach will review the pages in the workbook pages that were completed and the video lessons watched by the student.

Our approach is to always advance the student’s skills with each coaching session. A reading coach will start with the pages and recorded lessons that were completed regardless of the incomplete status of the assignment. If none of the pages or lessons were completed, then the coach will need to check on the reason and may have the student complete some of the skill activities such as color the sigh words, or fill in the missing vowel to complete the word. You could also have a student watch the assigned video lesson during the coaching session and then immediately check on the completion of the workbook page.

Checking the Student’s workbook pages:

Depending on the specific page, the coach will ask a student to hold the page up to the camera for the coach’s review and then read the words phrases or sentences in the lesson. The coach can use the time to review the main points of the lesson. The link to the reading coach session on the second page provides a good overview of how this process works.

A coach needs to listen carefully and pay a high degree of attention to how the student responds to the skills in the lesson, making sure the pronunciation is correct with particular attention to the vowel sound. We want to be sure the student is not guessing at the answers but is using the reading strategies to read correctly.

Equipment:

Conducting an online session with young students will have certain technology and attention-span challenges. Our strategy is to use the proper equipment to to be able to listen to the student clearly as well as to have the conversation and feedback from the coach delivered with crisp and clear audio. To fulfill this objective our policy will be that reading coach session should be conducted from a quiet room, with a minimum of outside or ambient noise. We recommend using “over the ear headsets” which minimizes distracting outside noise and provides a clean audio signal coming over the internet. Enrolled students will receive a headset to use when watching a reading lesson as well as during the reading coach session. You will notice a higher level of attention if the student in your coaching session is learning their headset.

Observations during the reading session:

If a reading coach detects a problem with a students understanding or use of a reading strategy, they can allot a reasonable amount of time, 5 to 10 minutes of a 30 minute session to review the reading strategy and how that strategy applies to the current reading lesson. Many of the on-demand lessons provide the method to review a reading strategy, or you can return to a point in the online lesson where a strategy is explained.

Post Session Activities:

A reading coach will make some notes on what was accomplished during the session, any areas that need to be addressed, the recommendations made to the parent or to the student and the lesson plan assigned for the following week.

Part of your internship will be to discuss the results within our team, learn about strategies in dealing with certain situations, and to share the experiences among members of the team. These meetings will be conducted in online video meetings.

Find a Reading Coach

Apply to be a Reading Coach

The role of the reading coach

Helping a student Startup Reading is a team effort:

What does a reading coach need to be successful?

Preparation

Starting the Coaching Session:

Checking the Student’s workbook pages:

Equipment:

Observations during the reading session:

Post Session Activities:

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