The Principal's Handbook

Leading Literacy Without Expertise: Instructional Leadership Tips
[00:00:00] In today's episode, I want to talk about leading literacy without expertise, instructional leader tips that will help you in your building. That's all coming up next right here on the principles handbook. Stay tuned.
Welcome to the Principal's Handbook, your go to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self care. I'm Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we delve into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.
From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work life balance, I'm Barb Flowers. We'll navigate the complexities of school leadership together. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority.
This episode is part of the National Literacy Month with RAF campaign, a partnership with the B podcast, a partnership with the B podcast network and [00:01:00] reading is fundamental to host numerous productive, to host numerous productive conversations across our network of podcasts about developing kids reading and literacy skills for life
, welcome back to the podcast, everyone. Today, we're going to be talking about leading literacy without having expertise in that particular area.
And I'm going to give some instructional leadership tips for how to do that. And these tips today, it really works with any subject, but I chose literacy and that's what we're focusing on. One, because this campaign , with the Bee Podcast Network and Reading is Fundamental is all about literacy right now, but also there's a lot of literacy initiatives happening.
And Across the country and even expanding into other countries when we're teaching reading that have to do with the science of reading. And I've just recently recorded a previous episode about the science of reading and what that is and how to be a good instructional leader with the science of reading.
So go back and listen to that episode. If you have not yet, that's a really good episode to listen to, [00:02:00] but leading literacy can be really intimidating because when we think about all that's been added and. There's so much knowledge now with reading. There's so much brain research that comes with reading that our teachers have learned that, we feel like we need to be experts in.
So I just wanted to address that. If you are, maybe you're a high school principal and now you're in an elementary, where literacy is huge, or maybe you were a high school teacher and now you're an elementary principal, all of these things happen where you might not have a literacy background.
And now you're in a literacy rich environment where there is lots of teachers teaching literacy and they have a lot of expertise. And it might make you lack confidence in this area or have doubt. And so I want to address all of that today, and I'm in Ohio and what's happening in the state of Ohio right now is actually high school teachers,
all content area teachers in elementary have to do coursework on the science of reading. So if I just teach math in fifth grade, I still have to do all the coursework on the science of reading. Same with arts, [00:03:00] PE, , all these teachers who have never even had training in literacy because it has nothing to do with their content area.
So it really is becoming an initiative that everybody has to get on board and understand how kids are learning how to read. And so it can be really intimidating as a principal if you don't have experience with this. So today I'm going to give you some tips to help with that. So we're going to jump right into these tips.
Start with tip number one. Tip number one, rely on your reading experts in the building. Or in the district to help you. So depending on the size of your district, your reading experts might be in your building or they might be somewhere else in the district. It could be your director of curriculum.
It could be a literacy coach. It could be a special ed teacher, a department head. It doesn't matter who it is, find someone who knows about literacy and the initiatives that are going on in your school, somebody who you think is a leader in teaching reading. For me, we had great title one teachers, when I first started, we didn't have literacy coaches.
We [00:04:00] had title one teachers and they were looked at as the reading experts in the building because they were helping these struggling readers all the time. And also they really were just. True professionals, when it came to reading, they were constantly researching and learning more. And what was the updated research on reading and how could they help students?
And so I knew that those were people I could go to, even though I had a background in teaching reading, I taught first and third grade. So I thought. I was in grade levels where I taught kids how to read. I feel like I knew a lot about reading and teaching reading, but then the science of reading came out and that was totally new for me.
And so I had that same feeling of , this is totally different than how I did it. I definitely was not doing it right based on what the science of reading is saying. So I really had to rely on others to learn more about the science of reading to get this initiative going in my building.
And. When I relied on others, I had to be really vulnerable with them, right? I had to listen to what they were saying, be [00:05:00] interested in what they were telling me of what they heard and we're finding out and researching about the science of reading and just be interested and curious about what they're saying versus shutting them down.
I had two teachers who went to a training about, , teaching phonemic awareness and he referred to the science of reading. It was with Kilpatrick. And they just came back and their minds were blown and they were both very good teachers. And so I really just took the time to sit and listen to them and got their input about what is the science of reading?
What does this look like? And what strategies , is he saying based on research? Do we do to help kids get better at reading? Because I knew we had a problem. If I looked at our data, we didn't have 80 percent of our kids reading on level. So I knew that something needed to change. So they brought this back and , it really piqued my own curiosity about the science of reading and how I can start this initiative or just thinking about this for my building.
The second tip I want to give you is to be authentic. People [00:06:00] love when you're authentic. So when these two teachers came to me, I was very authentic. I didn't pretend that I knew anything about the science of reading. Of course, I've heard of phonemic awareness. I did some of that. As a first grade teacher, but I wouldn't say a lot, not compared to what they want to see and what they found in the research is necessary for kids to learn to read, especially with dyslexia.
And so I just want to encourage you that if you don't know something about literacy or any initiative you're doing that your district wants to do, you just need to be honest and open about that. I think being authentic, it's such a sign of confidence, not arrogance, but confidence. People who feel like they know everything.
That's not confidence. That's arrogance. So just being authentic and saying, Hey, I don't know anything about that. Tell me what you learned. Tell me about it. That's being authentic. And teachers love that. They loved when I was just authentic. And if I didn't know, I said, I didn't know if I knew, I said, I knew.
And yeah, I was [00:07:00] just really open about that. I learned more about the science of reading and we got trainings and then I would coach teachers, but I would also be authentic and say, I'm also going to check with the literacy coach on this to make sure I'm telling you the , this is my understanding from everything that we've been trained on, from what I'm seeing, from what we should be doing. And I would go check with the literacy coach and make sure I was on the right track, because. I was just being authentic. I was being vulnerable to the fact that I'm still learning, but this is what I think we need to see
and I just want to confirm this. So it's okay to be authentic and say what you don't know. You never want to act like, you know, everything when you don't. And then the third tip is to learn as much as you can about whatever initiative it is. When the teachers came to me about the science of reading, I said, I want whatever information you have.
Please forward it to me. So I wasn't just listening to them. I was curious. I wanted to know what they were saying, but I also then read the research that they had found and what they had learned. I did book studies alongside the teachers. I learned with them. [00:08:00] Now, I had a group of teachers who wanted to learn first.
And so I was learning with them so that by the time we Rolled all of this out for the whole staff. I had a pretty good background knowledge in the science of reading, but I didn't come into the building knowing what it was or anything about it.
I took that on myself. I first relied on the experts in the building. Then I was really authentic about what I knew and what I didn't know. And then I just dove in and I learned as much as I could and I , really dove into this. So you might not be an expert, but you can become one.
That's what I want to encourage you. Of course, as principals, we cannot be experts in every subject area in the building. However, when you think of certain subject areas like literacy, especially if you're in an elementary school, that is one that you need to become some sort of expert in or have a lot of knowledge in because you need to know what you're looking for when you're observing teachers and you need to know.
What they're doing, what interventions need to be done and , what things you need to be doing to support the teachers. Also having [00:09:00] that background knowledge of the science of reading and understanding, it really helped me to have conversations with parents that I wouldn't have been able to have if I didn't dive in and learn as much as I could.
And I learned as much as I could by reading things that the teachers brought to me and found, I took time to read that. Listening to podcasts, I went to the state principal conference and they had so many sessions on the science of reading because it was a hot topic in the state of Ohio at the time I would do, , online webinars from the state.
And this was all before it was mandatory. This was me wanting to learn more about the topic. Because I knew it was really important. So there's just so many ways that you can learn as much as you can. There's so much information. We are in a society where you can get information everywhere.
So if there's something you want to learn, You need to learn as much as you can. , and I didn't learn it all overnight, right? This was a couple year period of time that I just tried to soak it all in. And it took a lot of conversations with the literacy coach who was doing so much [00:10:00] research on this, and then eventually got some really high quality training , that the district paid for.
And again, I just kept picking her brain. I even took students into my office at some point and tried some of the stuff that they were doing with interventions because it was easier for me to be an instructional leader to teachers. And I could talk about it better when I could say, Hey, I've done this assessment with kids.
This is how it goes. And yeah, I know we're busy as principals and it takes a lot of time, but this was just a way that I could really immerse myself in the experience of what teachers are going to be doing. I also, anytime you can get in and teach a class lesson. , that's a really powerful thing, to get in and be able to teach in the class.
So anytime you can have that experience, either trying out an intervention with students or going into the classroom and watching or trying a lesson out, but really having those opportunities to teach can be powerful as a principal when we don't get to do that anymore. But you do want to learn as much as you can because by the time teachers [00:11:00] need to implement this, or , if you come in and they're already implementing a literacy program, You want to learn as much as you can.
You want to know what you're looking for when you're observing them. You want to know what to look for when you do these informal walkthroughs. What are some quick things , you should see? And again, I would have so many conversations with the literacy coach about, here's some things I'm seeing.
, what should I be seeing? What should that look like? , and again, when you talk to a literacy coach, you have to be really careful. She obviously couldn't share what teachers were saying to her. There's this confidentiality barrier, but , I was using her as a resource to really train myself and to become the best , literacy, instructional leader that I could
and I just want to remind you, you may not be an expert, but you're not an expert yet. You have the ability to become one. And like I said, you might not become an expert in every single area, but if you're leading a building for a long period of time, it is important that you're an expert in the subject areas That are most important.
That's going to help your student achievement grow. [00:12:00] That's going to help your teachers grow. That's going to help, what professional development needs to happen in the building, being a leader in literacy, is very important, especially if you're an elementary principal.
Or if you're not, then just know as much as you can within those grade levels That you're the principal of. So I hope that you found this helpful. I hope that you take this and really decide to become an expert, look for trainings, get professional development from your district, take time away from your building to go do the professional development.
I know sometimes as principals, we don't want to take time away from our building. We think there's too much going on, but it is important that you're professionally growing as a principal and that you continue to learn so that you can support the staff in your building.
So to recap, I just want to share, you want to find experts in the building. You want to be authentic about what you know and what you don't know, and you want to learn as much as you can about that literacy initiative. ,
and if you're looking to enhance your leadership skills and find balance in [00:13:00] your demanding role as a principal, because I know it's tough. I know it's hard to learn new literacy initiatives and to learn new things while also balancing all the things that happen in your day to day work. As a principal, I offer one on one coaching sessions that are tailored to your specific needs so I can help with time management.
I can help with prioritizing self care, achieving work life balance. I can give you accountability for developing skills, helping you develop your literacy skills, whatever you want to develop , as a life coach. That's what I'm here for. I help support school leaders to continue to learn and grow.
And if you're ready to take your leadership to the next level, I'd love the opportunity to work with you. So I'll have a link in the show notes. You can click it to schedule a free consultation where we can just discuss if I'd be a good fit to work with you and how I could best support your growth as a principal.
I love working with principals that are new and need support. And I love working with principals that have been doing it for a while and maybe they just need something different, right? I've been [00:14:00] in that position where. I needed something different. I felt like the building was running smooth. I didn't want to implement too many new things because things were going well and I just needed something different.
So if that's you, I'd love to work together to unlock your full potential and create positive change in your school community by helping to support you as the leader in the building. And if you love the show, if you're listening on Apple, I'd really encourage you to scroll down in your app and leave a review reviews or how people find the podcast or share it with a friend.
If you have a colleague who feels, self conscious about leading literacy initiatives, share this episode with them. And keep in mind, you have the power to shape your life according to the mindset you choose. I hope you have a great week and I'll see you back here next time.
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