Teachers are more likely to value and implement new learning when professional development is related to their own questions, wonderings, or problems in their own classrooms (Carr, Shearer, & Vogt, 2019).  Therefore, literacy leaders should implement needs surveys to determine teachers’ professional development needs and questions.  Specific professional development can then be planned that is meaningful to teachers.

It is also helpful for teachers to see a strategy in action or within a classroom context.  This assists teachers in implementing what they learned effectively in their own classroom.  Technology has helped make this easy through video clips.  These can easily be found and shared with teachers in a professional development setting. 

Teaching Channel is a website that has countless videos to watch and share so that educators can learn new strategies and help their students grow. This is a wonderful resource for literacy leaders to use when providing professional development to teachers.  Specific videos can be searched for by grade level, subject, and topic.  

Through searching for videos on the Teaching Channel website, I found a video on the importance of play.  This video would be appropriate for educators that work with students PreK through 1st grade.  If a school or a group of educators were interested in exploring developmentally appropriate instruction through play, this video would help stimulate conversation on this topic and model what it may look like in the classroom.  This video specifically focuses on the life skills, such as communication, working with others, and solving problems that students develop through play. 

References: 

Carr, D.A., Shearer, B.A., & Vogt, M. (2019). Reading specialists and literacy coaches in the real world (4th ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.

TeachingChannel. The work of play [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org/video/work-time-as-play

Here are 10 websites that would be helpful for literacy leaders! Hopefully there is a new website here that could be helpful for you! 

• Scholastic: Scholastic Book Clubs is a helpful resource for literacy leaders in staying up to date on picture books and literature for kids of all ages.  There are great prices for purchasing books for schools, students, and classroom libraries.  There are various collections of books to view in their catalogs.
• International Literacy Association: ILA provides literacy research and professional development through research journals, conferences, publications, and building a community of educators. Their mission is global and they have a goal to strengthen literacy education around the world.  Currently, their global community stretches to 86 countries. 
• ReadWorks: ReadWorks is a website that has a library of fiction and nonfiction articles for teachers to use for free!  These articles are to support the reading comprehension growth of students.  They can be viewed online and displayed on an interactive whiteboard, or they can be downloaded and printed.  Along with individual texts, there are paired-texts and Article-A-Day sets.  When articles are viewed online, there is also an audio reading of the article.  Each article has comprehension questions that can be used along with the text.  You can search for articles by grade level, lexile range, topic, and text type.  You can even search by skills and strategies (author’s purpose, character, main idea, setting, cause and effect, etc).  I like how many of the texts are fairly short and concise.  They can be used in countless ways to support literacy learning!   
• Reading Rockets: The goal of this website is to share research-based information about reading with teachers, parents, librarians and more.  There are many articles, videos, and lists that help to explain what works in reading instruction in easy to understand terms.  This website is a wealth of knowledge for reading tips! 
• Jan Richardson-Guided Reading: Jan Richardson is a leading expert in guided reading.  Her website has information about the Common Core State Standards, her books and products, literacy tips, research, and resources.  Under the resources tab teachers can download comprehension scaffolds for students, such as 5 finger retelling, contrast cards, SWBS, and inference cards.  There are also templates for Lesson plan forms for guided reading  (Emergent, Early, Transitional, and Fluent).  Resources to download for guided writing, guided word study, assessment and much more are available as well.  The video clips on her website are free and showcase how to use various strategies with students for word study, guided reading, and guided writing. 
• Jennifer Serravallo: Jennifer Serravallo is a speaker, author, and literacy consultant.  She has a website that shares information about her books, publications, speaking calendar, and blog.  Literacy leaders can find information about her books to stay up to date on current literacy trends and strategies.  The Reading Strategies Book and The Writing Strategies Book are New York Times Bestselling books.  She also has blog posts on her website on literacy topics.
• Florida Center for Reading Research: Their mission is provide information on research-based practices for PreK-12 literacy instruction. There are a variety of resources available for teachers, literacy leaders, and administration. There are also many examples of literacy activities that could be implemented in the classroom for various grade levels and literacy skills. 
• The Children’s Book Council: This website is a fantastic resource for literacy leaders in need of book suggestions. There are book lists for STEM, science, social studies, young advanced readers, various themes, diverse books, and newly published books.  Many of these lists are organized by age to assist in finding appropriate books.  There are even helpful lists for those looking to build a home library.  Lastly, CBC has a national award program every year where book winners are selected solely by kids and teens. 
• Press Community: PRESS supports teachers in analyzing data and making instructional decisions, implementing reading interventions, and providing quality core instruction.  It is not a curriculum, rather it can be used with a variety of literacy curriculums and assessment systems.  This online resource is not free, as there is a membership fee, usually paid for by schools that implement PRESS.  Literacy leaders can seek out PRESS as something that they might implement in their school or district.  It is a wonderful resource for reading interventions and word lists, assessments, progress monitoring lists, and videos can all be accessed by teachers. 
• International Dyslexia Association: This website provides information on the signs, symptoms, screening, and diagnosis of dyslexia.  There is also information on components effective reading instruction, dyslexia in the classroom, and teacher preparation.  The free handbook available on the website would be helpful for literacy leaders to share with teachers.