Systems for Change in Literacy Education: A Guide to Professional Development

Twice before, Carol Lyons and Gay Su Pinnell teamed up as coauthors and helped tens of thousands of literacy educators transform classroom practice. Now, with their latest collaboration, Lyons and Pinnell turn their eye to K-6 literacy teachers' professional development, offering the theories, designs, guidelines, examples, and materials needed to bring about schoolwide, long-lasting change.

Lyons and Pinnell asked themselves: "What if we could create more and better ways for teachers to learn from their own teaching? What if we could provide high-quality, ongoing professional development and coaching for literacy teachers that result in improving their students' achievement?" Well, they could . . . and they did.

Systems for Change offers specific—and, quite often, unique—suggestions for planning and implementing a literacy professional development course. Everything is covered, including how to get started the right way, what materials are needed and where to find them, what are the best activities for effective, hands-on practice, and how to develop K-6 inservice courses throughout the year. Particular emphasis is placed on how to help teachers of the reading and writing processes improve via coaching.

Most books about teacher-education processes are generic in their descriptions. This one is different. It is uniquely designed to enable staff developers and teacher educators to help teachers become effective in their teaching of the reading and writing processes. A framework for conceptualizing professional development programs is presented, along with guidelines, descriptions, and examples for using this framework to create a comprehensive K-6 professional development literacy program.

Carol Lyons is Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University, where she teaches graduate courses in reading, learning and cognition, and professional development courses for university and district-level trainers in Reading Recovery and the Literacy Collaborative. For the past twenty years, she has conducted research and published numerous articles and book chapters on teacher thinking/learning and practice, reading, and learning/reading disability. Lyons is coauthor (with Gay Su Pinnell and Diane DeFord) of Partners in Learning: Teachers and Children in Reading Recovery and coeditor (with Diane DeFord and Gay Su Pinnell) of Bridges to Literacy: Learning from Reading Recovery, which is published by Heinemann.

Gay Su Pinnell is Professor Emerita in the School of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University and a member of the Reading Hall of Fame. She has extensive experience in classroom teaching, field-based research, and in developing comprehensive literacy systems. She is the recipient of the International Literacy Association’s Diane Lapp & James Flood Professional Collaborator Award, The Ohio State University Alumni Association’s Medalist Award, the International Reading Association’s Albert J. Harris Award for research in reading difficulties, the Ohio Governor’s Award, the Charles A. Dana Foundation Award, The Eastern New Mexico University Hall of Honor, and a 2018 recipient of an honorary doctorate Lesley University for her contributions to literacy education.

Fountas and Pinnell's transformative, collective and comprehensive literacy work includes a cohesive classroom literacy system for grades PreK–6 (Fountas & Pinnell Classroom™), an intervention system for grades K–12 (Leveled Literacy Intervention), an assessment system (Benchmark Assessment System for grades K–8 and Sistema de evaluación de la lectura for grades K–3), an extensive professional book base, and professional learning opportunities. Fountas and Pinnell continue to influence and inspire educators nationwide and abroad with resources and books such as:

• The Fountas & Pinnell Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Systems (2017, 2019, 2020)
• The Reading Minilessons Books, Grades K–6 (2017, 2019, 2020)
• Spanish Reader's Notebooks (2019)
• Reader's Notebooks
• Sing a Song of Poetry (2018, 2019)
• The Literacy Quick Guide (2018)
• Words That Sing: Poetry Charts, Grades PreK–2 (2018)
• The Fountas & Pinnell Literacy Continuum (2017)
• Continuo de la lectoescritura, Grados PreK–8 (2020)
• Continuo de la lectoescritura totalmente en español, Grados PreK–8 (2020)
• The Fountas & Pinnell Comprehensive Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Guide (2017)
• Guided Reading: Responsive Teaching Across the Grades, Second Edition (2017)
• Fountas & Pinnell SELECT Collections
• LLI Choice Libraries
• Fountas & Pinnell Reading Record Apps
• Genre Study: Teaching with Fiction and Nonfiction Books (2012)
• Genre Quick Guide, A Companion to Genre Study: Teaching with Fiction and Nonfiction Books (2012)
• Genre Prompting Guide for Fiction (2012)
• Genre Prompting Guide for Nonfiction, Poetry, and Test Taking (2012)
• Literacy Beginnings (2011)
• Prompting Guide, Part 1 for Oral Reading and Early Writing (2008)
• Prompting Guide, Part 2 for Comprehension: Thinking, Talking, Writing (2011)
• When Readers Struggle: Teaching That Works (2009)
• Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency: Thinking, Talking, and Writing About Reading, K–8 (2006)
• www.FountasandPinnellLeveledBooks.com
• Leveled Books, K–8: Matching Texts to Readers for Effective Teaching (2005)
• Guided Reading: Good First Teaching for All Children (1996)
• Guiding Readers and Writers: Teaching Comprehension, Genre, and Content Literacy (2001)
• Interactive Writing: How Language & Literacy Come Together, K–2 (2000)
• Word Matters: Teaching Phonics and Spelling in the Reading/Writing Classroom (1998)
• Help America Read and Coordinator's Guide (1997)

While all the Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ books, resources, and systems are deeply rooted in teacher professional learning, Irene and Gay, in collaboration with Heinemann Professional Development, offer a range of options and opportunities for professional learning designed to further develop the craft of teaching and foster a climate of collegiality and community.

Join the Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ Community to connect with Gay and Irene and thousands of educators from around the world on one of the fastest-growing online literacy communities. Continue the conversation on Twitter @FountasPinnell, on Instagram @FountasPinnell, on Facebook @FountasandPinnell or by joining The Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ Learning Facebook Group.