LitLife is pioneering new ideas in the teaching of reading and writing. Working in a collaborative model alongside teachers, librarians, administrators, support staff and students, LitLife creates powerful structures and motivations for school and district-wide growth.

LitLife is deeply attentive to the differentiated nature of adult learning. We have developed tools which help us to understand the work teachers are doing, and how we can best support all teachers on their learning and instructional journeys.

We are curious, interested, passionate practitioners of our teaching craft eager for the potential that true, rich collaboration brings to the workplace of school life. The LitLife Team takes great pleasure in working alongside teachers in classrooms, with librarians in their cozy nooks, and participating in long-range planning conversations with administrators.

Our work in schools involves discovery into the culture, relationships and history of a school and its community, assessment as to how best to develop a strategic plan for literacy education, vision planning with representative stakeholders, and implementation of solid, research based ideas in the teaching of reading and writing which best suit the needs of the school and its students.

At LitLife, we have developed an adopt/adapt/create model of professional development. Teachers must have access to information, and opportunities to invest in the creation of their own curriculum and planning. Learning is not linear: it often takes surprising turns, and goes in many directions. We help to focus learning, create calendars and design curriculum not only for student learning, but for adult learning too. At the same time, we are open and highly responsive to the turns that adult learning takes, and our role as facilitators of that process.

LitLife Team Leaders help teachers and administrators to address four essential questions which guide and shape instruction:

• What are we teaching? (lessons and units)
• When are we teaching it? (yearlong unit planning)
• How will we teach it? (structures of the workshop format)
• Why are we teaching it? (philosophy and foundations)

Through our work directly in classrooms, and in leading study groups and seminars, we are able to address these important questions in a variety of ways.

LitLife is a team of knowledgeable, creative, dynamic, intuitive professionals dedicated to the belief that teachers who are nourished and sustained in their own learning lives are at their best for their students.

LitLife offers a coaching/consulting model for all the different voices in a school community: teachers, librarians, special educators, administrators. We lead workshops, conduct demonstration lessons, coach alongside teachers as you teach, facilitate staff development days and provide opportunities for an entire faculty to come together to learn innovatively and productively.

We help school communities:

• develop a strategic plan for literacy instruction and professional development
• write curriculum in the teaching of reading and writing that reflects the needs, interests and goals of the school and district
• write lesson plans that reflect standards-based, best practice instruction in the teaching of reading and writing
• create classroom libraries and whole school libraries that represent the best in what is available
• teach teachers and faculty how to assess students in ways that feel rich, real and inform instruction

LitLife’s beliefs about the teaching of reading and writing:

• instruction is differentiated for all students
• the Complete 4 Model creates balance and integrity in yearlong planning for the teaching of reading and writing
• content area learning is deeply integrated so that the teaching of reading and writing and the content area work mutually empower each other and stimulate student learning and growth
• students have access to a variety of genre and levels of literature in their independent reading lives
• students read and write independently during school hours, with teacher support and supervision
• there is an authentic balance of product and process in the teaching of writing
• there is a balance of both the opportunity to practice safely what students are newly learning, and also to try out skills in high stakes formats (assessments, celebrations)
• learning is framed inside organized units of study which relate to the real experiences of their reading and writing lives
• students receive regular opportunities to read and write inside a variety of genres, and for a variety of purposes
• teachers assess students both formally and informally: assessments which both compare one’s students to the wider student world, and also help to understand students individually, and are utilized in ways which to guide instruction
• celebration and play are key ingredients in the teaching of reading and writing, and should be incorporated at all grade levels

LitLife Internal Team Training and Resources

When your school or district teams with LitLife, you gain not just the expertise and skill of the individual consultant -- you gain access to the knowledge and experience of an extraordinarily talented group of educators. LitLife maintains a vast internal database of proprietary information for our Team Leaders to access and then modify to the individual needs of our clients. There is also a continual stream of communication between consultants on matters of both content and consulting practice in schools. The Team Leader assigned to work with your teachers and administrators has not only great personal ability, but also has the abundant resources of a dynamic, idea-generating and implementing organization to support them in their work.

To give you an idea of how we interact with each other to support each person's consulting practice in the schools, here is an excerpt from a communication from Pam Allyn to our staff:

"You are beginning an incredibly important relationship with a client. You have to ask yourself the question: what is going to help me forge a positive relationship with an integral member of the leadership team at this school and how will she come to see me as an ally for her work and a true support?

While the content is key too, the complete partner to the content is flexibility and a striving towards understanding the client perspective and where people are coming from. If they feel that from you, they will be much more open to your content.   My feeling about people is that generally speaking most people are usually trying to do the right thing. They work in the school; they know the nuances of the culture and personalities. So my first instinct is to trust and work with our school contacts to set something up that is going to have good outcomes for their particular staff, who are people we do not yet know well, but our contact does.

Now sometimes of course we have to push back against structures that clearly won't work, and speak firmly about what we think will work best. That is the heart of our professional expertise. But at the same time, our clients must be part of the process of creating the structure of the work we will do in their school. If they ask for an accommodation from us, it is generally well worth some adjustment on our part of content material to make it happen for them. This interaction is going to be critical in terms of how they see our role: are we an ally or are we not? Our clients need to see that we are not only flexible, but also interested in their perspective and respectful towards their knowledge of what will work best for their teachers.   Like everything, you could have the best content in the world but if your client does not feel comfortable sharing a need to change things with you or talk with you comfortably, you will not create movement forward.

This work is as much about flexibility as it is about direction.   As always, our work is a balance of flexibility and our vision for content. Of course I am not saying we should be pushovers or do what is not comfortable. But we must view these requests and inputs from clients as invaluable opportunities to get to know the staff more personally which will also help you in building relationships which will positively impact the work and its effectiveness.   Ask our clients: what are your hopes and dreams for this work? How can you support them? Use this opportunity not only to push content forward but to really hear what they are saying and to develop an excellent working relationship with them. Really think about who the people are in these schools who are going to be essential "allies" for you. Then part of your work is cultivating them and helping them see that lines of communication with you will feel open and comfortable. This is as important a part of our work as anything else."