Barbara Walker

author of Literacy Coaching: A Collaborative Approach

November 4, 2015

Dr. Barbara Walker is professor of reading education at Oklahoma State University and teaches courses in reading difficulties and literacy coaching. She received the Regents Distinguished Professor for Research at Oklahoma State University (2007). Dr. Walker is the 2009 past-president of the International Reading Association (IRA) and received the College Reading Association's 1997 A. B. Herr Award for outstanding contributions to reading education.

Dr. Walker graduated from Oklahoma State University in Curriculum and Instruction, specializing in reading difficulty. Prior to returning to Oklahoma, Dr. Walker was a professor in the Department of Special Education and Reading at Montana State University, Billings.

Dr. Walker's research interests focus on teacher development and reading difficulties. Her books include Literacy Coaching: A Collaborative Approach (2010), Diagnostic Teaching of Reading (6th ed., 2008), Techniques for Reading Assessment and Instruction (2005), Supporting Struggling Readers (2nd ed., 2003), and What Research Say to the Teacher: Remedial Reading (1991 distinguished finalist, Albert J. Harris Award). She co-authored The Reading Team Series and the Interactive Handbook for Reading Diagnosis. She has authored or co-authored chapters in Approaches to Adolescent Literacy, An Essential History of Current Reading Practices, and Handbook of Literacy and Technology: Transformation in a Post-Typographic World.

Professional development for literacy instruction encompasses many avenues. However, there is growing evidence that literacy coaching is a powerful way to provide professional development for teachers as they teach. Although other books discuss adult learning, scheduling approaches or teacher resistance this book focuses on what happens when small reflective groups of teachers study their teaching with the support of a literacy coach. In this approach literacy coaches spend a great deal of time in classrooms collaborating with teachers. This book presents a positive approach to literacy coaching. Literacy coaching is viewed as a collaborative interaction that supports both teachers' and students' learning.

Literacy coaching is developed within a school learning community. The principal and the literacy coach work together to promote learning throughout the school. The book describes the cycle of literacy coaching (preconference, an instructional event, and post conference) and the multiple decisions that teachers make before, during and after a literacy lesson. The book proposes a gradual release model for literacy coaching to explain the different levels of support that a literacy coach can use for teacher learning. Ways to observe, analyze and interpret classroom interactions are suggested using practical examples.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2011-honorees/barbara-walker

Last Updated: 14 January 2022