RUNNING HEAD: ROLES/RESPONSIBILITY ESSAY

Rachel Cliborne

Roles/Responsibility Essay

READ 680

February 10, 2019

RUNNING HEAD: ROLES/RESPONSIBILITY ESSAY

Description of Roles and Qualifications

The role of a reading specialist or reading coach is important and detrimental to how a

school functions. Reading Specialist have to wear many different hats and help many different

people. They not only spend time working directly with the students, but also with classroom

teachers. The Reading Specialist main goal is to improve the learning of all students, but there

are a few different ways a to achieve this goal. This goal is also achieved through a balance

between spending time focusing on the main roles of a Reading Specialist which are

leaderships, instruction, and assessment. Within the role of Leadership, Reading Specialist are a

big part of Staff and Professional Development, as well as resources for teachers,

administration and parents. This leads into their role of Instruction; which I think tend to think

is the primary role. This role includes working and helping both the teachers and the students.

Reading Specialist plan and collaborate with teachers, provide them with new ideas and

materials, as well as support classroom instruction. On the flip-side they provide specialized

support for the students. This can include pullout or in class support, as well as individual or

group support. The next and final role is Assessment; within this role the Reading Specialist

administer, interpret, coordinate and develop assessments and data.

The Reading Specialist have a large role within the school systems, and along with those

three main roles, there are also many qualifications they must have and portray. The first and

one that is really important is that a Reading Specialist should be competent. They should be

knowledgeable about reading instruction and assessment. They need to know what they are

talking about in order to help both the teachers and the students. Other characteristics and
RUNNING HEAD: ROLES/RESPONSIBILITY ESSAY

qualifications include, communication, patience, caring, dedicated, teachability, initiative, and

passion.

How Roles and Responsibilities Have Changed

The roles of a reading specialist or reading coach have really changed over the years.

The greatest changes that have happened over the years include an increase in the amount of

paperwork and in the role as a recourse. It also includes more planning with teachers and more

classroom instruction. With that being said, currently, the biggest change we are seeing is that

more and more Reading Specialist are now serving as literacy/reading coaches. Their

instructional roles are getting reduced and sometimes even eliminated, meaning they are

spending more time working with the teachers than the students

. This change has been happening slowly over time. In 2000, the International Reading

Association wrote an article all about the roles of the Reading Specialist, like I explained above.

But, in just 4 short year the International Reading Association came out with another article

about the roles of the Reading Coach. The article talked about how the role of the Reading

Specialist have changed, stating “Although reading specialists function in many roles, including

remedial teacher, staff developer, supervisor, and mentor, the balance of their activities has

shifted away from direct teaching and toward leadership and professional development roles.

In fact, reading specialists working in exemplary schools, in addition to providing direct

instruction to students, spend a great deal of their time serving as a resource to classroom

teachers” This was just the start of reading and literacy coaches substituting reading specialist

and it has only grown in the recent years. Where there used to be a reading specialist who

would handle all the leadership, instruction, and assessment roles, there are now different
RUNNING HEAD: ROLES/RESPONSIBILITY ESSAY

positions to handle different roles. In 2015, The International Literacy Association (formerly

known as the IRA) proposes schools use a specialized literacy professional as an umbrella term

for the three different positions in the schools: the reading/literacy specialist, the

literacy/reading coach and the school coordinator/supervisor. While the name and roles of

these specialized literacy professionals have changed, one thing that will stay the same

throughout the years is the fact that we need these professionals in the schools working with

both the teachers and the students.

Reflection

This paper has really allowed me to think about the roles and responsibilities of a

reading specialist in a different way. It made me think about how think about how I would fit

into this position. I think the role that would be most challenging to me would be leadership. I

have only really seen and experienced reading specialist in the instruction and assessment role.

During student teaching the reading specialist would come in and take students for group

instruction, attend team meeting to talk about data and decide what students needed extra

instruction. Until I started reading and doing some research, I was unware the role Reading

Specialist had in leadership, this is the reason I find this role most challenging. On the other

end, the role I believe I will do the best in is instruction. I believe this to be true because this is

what I have spent time learning about. The instruction role is what I am most passionate about,

I want to help teachers be better teachers, and students be better students. These roles are

what a reading specialist is about, and I cannot wait to get started in this position.
RUNNING HEAD: ROLES/RESPONSIBILITY ESSAY

Bibliography

Changing Role of Reading Specialists Powerpoint by Tammy Parlier adapted by Rita Bean (2004)

International Literacy Association. (2015). The multiple roles of school-based specialized literacy

professionals [Research brief]. Newark, DE: Author.

International Literacy Association and National Council of Teachers of English. (2017). Literacy

teacher preparation [Research advisory]. Newark, DE; Urbana, IL: Authors.

International Reading Association. (2000). Teaching all children to read: The roles of the reading

specialist. A position statement of the International Reading Association. Newark, DE:

Author.

International Reading Association. (2004). The Roles and Qualifications of the Reading Coach in

the United States. Newark, DE: Author.