In earlier posts, I have spoken about the need to focus on the student behaviors that are most likely to produce the student achievement that teachers, administrators and schools desire.
I have recommended that school leadership teams do a backwards planning process (see Oct 21 blog), first identifying the student achievement that they desire, then determining the student behaviors that are most likely to produce the desired achievement and finally deciding the instructional practices most likely to produce the necessary student behavior.
I have also recommended that during coaching observations, most of the focus should be on “what the students are doing”. The teacher’s thinking and focus should also be on whether the instructional approach being used is getting the desired student response/behavior.
While reading the February 2008 Phi Delta Kappan, which was themed “Brain-Based Education: A Fresh Look, I found a list that connected to these earlier recommendations. Dr Judy Willis; a practicing neurologist for 15 years, middle school teacher, and author of Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning noted:
“The brain-research evidence for certain instructional strategies continues to increase, but there is no sturdy bridge between neuroscience and what educators do in the classroom. But educators’ knowledge and experience will enable them to use the knowledge gained from brain research in their classrooms.” She connects the following practices with encouraging brain- based findings:
-Choice
-Interest-driven investigation
-Collaboration
-Intrinsic motivation
-Creative problem solving
-Novelty
-Surprise
-Connecting with past experiences and personal interest
-Low in threat
-High in challenge
-Students engaged and invested in goals they helped create
-Construction of knowledge
“These instructional strategies date back to theories developed decades before neuroimaging. But they are consistent with the increasing pool of neurimaging, behavioral, and developmental psychology.”1
Dr Willis’ list provides a great starting point for planning teaching to get the desired student behavior that will produce student achievement and an interesting set of “look-fors” to focus coaching conversations on teaching that triggers student engagement.
Click here for Dr. Judy Willis' web site-(http://www.RADteach.com/)
1 Article: Building a Bridge from Neuroscience to the Classroom, Judy Willis M.D.,Phi Delta Kappan (Feb 2008) pg 424-427
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
EXPLORING BELIEFS IN PRACTICE
What follows is an email exchange I recently had with a coach who has been in several days of training with me and has spent time studying Questions for Life as a tool for facilitating conversations. Your questions are critical tools for exploring teachers beliefs and their impact on teaching decisions.
Kate wrote:
Our school adopted The Literacy Collaborative Model about five years ago. This was, at the time, adopted by 85% or more of our staff to phase in at the primary grades. About three years ago the decision was made, with staff vote, that we’d expand to grades 3-6. We have a Primary Literacy Collaborative coach and an Intermediate Literacy Collaborative coach who teach classes to our teachers in this particular model/approach to balanced literacy (We also have a district provided Instructional Coach and a Title I Math Specialist). Sounds good on paper! However, we know that there are professionals who are not ‘on board’ with this model.
Our principal had a group of us in yesterday to read an article (Julie E. Wollman “Are We on the Same Book and Page?” The Value of Shared Theory and Vision” Language Arts; May 2007; 84, 5; ProQuest Educational Journals) and then asked us:
· Where are we in terms of literacy here?
· Where are we going?
We had discussion about what’s being observed in classrooms, what appears to be going well, what appears to not be going well, practice, theory, school culture, school dynamic of trust, and all that this article brought up. Ultimately, we needed to schedule another meeting for we just had so much to ponder. When we return together next week, we are to bring ideas for a survey, interview, inventory, etc. that we could share with the entire school about our beliefs on literacy; a tall order in my opinion.
I was hoping for guidance in framing some questions that might help us to get to the heart of beliefs folks have in teaching literacy. I was thinking a survey could be a first step. Others think small group dialog as a first step. Everyone is thinking that we don’t know what beliefs are and we need to know.
Any particular thoughts you could exchange with me, over the next week or so?
Kate
Kate
Thanks for thinking of me. Here are a few questions that used in conversations or open ended surveys might start uncovering how beliefs are driving process. Let me know what you think.
If an observer were present in you classroom, describe what they’d see you doing that you feel most strongly communicates your beliefs about literacy?
What would they see students doing that that communicates your literacy beliefs?
How has the Literacy Collaborative Model (LCM) reinforced your beliefs about literacy?
How has it caused you to question, stretch, or modify your literacy beliefs?
What parts of LCM tap your efforts to implement because they align with your existing beliefs?
What parts do you struggle to implement because of doubt or nagging questions from a conflict with your beliefs?
I’m wondering what other teacher are finding when they _______________for literacy achievement?
I’d love to have someone observe my literacy efforts doing _____________ and help me decide if __________________.
I’d like to see our literacy efforts have teachers do more ______________ and students do more ________________________.
Steve,
We plan to take these to our meeting . I’m particularly drawn to the questions that have each teacher verbalizing what s/he sees as strengths in their classroom instruction as well as what would be teacher/student roles in showing literacy theory and beliefs in practice. I think that part of the reasons I’m drawn to them is that they speak to me about the practice and effects on the students while leaving out a sense of self-worth in the teacher. Does that make sense? I’ve just been sensitive to the linking of self-worth as a person and performance evaluation of students’ achievement lately. I might be completely off base!
If it’s okay, I’d like to keep this dialog open and pick your brain again later.
Kate
Kate wrote:
Our school adopted The Literacy Collaborative Model about five years ago. This was, at the time, adopted by 85% or more of our staff to phase in at the primary grades. About three years ago the decision was made, with staff vote, that we’d expand to grades 3-6. We have a Primary Literacy Collaborative coach and an Intermediate Literacy Collaborative coach who teach classes to our teachers in this particular model/approach to balanced literacy (We also have a district provided Instructional Coach and a Title I Math Specialist). Sounds good on paper! However, we know that there are professionals who are not ‘on board’ with this model.
Our principal had a group of us in yesterday to read an article (Julie E. Wollman “Are We on the Same Book and Page?” The Value of Shared Theory and Vision” Language Arts; May 2007; 84, 5; ProQuest Educational Journals) and then asked us:
· Where are we in terms of literacy here?
· Where are we going?
We had discussion about what’s being observed in classrooms, what appears to be going well, what appears to not be going well, practice, theory, school culture, school dynamic of trust, and all that this article brought up. Ultimately, we needed to schedule another meeting for we just had so much to ponder. When we return together next week, we are to bring ideas for a survey, interview, inventory, etc. that we could share with the entire school about our beliefs on literacy; a tall order in my opinion.
I was hoping for guidance in framing some questions that might help us to get to the heart of beliefs folks have in teaching literacy. I was thinking a survey could be a first step. Others think small group dialog as a first step. Everyone is thinking that we don’t know what beliefs are and we need to know.
Any particular thoughts you could exchange with me, over the next week or so?
Kate
Kate
Thanks for thinking of me. Here are a few questions that used in conversations or open ended surveys might start uncovering how beliefs are driving process. Let me know what you think.
If an observer were present in you classroom, describe what they’d see you doing that you feel most strongly communicates your beliefs about literacy?
What would they see students doing that that communicates your literacy beliefs?
How has the Literacy Collaborative Model (LCM) reinforced your beliefs about literacy?
How has it caused you to question, stretch, or modify your literacy beliefs?
What parts of LCM tap your efforts to implement because they align with your existing beliefs?
What parts do you struggle to implement because of doubt or nagging questions from a conflict with your beliefs?
I’m wondering what other teacher are finding when they _______________for literacy achievement?
I’d love to have someone observe my literacy efforts doing _____________ and help me decide if __________________.
I’d like to see our literacy efforts have teachers do more ______________ and students do more ________________________.
Steve,
We plan to take these to our meeting . I’m particularly drawn to the questions that have each teacher verbalizing what s/he sees as strengths in their classroom instruction as well as what would be teacher/student roles in showing literacy theory and beliefs in practice. I think that part of the reasons I’m drawn to them is that they speak to me about the practice and effects on the students while leaving out a sense of self-worth in the teacher. Does that make sense? I’ve just been sensitive to the linking of self-worth as a person and performance evaluation of students’ achievement lately. I might be completely off base!
If it’s okay, I’d like to keep this dialog open and pick your brain again later.
Kate
Sunday, February 10, 2008
MENTORING AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
I recently spent an afternoon with the mentor teachers at St Mary’s County Public Schools in Maryland. Prior to my presentation Jeff Maher, the director of professional development, reviewed the results of a recent survey of beginning teachers regarding the time, type of activities, and quality of mentoring they were receiving. Jeff celebrated the results which showed increased positive finding across the past few years. I sent Jeff a few questions to understand the investment and commitment the system had made to the mentor program. Here is the information Jeff sent back……
St. Mary's County Public Schools (SMCPS) is located in St. Mary’s County Maryland about 100 miles south of Washington, D.C. on the western peninsula in Southern Maryland. SMCPS serves approximately 17,000 students and 1,500 certificated staff; 94.2% of which are highly qualified. Generally we hire between 150 & 175 new teachers each year.
Our school system is large enough to offer a wide variety of academic programs and services, and small enough to maintain an atmosphere of friendliness, helpfulness, and personalized service. As a school system, we are focused on student achievement and assuring that our students meet rigorous standards; at SMCPS all children can and will learn. In fact our mission statement says it all:
“Know the learner and the learning, expecting excellence in both. Accept no excuses, educating ALL with rigor, relevance, respect, and positive relationships.”
Mentoring in SMCPS involves experienced teachers paired with novice teachers, providing coaching, support, and guidance as the new teachers transition in their first two years. Mentoring is a key component of our long-range Teacher Induction Program.
Our induction program includes:
New Teacher Orientation:
· Day 1 & 2 – Optional Content Sessions
· Days 3-5 Required Professional Development on content, curriculum, classroom management, and system orientation. One-half day is devoted to demonstration classroom visits with monthly follow-up sessions.
· Electronic Learning Community forum
· Peer mentors are provided release time for peer coaching.
Induction Support includes:
· For 1st year teachers – Monthly New Teacher Seminars, Weekly Teaching Tips via email, Financial Seminar, New Teacher Socials and Annual Spring Re-Energizer with mentors
· For 2nd year teachers – Classroom Management that Works! course
· 3rd year – collegial partners
We request that all mentors are trained. Twice a year we offer a 1-credit course entitled Skills for Coaching and Mentoring. This course is based on the Performance Learning Systems’ course: Conferencing Skills for Mentors & Coaches and Steve Barkley’s book Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching.
Throughout the course, participants:
· Develop effective coaching and communication skills to build rapport among colleagues, create positive instructional change, and enhanced self-esteem for new teachers.
· Learn a prescriptive process for communicating with a colleague in a pre and post classroom observation.
· While observing instruction, become skilled at the use of several data collection instruments.
We attribute our positive results to the adage: Communicate, communicate and communicate. Weekly, new teachers, along with their mentors, receive a Teaching Tip via email. Mentors receive a monthly newsletter, The Mentor News.
Contact information: Jeff Maher, jamaher@smcps.org
St. Mary's County Public Schools (SMCPS) is located in St. Mary’s County Maryland about 100 miles south of Washington, D.C. on the western peninsula in Southern Maryland. SMCPS serves approximately 17,000 students and 1,500 certificated staff; 94.2% of which are highly qualified. Generally we hire between 150 & 175 new teachers each year.
Our school system is large enough to offer a wide variety of academic programs and services, and small enough to maintain an atmosphere of friendliness, helpfulness, and personalized service. As a school system, we are focused on student achievement and assuring that our students meet rigorous standards; at SMCPS all children can and will learn. In fact our mission statement says it all:
“Know the learner and the learning, expecting excellence in both. Accept no excuses, educating ALL with rigor, relevance, respect, and positive relationships.”
Mentoring in SMCPS involves experienced teachers paired with novice teachers, providing coaching, support, and guidance as the new teachers transition in their first two years. Mentoring is a key component of our long-range Teacher Induction Program.
Our induction program includes:
New Teacher Orientation:
· Day 1 & 2 – Optional Content Sessions
· Days 3-5 Required Professional Development on content, curriculum, classroom management, and system orientation. One-half day is devoted to demonstration classroom visits with monthly follow-up sessions.
· Electronic Learning Community forum
· Peer mentors are provided release time for peer coaching.
Induction Support includes:
· For 1st year teachers – Monthly New Teacher Seminars, Weekly Teaching Tips via email, Financial Seminar, New Teacher Socials and Annual Spring Re-Energizer with mentors
· For 2nd year teachers – Classroom Management that Works! course
· 3rd year – collegial partners
We request that all mentors are trained. Twice a year we offer a 1-credit course entitled Skills for Coaching and Mentoring. This course is based on the Performance Learning Systems’ course: Conferencing Skills for Mentors & Coaches and Steve Barkley’s book Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching.
Throughout the course, participants:
· Develop effective coaching and communication skills to build rapport among colleagues, create positive instructional change, and enhanced self-esteem for new teachers.
· Learn a prescriptive process for communicating with a colleague in a pre and post classroom observation.
· While observing instruction, become skilled at the use of several data collection instruments.
We attribute our positive results to the adage: Communicate, communicate and communicate. Weekly, new teachers, along with their mentors, receive a Teaching Tip via email. Mentors receive a monthly newsletter, The Mentor News.
Contact information: Jeff Maher, jamaher@smcps.org
Sunday, February 3, 2008
GROWTH MINDSET AND EFFORT
Another coaching colleague provided our “ponder question” for today.
Hi Stephen,
I am one of the reading teachers who has been attending your coaching sessions in Fairfax County, VA. The other day something happened that gave me such a huge connection to something we discussed at our last meeting with you, so I wanted to share it with you.
My seventh grade daughter came home from middle school with a reading assignment from her English teacher. The assignment was to read a prescribed article and discuss various points with a parent. The article generated a great deal of discussion, and I kept wondering in the back of my mind where I had heard these terms before.
The article was from Scientific American, and it was about the "growth mindset" vs. the "fixed mindset" of intelligence. I'm including a link to the article in case you haven't seen it. My daughter and I were to read the article, discuss it, and talk about our views of which mindset the schools are fostering (that one was very interesting).
Here is the link: The Secret to Raising Smart Kids
Hi Stephen,
I am one of the reading teachers who has been attending your coaching sessions in Fairfax County, VA. The other day something happened that gave me such a huge connection to something we discussed at our last meeting with you, so I wanted to share it with you.
My seventh grade daughter came home from middle school with a reading assignment from her English teacher. The assignment was to read a prescribed article and discuss various points with a parent. The article generated a great deal of discussion, and I kept wondering in the back of my mind where I had heard these terms before.
The article was from Scientific American, and it was about the "growth mindset" vs. the "fixed mindset" of intelligence. I'm including a link to the article in case you haven't seen it. My daughter and I were to read the article, discuss it, and talk about our views of which mindset the schools are fostering (that one was very interesting).
Here is the link: The Secret to Raising Smart Kids
Donna Mecca
Donna remembered the slide I presented on growth mindset.
What is your view of ABILITY?
Fixed or Growth
The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way--- in their initial talents and aptitudes, interest or temperaments--- everyone can change and grow through application and experience.
Mindset………The New Psychology of Success
Carol Dweck
2006
Donna remembered the slide I presented on growth mindset.
What is your view of ABILITY?
Fixed or Growth
The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way--- in their initial talents and aptitudes, interest or temperaments--- everyone can change and grow through application and experience.
Mindset………The New Psychology of Success
Carol Dweck
2006
I had reported on this book by Carol Dweck in a previous blog.
I wrote back to Donna to hear more about the conversation with her daughter. Here is her response.
I thought the most interesting point my daughter made was surrounding her perceptions of which mindset the school is fostering. Taking herself as an example, she has struggled with some learning issues over her years which means she has had to work much harder (and longer) than most of her peers. With that in mind, she is taking all honors classes in middle school and persevering as long as it takes her to keep up with the work load. We are so proud of the fact that she is keeping up, and actually she is proud too. At the end of the first marking period, she proudly shared her report card which included all As and a B plus. We were thrilled, especially being aware of the extra effort on her part to achieve this. The next day, the middle school parents received an announcement that there would be a special ceremony to be held at the school (during the school day) to honor the students who had received "all As" on their report card. Children who worked extra hard but may not have received all As were not invited to attend, so of course my daughter (who had a B plus on her report card) was not invited to attend. My daughter's comment was "Now, what kind of mindset is that fostering?" Interesting...
Donna’s daughter raises a very important question. We should all be exploring how our practices might change to teach and promote effort.
I wrote back to Donna to hear more about the conversation with her daughter. Here is her response.
I thought the most interesting point my daughter made was surrounding her perceptions of which mindset the school is fostering. Taking herself as an example, she has struggled with some learning issues over her years which means she has had to work much harder (and longer) than most of her peers. With that in mind, she is taking all honors classes in middle school and persevering as long as it takes her to keep up with the work load. We are so proud of the fact that she is keeping up, and actually she is proud too. At the end of the first marking period, she proudly shared her report card which included all As and a B plus. We were thrilled, especially being aware of the extra effort on her part to achieve this. The next day, the middle school parents received an announcement that there would be a special ceremony to be held at the school (during the school day) to honor the students who had received "all As" on their report card. Children who worked extra hard but may not have received all As were not invited to attend, so of course my daughter (who had a B plus on her report card) was not invited to attend. My daughter's comment was "Now, what kind of mindset is that fostering?" Interesting...
Donna’s daughter raises a very important question. We should all be exploring how our practices might change to teach and promote effort.
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