In September 2009, Ms. T., one of my beginning teachers announced, “I need help or I’m going to quit!” She teaches 3rd grade at one of the lowest performing schools in our district with ~86% poverty.
As I met with her, I was impressed when she added, “I just can’t teach this class the way I’ve taught before. Can you help me figure out how to teach this class?” She never once complained about the students, their parents, or their backgrounds. Her focus was on how to best meet the needs of her students.
We began by using a Collaborative Assessment Log to assess her most pressing concerns. During our conversation, Ms. T. identified a few students who were challenging. Atypical of many new teachers, Ms. T. stayed focused on how she could best meet their needs, rather than what was wrong with the students.
We agreed that I would use the selective scripting tool to collect specific data on these students. When we analyzed the scripts, we were able to classify the data into categories. From there we developed plans for both instructional strategies and behavior management. I shared some resources with her. She immediately went to the media coordinator and asked her to purchase copies of one of the books, The Pre- Referral Intervention Manual by Steven McCarney, for the school’s professional library. Shortly thereafter, the school purchased three copies of the book, and she checked one out to help her develop specific strategies to work with the students she had identified as challenging.
In another conversation, Ms. T. wanted to know what she could do to improve student engagement. She wanted to move her students from ritual engagement to authentic engagement. Again, she didn’t blame the kids but remained focused on improving her teaching. We agreed that I would model a math lesson using some strategies for increasing student engagement.
As I modeled the lesson, Ms. T. took notes on my teaching strategies. After the lesson, I gave her a copy of the lesson plan and we discussed the strategies I used in the lesson. She not only picked up on most of them, but also noticed strategies I didn’t even realize I was modeling. We talked about how she could incorporate them into her teaching. During our conversation, her engagement was at a level I rarely see. I could tell she was listening to me and processing the information, but I was not prepared for what happened next. As soon as our meeting ended, she began incorporating some of the strategies into the lesson she taught ten minutes later.
Student engagement changed from ritualistic to authentic. As student engagement increased, we began focusing on the process of learning. We developed strategies for increasing students’ thinking. As their thinking deepened, her students’ enthusiasm for learning increased. There was a noticeable increase in positive energy in this classroom.
After a couple of weeks, she posed another question: “What else can I do to meet these kids’ needs?” I suggested that we look at the students’ learning styles. We administered a simple inventory to her students and added the results to her class profile. As we compared the students’ grades and learning styles, we discovered that some of the auditory and kinesthetic learners were struggling while her teaching modality was primarily targeting visual learners.
We discussed ways to modify lessons and differentiate instruction based on her students’ learning styles. She considered her students’ different needs as she planned lessons and remediated students who had not yet mastered concepts. At the end of the first quarter, the students took district-administered benchmark exams to assess student achievement in math, reading, and science. Ms T.’s students’ scores revealed 60% proficiency in math, 28% proficiency in reading and 25% proficiency in science.
For the next nine weeks, Ms. T. consciously incorporated brain-engaging strategies as she taught her lessons, focused her questioning on improving student thinking and reasoning, analyzed data gathered from formal in informal assessments, and used the assessment data to inform her instruction. At the end of the 2nd quarter, her students’ scores revealed increases of 14% proficiency in both math and reading and a 30% increase in proficiency in science. (See chart) We both saw a correlation between the mentor strategies I used – modeling of lessons, collecting and analyzing student data through classroom observation and learning style surveys, providing resources and ideas, planning conferences, and reflecting conversations on practice – and her more effective teaching. It was truly validating for both of us to see higher student achievement as a result.
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By Jan Tusing, NBCT, M.Ed, Center for Teacher Leadership, Virginia Commonwealth University
Two heads, almost touching, bent over a scattering of Collaborative Assessment Logs, Selective Scripting charts, and notes were strewn across the table like so many fall leaves. Almost a year had passed since these two mentors first came together to face the challenge and excitement of a new professional experience—mentoring a group of new teachers in high-need schools. At first glance, Monica and Karen were the least likely of mentor coaching partners. One, a high school biology teacher in a large urban district, the other an eighth grade English teacher from a large suburban district; one very religious, the other agnostic; one single, the other with grandchildren; one African-American, the other Caucasian. What they shared was a passion for ensuring students in the highest need schools receive a quality education and both remembered just how difficult it could be as a first-year teacher.
Our program, part of a federally funded teacher quality grant to study the effectiveness of full-release mentoring, was a project of a long-standing partnership between the Center for Teacher Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University and our four partner school districts: Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, and Richmond Public Schools. Twelve carefully selected, accomplished classroom teachers supported 175 beginning teachers in the highest need schools of our four partner districts with the goal of preparing beginning teachers to be as effective as possible, as soon as possible, for as long as possible!
I, too, had just finished my first year as a mentor of mentors. It was my job to ensure that new mentors had the support and tools they needed in order to support new teachers. I knew from my own mentoring experience that moving from a school setting, where my skills as an accomplished teacher were acknowledged and celebrated, to a new role of mentor could be a daunting task.
The first and most critical part of our formative assessment began with the selection of coaching partners. After spending an exciting week of orientation together, mentors were invited to submit a list of up to three colleague mentors working at the same level (elementary or secondary) with whom they might like to work. Cross-district matches were made and mentors agreed to work together as coaching partners for a trial period during the first semester. Friday Forums provided on-going professional development for all coach-mentors, and it was in this supportive setting that the mentors came to know each other on both personal and professional levels.
As our first year came to a close, I invited coaching partners to meet with me for a big picture look at their first year. I suggested that we complete a Collaborative Assessment Log together and choose a celebratory setting for our work. We met at restaurants all over the Richmond metropolitan area as we laughed, ate, and reconstructed the important mentoring work in which we had been immersed all year long. The coaching partners took the lead in these conversations, teasing out the triumphs and the challenges, and deciding on next steps for their work together.
I listened in awe as Karen and Monica discussed their progress. Monica came from an urban district where teacher support tended to be directive. Karen, who had worked in inner-city Los Angeles, embraced mentor language as a gentle way of supporting teachers in extremely challenging settings. Karen reminded Monica of the importance of using mentor language to achieve buy-in from struggling beginning teachers while Monica reminded Karen that there was a time and a place to “tell it like it is”! They talked about how Monica had provided invaluable academically-oriented support for a struggling earth science teacher that Karen was supporting. And Karen grinned as she explained how much better she understood a young teacher’s struggle to provide appropriate support for her African American students. In a recent visit to Monica’s church, Karen recalled the high level of interactive, kinesthetic participation that so astounded her; no wonder these students struggled to sit still and listen in the young teacher’s traditional classroom setting!
Our second year together began at our weeklong Summer Seminar planned almost entirely by the mentors who were rapidly embracing their roles as teacher leaders. Hugs and animated conversation brought us back together. I was excited to be back with this amazing group of educators, but secretly, I was worried. I had received the individual data of mentor practice from an end-of-the-year survey of the beginning teachers we had supported. I knew many mentors would be pleased at this affirmation of practice, but that all of us would struggle as we sought to understand the different perspectives each new teacher brought to the work. How would I find a balance so that mentors would continue to celebrate all that they had done well and at the same time take a hard look to see how we could improve?
I lost sleep over this issue until I thought back to those amazing coaching triads that closed out the previous year. Of course! Coaching partners would work together, supporting their partners to determine when a response was an outlier and when there was a real pattern to the data. We would conduct a gap analysis—looking at our goals and deciding which could stand as written, which needed revision, or which, if any, needed to be totally reassessed. Then we would compile our data by levels and brainstorm possible group goals which would eventually be folded into program goals that we could all embrace.
Not surprisingly, one of the other important decisions our group unanimously made was to continue with the same coaching partners into year two. As Karen explained, the coaching partner relationship was one of complete trust. Working as a novice mentor and grappling with many new challenges felt a lot like balancing on a high wire over a yawning precipice. Except, there was always that coaching partner to catch them when they fell—creating a whole new meaning for “gotcha”! They began their second year of providing high-quality mentoring back where they started—side-by-side with a colleague who had the same passion for insuring that students in the highest need schools receive a quality education.
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Improving Working Conditions for Teachers Who Float Into Borrowed Classrooms
Jean Duffey is a teacher on a mission—she wants to improve working conditions for teachers who “float” into borrowed classrooms. An algebra teacher for twenty years, Jean is a master mentor at Sam Rayburn High School in Pasadena, Texas. Her role as a mentor caused her to volunteer for a new assignment last year—one that has fueled her passion to advocate for new teachers.
How Hard Could It Be?
Because of her responsibilities as a partial-release mentor, Jean was scheduled to teach only three periods this year. Last spring she told her principal that keeping her classroom wasn’t fair. Jean volunteered to be a floating teacher, a hardship normally delegated to new teachers. “My principal looked at me uncertainly, but I thought, how hard could it be?” After all, Jean has twenty years of experience, works closely with a co-teacher, and is well respected at her school. “I can’t believe how naive I was.”
The first day of school Jean pushed her cart out of her office, and immediately felt demeaned. “I wasn’t expecting this. I had never thought of floating teachers as inferior, but that’s the way I felt.” Jean continued out to the portable buildings where math classes were held. “I hit the ramp and stuff was bouncing off the cart. When I got to the classroom, I had to wait outside while the students came flooding out. When I tried to go across the threshold, the cart stopped and everything on it kept going. It was horrible.”
Losing Instructional Time
Most disturbing to Jean was the loss of instructional time. She discovered as a floating teacher, she could no longer teach bell-to-bell. She had to wait for the previous class to exit before she could enter the classroom and then it took precious minutes while she wrote lesson objectives on the board and passed out materials. Even though students were assigned a warm up, she wasn’t available to assess prior knowledge. Jean and her co-teacher, Nancy Tabor, did a survey of teachers and administrators with floating experience and found that they lose an average of eight minutes a class period, or more than 28 days of instruction a year.
Jean also realized that with the rush to get set up for class, she wasn’t at the door greeting students. “That’s how you build rapport,” she said. “And it wasn’t happening.” As the semester went on, Jean felt disorganized and ineffective. The three-tier flimsy cart became the enemy and her students weren’t far behind. “My students didn’t like me and I wasn’t liking them much, either. I seriously considered moving up my retirement date.”
A New Portable Classroom
Over a long weekend, Jean’s husband, tired of hearing her complain about her cart, challenged her to do something about it. “I didn’t want to end my teaching career on a sour note,” Jean said. “I didn’t feel successful and that’s what makes any teacher quit. If I was a new teacher, I doubt that I would have returned. “
Jean and Nancy discussed what they could do to salvage the year. The cart was the first thing to go. They bought a sturdy cart from a hardware store and outfitted it with whiteboards, a wireless laptop, and an active slate. The cart allows Jean to pre-stage her lessons, walk into the classroom with a minimal loss of instructional time, and greet students at the door.
Jean also realized she needed to get out of the portable buildings. Nancy looked around the school for rooms that fit their teaching style. They needed rooms inside the main building, preferably with two doors, and with aisles wide enough to accommodate their “floating classroom.” They found rooms on the English wing. “It’s made a huge difference,” Jean said. “But what new teacher would have the audacity to go looking for rooms on their own and outside of their discipline? New teachers don’t have that kind of voice, but I do.”
A Voice for New Teachers
Jean decided not to retire but to continue another year as a floating teacher. “Sending a new teacher out to float is a suicide mission,” said Jean. “If they survive, it’s only because they don’t know how it should be.” She is determined to document her insights regarding the minimum working conditions required for floating teachers to be effective. When Jean does retire, it will be with the knowledge that she has been a successful teacher, mentor, and advocate for new teachers.
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Online Mentoring Helps a New Teacher in an Urban School
Cissy Spear, an 8th grade math teacher at North Middle School in Brockton, Massachusetts, didn’t plan on working in an urban school. She was apprehensive about classroom management and, because Cissy started teaching after raising her family, wasn’t sure if she’d fit in with the younger teachers. After earning her Initial Teaching License through the TEACH! Urban South program at the University of Massachusetts1, Cissy signed up to participate in the NTC electronic Mentoring for Student Success (eMSS) program.
Electronic Mentoring for Student Success
eMSS supports the development and retention of beginning science, math, and special education teachers through content-specific online mentoring that promotes student achievement. Beginning teachers are matched with a mentor who has experience teaching the same discipline and grade level. In addition to the one-on-one mentoring, beginning teachers also share ideas and techniques with other beginning and veteran teachers as well as university scientists, mathematicians, and special educators in a nationwide online network.
Anytime. Anywhere.
Cissy was assigned to work with Deanna Reynolds, an award winning math teacher from North Dakota who has taught for twenty-two years. Both Deanna and Cissy liked being able to log in to the online environment and work anytime. “Deanna has been there for me every step of the way,” said Cissy. “Our online conversations have bolstered my confidence as a teacher and given me tools that I use everyday.”
“Cissy is a super-star mentee,” said Deanna. “She loves the support and as she’s grown as a teacher, she’s reached out to help others.”
Have you tried this?
Cissy logs on to the eMSS environment almost every day and is an active participant in the community. “I find eMSS invaluable,” said Cissy. “There are so many resources and great ideas that I feel like a kid in a candy store. I’m always learning.” Recently she posted a question about ways to engage her middle school students. Later in the day she received a number of suggestions that addressed student engagement and conflict resolution. One colleague suggested using a timer at the beginning of class and make a contest out of getting them to settle down. The record was 31 seconds. Now the kids monitor each other. Cissy has also incorporated math tidbits that a facilitator posted to help focus her warm-ups.
Navigating an urban school
Cissy hesitated before accepting the position in Brockton. She’d worked previously as an aide in a vocational high school in the suburbs but soon noticed differences in the students and their parents at North Middle School, the way they dressed and the language they used. “Thanks to eMSS, I don’t feel isolated,” said Cissy. “I know from the online community many other teachers who are teaching in similar environments.”
In Cissy’s case, confidence-building goes two ways. The student body is over 70% minority, but the majority of the teachers are white. “As a woman of color, I think it’s important for these kids to see an African American woman in a professional job,” said Cissy. “I’m proud for the chance to serve as a role model.”
Mrs. Spear is proper
Although teaching in an urban environment wasn’t her first choice, now Cissy can’t imagine being anywhere else. “I’m not one of the “cool teachers,” Cissy said. “My students all know that ‘Mrs. Spear is proper.’” She may be proper, but her students know that she works hard to keep them engaged. Thanks to the online support she receives from eMSS, she knows she can find the tools and community to continue to challenge her students. “This is my career, and I’ve having a blast,” said Cissy. “They’re a hard group of kids, but I’m not writing any of them off. I believe most of them are going to make it. I hope so.”
1 TEACH! is an alternative teacher preparation program that guides participants toward earning Massachusetts initial licensure to teach middle or high school math or science in an urban school district.
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Moving toward Excellence: Accelerating the Development of a Master Teacher
Jody Bruce has taught kindergarten at Boulder Creek Elementary in the Santa Cruz Mountains for the past fifteen years. “Kindergarten is never the same from year to year,” Jody claims. “But the students are always ready to learn something.” A willingness to learn can also be said about Jody. Last year she accepted an opportunity to accelerate her professional practice by participating as a Cotsen Fellow in the Art of Teaching.
The Cotsen Family Foundation chose to partner with the New Teacher Center because of NTC’s reputation for implementing high-quality mentoring programs. The Cotsen Family Foundation seeks to transform experienced, capable educators into gifted teachers. The Foundation offers fellowships to a handful of teachers within a school, providing a full-time mentor and other professional development opportunities over a period of two years. Follow-up grants are available for Fellow alumni.
The Art of Teaching
Jody was introduced to the Art of Teaching when Anne Berg of the New Teacher Center and former Cotsen Fellows came to a staff meeting. They encouraged interested teachers to submit an application.
“I’ve been fortunate to work in a district that has offered meaningful opportunities for professional development, “ said Jody. “Yet when I heard about the Art of Teaching, I was impressed. The organization clearly values teachers and understands what’s involved in our work. They emphasized honing skills that I already have, playing to my current strengths as a teacher. I decided to apply.”
In addition to a written application, teachers were observed and videotaped in their classrooms. “It was a little intimidating to present a lesson in front of my peers,” Jody admits. “I spend most of my day with five year olds. I was surprised to find the experience extremely enriching.” Jody and six other teachers at her school were selected as Cotsen Fellows; one was chosen to become a mentor.
NTC Mentor Training
Lisa Muirhead was chosen as the Cotsen mentor for the school. Before beginning to work with her colleagues, Lisa and other new mentors in the area received extensive training from NTC on coaching and observation strategies. They continue to attend monthly mentor forums in order to further enhance their skills.
After her orientation, Lisa began meeting weekly with Jody. Years earlier, as a beginning teacher, Jody had been mentored through the New Teacher Center. “The mentees between the two programs differ in experience, but the Art of Teaching shares many similarities with the NTC program,” Jody said. “Both programs are based on inquiry and reflection.”
In addition to one-on-one meetings, Lisa organized an inquiry group that met monthly. She also organized opportunities to observe excellent teachers in other schools and, as a tool for reflection, videotaped the Fellows.
A focus on writing
Fellows select a content area of strength to focus on. With the support of her mentor, Jody chose writing. “I knew that if I could provide my students with a positive literacy experience in kindergarten, it would carry them through life,” she said.
Five of the Cotsen Fellows from Boulder Creek decided to use their professional development stipend to attend the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project directed by Lucy Calkins at Columbia University. “I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Jody. “I came home and told my husband that we’d have to put off the vacation we were planning for another year. I was going to New York.”
Writers, go write
In September Jody began implementing what she learned at the Writing Project with her kindergarteners. Each of her students has a portfolio of writing, and after a short mini-lesson, when Jody says, “Writers, go write,” they hurry to the writing table and begin. Students create their own work—it isn’t “ghost written” by Jody or an aide—according to their abilities. Like all artists, they are proud of their portfolios.
Jody holds individual writing conferences with her students to discuss their work. “Even in kindergarten, they begin to see the importance of editing and revising,” she said. “I have seen a huge shift in how the students perceive themselves and behave as writers; they comfortably use the language of writers, talking about adding details or using craft-like speech bubbles. Their use of conventions and voice is improving from month to month.”
School-wide impact
“When we came home from New York, we shared the results with our grade level colleagues. Our entire kindergarten team embraced the opportunity to implement this learning,” said Jody. “The same thing happened in other grade levels. The Art of Teaching has made a difference throughout the entire school.”
And it’s not just the teachers. Seeing the difference the program is making in their schools, school administrators have started to meet. Anne Berg and Jerry Harris, Program Officer with the Cotsen Foundation, have organized professional development opportunities for principals including visits to other districts.
At a time of budget cuts in education, the Art of Teaching has helped raise the level of teaching and learning throughout the district. And Jody’s kindergarten students have begun to own a vision of themselves as writers, capable of expressing their thoughts and experiences through the written word.
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Targeted Instruction Leads To Success With Middle School Readers
First-year Chicago Public Schools teacher Taiesha Woodson-Durham studied the test scores of the 150 fifth and sixth graders who would be her reading students. Just 27 percent met the state standard in reading. And on extended written response to reading, virtually all posted 1s and 2s out of a possible 4. Taiesha’s goal was to improve their ability not only to connect with what they read, but also to write about it. She turned from the data spread before her and studied a calendar. She wondered how far she would be able to bring her students by the March test date, and whether her first baby would wait until after ISATs to be born.
Taiesha’s school, John P. Altgeld Elementary, is located in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Schools in the high-poverty neighborhood, where nearly all students qualify for free lunch, had long struggled with low student achievement and teacher retention. The pressure was greater than ever to demonstrate yearly progress. Taiesha would be the first reading teacher responsible for all the fifth and sixth graders. The New Teacher Center—Chicago began offering its comprehensive teacher induction program in the area in 2006. The group has since expanded to provide coaching for new teachers throughout the district.
Data-driven analysis of student work
As a new CPS teacher in 2007-08, Taiesha was assigned CNTC coach Clare Donovan-Scane. She describes their association as a meeting of the minds of two data-driven problem solvers. The two analyzed writing samples from all 150 students to determine trends: What were students able to do? What did they need to learn? The data helped them group students according to key needs identified: making connections, providing supporting details and interpreting the text. During her first year, Taiesha administered Fountas and Pinnell’s Benchmark Assessment System to all her students and became the school’s go-to person for the electronic Gradebook system.
During one-on-one weekly meetings Clare and Taiesha used the NTC Analysis of Student Work tool to help clarify lesson plan objectives and ensure that they were matching the identified student needs. Taiesha credits the Selective Scripting observation tool with helping her further fine-tune her instruction. Clare’s timed notes of teacher and student interactions provided a mirror of what was happening in the classroom.
“Analyzing student data with Clare helped me know when I had to revisit something I’d already gone over in class,” Taiesha said. “I would do a mini-lesson with the whole group and give small group instruction to help students master specific skills.”
The results: Fifth-grade reading scores jumped from 27.8 percent of students meeting state standards to 66.7 percent. Sixth-grade scores improved from 27.3 percent to 69.9 percent. And Taniya Durham was born April 16, 2008.
Heightened Student Engagement
During her second year, Taiesha began working with another CNTC coach, Kyle Miller. While her work with Clare had focused outward on student skills, her work with Kyle was more introspective. “I wanted Kyle to tell me what was working and to recommend techniques to try. Instead, he turned the questions around asked me what I thought was working, what strategies I thought might work.”
Through this process of reflection, and with the guidance of her coach, Taiesha challenged herself to differentiate her instruction and introduce more group work. As the year unfolded, Kyle saw Taiesha move from a traditional instructive presence to a teacher whose students worked in groups at a heightened level of engagement.
Taiesha recalls that when they started working together, “Kyle told me I was too serious—that it’s OK to laugh and let the students talk.” She recalls a casual conversation with students during which “a light bulb went off. I realized, ‘You’re having fun. You’re smiling. You don’t have to be a stern face.’ Now the bulk of my lesson and the students’ day is centered around them working together, talking together and learning from each other.”
This year, 81.7 percent of Taiesha’s sixth-graders soared to meet state reading goals. Her fifth-graders hit 78.1 percent. But the results that Taiesha is most proud of are in extended response. Among 69 sixth-graders, who had been with her for two years, the number who achieved 3s on extended response rose to 27, up from seven for the same students the year before. Seven students earned highest scores of 4, which none had achieved as fifth graders. Thirty-one scored 2s and only four students posted 1s, down from 30 of the same students the year before.
“Extended response is so important to me,” Taiesha said. “When it comes to multiple choice, the answer is right there, and students can guess. In extended response they actually have to think and express their thoughts in an essay format to prove they understood what they were reading.
A New Teacher Leader
During these two years, Taiesha had also been pursuing her master’s degree at Concordia University Chicago. She received her degree from Concordia in May, and this fall, in addition teaching at Altgeld Elementary, she joined the Concordia faculty, teaching Content Area Reading in the Middle School. As she takes on her newest teaching role at the college level, Taiesha credits her CNTC coaches with helping her model techniques that her students of education can use in their classrooms.
As a high school student, Taiesha’s peers voted her “most likely to become a teacher.” As a new teacher, her determination to improve her students’ reading and writing skills, coupled with the coaching support she received from CNTC, made her “most likely to succeed” and provided her with a multi-faceted perspective on her teaching practice. A new teacher leader was forged in the process.
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Accelerating Teacher Effectiveness:
Bringing a First Grade Class of English Language Learners to Grade Level Reading
Viviana Espinosa, a beginning first grade teacher in Ravenswood City School District (RCSD) in East Palo Alto, California, started the 2008-09 school year with an aggressive goal: she wanted all her students at reading level by the end of year. Viviana knew this would be a challenge, especially when her class of twenty students included seventeen English Language Learners, two students with special needs, and nineteen who qualified for free or reduced lunch. None of the students began the year at grade level in reading.
New Teacher Center (NTC) is involved in a multi-year, systemic effort to reverse years of low student performance combined with high rates of teacher and administrator turnover at RCSD. The project was initiated in 2003 with a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. During the 2008-09 school year, nine full-time and seven part-time mentors supported 130 first- and second-year teachers. Professional development, offered to both new and veteran teachers, focused on literacy. Learning Teams were organized at each site to examine the relationship between professional practice and student achievement.
Using data to make strategic instructional decisions
Viviana and NTC mentor Bee Medders began working together in September 2008. As part of their weekly meetings, they used a number of key tools and processes to gather data, including Selective Scripting, Analyzing Student Work and the Inquiry Action Plan from the NTC Formative Assessment System. They collaboratively analyzed multiple summative and formative assessment data points, benchmark data, as well as their own observation notes in order to identify specific student learning needs and teaching points.
Moving from incidental to intentional instruction
Viviana attended 5 full-day sessions of Foundations in Literacy and Language presented by Bee and her mentor colleagues. She also attended a year-long professional development series called Classroom Intervention, co-taught by the district’s Reading Recovery coordinator and an NTC coordinator, both of whom are Reading Recovery Teacher Leaders. Both courses focused on the Gradual Release of Responsibility theory and application to practice, as well as best practices in a comprehensive literacy program. The professional development provided Viviana with research-based theory and content which she was able to transfer into practice with the help of her mentor. The combination of Bee’s mentoring and literacy expertise, Viviana’s developing expertise through the professional development, and their ongoing conversations that connected students’ learning needs with specific teaching points helped transform Viviana’s instruction from incidental to intentional, from trial-and-error to strategic.
Using best practices and gradually releasing responsibility
After looking at student assessment data, Viviana concluded that the majority of her students struggled with summarizing, both orally and in writing, and she developed well thought out activities designed to improve students’ summary skills. What helped make the activities strategic and ultimately accelerate student learning, was Bee prompting Viviana to consider various points, including:
- How will you use Read Aloud (in this case) to strategically address summary?
- What is your key teaching point?
- How will you incorporate your teaching point into the lesson?
- After you’ve given input, how will you provide guided opportunities for practice and feedback before expecting mastery and independence?
- What will you look and listen for in the moment?
Just as Viviana’s goal was to move her students to independence, Bee’s goal was for Viviana to internalize the mentoring prompts so that she moved towards independence as a knowledgeable, reflective practitioner.
Measuring program effectiveness by student growth
One-on-one mentoring, coupled with professional development focused on literacy, formed a powerful induction program that accelerated Viviana’s growth as a teacher. Analysis of multiple assessments, including teacher and student observation data, became a habit of mind, with Viviana constantly seeking opportunities to improve her teaching and her students’ learning. With her mentors’s assistance, she employed sophisticated literacy strategies usually thought to be beyond the capability of a beginning teacher. At the end of the year, fifteen of Viviana’s students were reading at grade level. Of the remaining five, one made a year’s growth, two made progress in alignment with their special education goals, and two were referred to student study teams for more intensive interventions. In her first year of teaching, Viviana Espinosa provided her students with the skills and confidence for a lifetime of learning.
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