Jennifer, As a newly appointed literacy coach for our corporation, I am interested in learning more about this model of professional development. Can you please elaborate on the "Every Pupil Response"? I must have missed that in previous emails.
Thanks for sharing your expertise. Have a wonderful day! Carol Carol A. Mauer BCSC Literacy Coach Lincoln School, Home Base (812) 376-4447 "It is not how much you do, but how much love you put in the doing." >>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 9/22/2007 7:42 PM >>> Hello friends on the Mosaic list, Since we have been so quiet, I thought I would share some more of what I have been doing... I have been posting recently about the experiments we have been doing with lesson study in teaching the comprehension strategies. For those of you unfamiliar with lesson study, it is a process originating in Japan where teachers take a lesson plan from an expert and refine it to meet the needs of their students. One colleague takes this lesson plan that you have worked on together and teaches it in front of the other colleagues taking part. Then you meet to debrief. Once you have debriefed and adjusted the plan, another colleague teaches then new, refined lesson while the others watch and the process repeats itself. It is mostly been used for math and science lessons, less often for language arts. I have talked a little here on the list about the lesson we have been teaching for our first cycle...Tanny's Reading Salad and how we plan to teach Debbie Miller's file folder lesson for schema for the second cycle. What has been interesting for us is the professional learning that has taken place from following a lesson study cycle. It has been something of a pain for me to find people to cover my colleague's classrooms so that we can watch each other teach, but the learning that is resulting has been wonderful and is so worth the effort! This started as a way for us to learn how to best teach comprehension strategies at the early childhood level but has evolved into a powerful learning experience. The ah-hah's for me so far include: 1. The importance of narrowing your focus for the most effective lessons...and carefully choosing your evaluation piece. I know this sounds like teaching 101...but until you experience what happens when you tighten up your lesson objective to what is essential and then have the opportunity to plan and replan the lesson to meet that objective, you can't imagine how much you improve student learning. 2. The powerful impact of including Every Pupil Response techniques to ensure engagement and understanding of the comprehension strategy. 3. How much trust is required to really make this work...it takes guts to teach a lesson in front of colleagues and then tear it apart together to determine what works and what doesn't. But a side benefit is the powerful feeling of community you get from taking this journey together. It is simply an amazing professional development experience. If you have a small island of teachers at your school learning to teach strategies, this would be a great way for you to support each other! 4, We are a little unusual because we are teaching the same strategies at different grade levels...so part of how we refine the lesson revolves around making the strategies approachable at K, 1 and 2. We are seeing a bigger picture of how kids learn the comprehension strategies at different age levels. 5. I am also starting to see how this process can shape your own personal vision for what you want for your students. I noticed that the levels of interest and motivation decrease as the grade levels increase. What came into sharp focus for me was the importance of helping kids to stay motivated and interested in reading...text selections, classroom furniture arrangements, opportunities to turn and talk to classmates all seem to help build the level of engagement for kids...but now as I plan lessons, I am not just thinking about objectives that will be on the state test, but the bigger picture...how to create lifelong readers. I have shared a little about how the salad lesson worked for us, but really, the impact comes not from having this product...this 'perfect' lesson... that has been refined by teaching it over and over. The impact comes from the process...the learning that comes from working together to a common goal. Giving you the lesson plan isn't be the same as going through the process yourselves. I can't sell this technique enough to you all...it is just a great way to become a better teacher. I haven't learned so much since I went through the National Board process and we have only gone through one cycle. It is an intensely personal form of staff development. Hope some of you find a colleague or two to try it out ... Oh...and by the way, if you haven't seen Tanny McGregor's book Comprehension Connections it is a must read! Her lessons are fantastic and very motivating! Jennifer Maryland ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
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