One of the privileges of my job is to work
with student teachers. It’s exciting to
seethem begin to put into practice the things they’ve been learning about through their education courses. The first time I observe them teach, the interns (as we call them) are usually nervous – about teaching and about being observed. One thing I get excited about on this first observation is if I see an intern paying attention to students – listening and responding to them. For you seasoned educators, that may seem like an odd thing to get excited about! But new interns are often so worried about what they are doing that they don’t have any energy to expend on what their students are doing. But the ones who do pay attention to students are off to a good start. I feel confident they will grow to be responsive teachers.
That’s what happened with Marisol, an
intern in a kindergarten classroom who, even in her first observed lesson,
listened to students’ comments and used them to build learning. While reading a
book on the five senses, when a student called out, “The next one is smell!” Marisol
didn’t just turn the page. Instead, she stopped and excitedly asked, “How did
you know that smell was next?” Her
responsiveness provided an opportunity to draw students’ attention to clues in
the illustrations. Even during that
first lesson in early September, I felt confident that Marisol had what it
takes to be a good teacher, and she didn’t disappoint. Her responsiveness showed she was tuned in to
her students.
Responsive teachers reinvent educational
theories and practices and adapt them to the needs, interest, experiences, and
cultures of their students. Responsive teachers
choose activities and materials that help them recruit their students’
knowledge in order to meet learning objectives.
Coaches can support teacher
responsiveness during planning, as teachers analyze students’ work and adapt
upcoming activities, designing scaffolding that is tailored to students’ needs
or including activities that draw on students’ background knowledge.
When reflecting with a teacher after a
lesson, coaches can draw attention to the in-the-moment decisions teachers made
that accounted for students’ cultures, interests, and needs. For example, did the teacher seize an opportunity
to enhance learning by building on a spontaneous event? Did she persistently scaffold a student who
needed help, drawing on a repertoire of strategies to choose just the right one
for that student at that time?
There is no such thing as a perfected
lesson that can be served up again to the next class period or to a new group
of students next year. Instead,
responsive teachers will adapt and adjust as they plan and teach. Student learning will increase as coaches
support teachers in developing this attribute and avoiding cookie-cutter
lessons.
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Responsive instruction is something I’m passionate about! You can read more about it in my upcoming
book, Collaborative Lesson Study,
available here for pre-order (20% discount code is TCP2019).
Please indulge me in celebrating
this book. I’m so excited to share what
I’ve learned! If you
pre-order, I’ll email you a free PDF of the “Quickstart Guide to Collaborative
Lesson Study,” now, and the book will come your way as soon as it’s available
on Sept. 6. You can order here and then
upload your receipt here so that I can
send the Quickstart Guide your way.
This week, you might want to take a look
at:
Back-to-School
Starter Kits (helpful checklists and ideas!):
A
beautiful, printable poster with quotes about banishing teacher burnout:
How collaboration works:
Choice
and voice for middle-school readers:
The importance of
non-academic, social-emotional learning:
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