As
busy as our lives are as educators, it’s important to set aside time to reflect.
Time with a coach makes the space for reflection when it otherwise might be
crowded out of a teacher’s busy day.
It’s
valuable for teachers to reflect on their own practice, and it can also be
valuable for teachers to reflect on the practice of others. That’s where modeling
comes in. When a coach models a lesson in a teacher’s classroom, it opens the
opportunity for reflecting from the perspective of an outside observer, rather
than her typical involved perspective as the one leading the learning. The
value of reflecting on another’s practice can be undermined, however, if the observer
moves too quickly to evaluation. Modeling that could be a springboard for
change can become a verification of current practice if the teacher takes an
evaluative stance.
Instead,
encourage your observer to be a noticer, taking careful notes of what is seen
and heard. This allows the teacher to see with new eyes, helping them set aside
assumptions and view the lesson from an objective stance. It can be difficult
to avoid evaluation, both positive and negative, when observing another
teacher. However, evaluative comments tend to validate or even justify a
teacher’s current practice rather than opening her eyes to new possibilities,
so it’s best to delay evaluation.
After
an observation, one teacher said, “I noticed that you had smooth
transitions.” Although she used the
language of noticing, this was, in reality, an evaluative statement that did
little to enhance her understanding. So I pushed a bit. “What was it that made
the transitions smooth?” After a thoughtful pause while she reviewed her notes,
she said, “I noticed that you used student comments to transition from one part
of the activity to another.” Now there was a comment she could grow from!
Pinning
the reflective conference on observations that are objective and specific,
rather than evaluative or general, is likely to reveal nuances of practice that
enhance the learning experience. The table below provides some examples. The statements on the right illustrate objective noticing, which
is more likely to support teacher learning.
|
Evaluative Noticing
|
Objective Noticing
|
|
Your transitions were smooth.
Your objective was clear.
Students were engaged.
You listened really well to your
students.
Students did a great job of figuring out
the criteria for an effective argument.
You did a good job of explaining terms.
The lesson was fun!
They really got it!
You did a good job of including your EB
students.
|
You used student language to move from
one part of the activity to the next.
You asked students to put the objective
into their own words.
You included learning experiences that
used different modalities: a video, art, turn-and-talk, graphic organizers,
and written text.
You included the words students had said
when you defined terms for the class.
Asking students to rank different
arguments helped them figure out the criteria.
You used lots of synonyms when explaining
terms.
You used commercials from Nickelodeon
that were targeted to young children.
You gave students lots of time to talk so
they could construct meaning together.
You provided sentence stems to help your
EB students participate in the conversation.
|
Whether
you are modeling a lesson for just one teacher or a larger group, centering reflection
on objective noticings will help to make the experience a meaningful one.
This
week, you might want to take a look at:
Learning
history & empathy though Russell Freedman book clubs:
