Hello, When you have a chance, post a few comments regarding your observation at USM's Reading and Writing Clinic. What did you see? What would you do to coach the teacher?
I have to admit that I was not looking forward to this activity. It's the summer and I preferred to read by the pool or play with my kids. But I dutifully drove down and ended up observing in four different spaces a total of seven reading coaches. And I can honestly say that I'm glad I went.
First, I really had never watched a reading coach before. Besides in some special education classes, most high school teachers do not help students learn to read effectively. So as an administrator I'm not sure I could have adequately supervised reading coaches. At least now I've seen them work in a variety of settings.
Second, watching these different coaches showed me exactly how differentiated and individual one has to be with each kid. Again, in high school we tend to categorize and do things in batches. That simply does not work in this environment. I observed one coach work with what seemed like a middle school student who struggled to read and a middle-school student who was just learning the language. There is no way you can help these two kids using the same strategies. Some coaches even posted each kid's plan on the wall.
Third, reading coaches need to have a lot of techniques in their repertoire. Watching a coach with two students who have very different needs is like watching a chef cook two different meals. The concept is the same but the ingredients, time frame, and utensils used are very different.
I enjoyed the opportunity to see three different coaches work with students at three different grade levels - I watched students work on varied strategies from rhyming word memory game and free writing to story boards and sticky notes. I also had the opportunity to speak directly with one of the tutors as she spoke about her stuggles and concerns working with one young man. Then I was fortunate enough to sit in as this tutor processed with Heather the literacy coach for the program.
First, a teach needs a large repetoir of strategies - especailly when working with younger children - because you can use more than two or three in a mere 30 minute work period.
Second, in the role of literacy coach listening is key and asking simple questions is the next best thing. As I talked with the tutor, I had to work at listening rather than defaulting into my usual habit of telling a person what I think s/he should do in a given situation. Listening and asking allows for a tutor, teacher (or student) to access and cultivate thier own expertise. Of course, what the mentee 'thinks' s/he wants is answers and a 'to do' road map. In my expereience though, I can't give them what they didn't already have.
Third, one of the environments I sat in on was rather chaotic as it had four groups working seperately but along side in a lobby area. I wondered that the environment didn't seem to concern anybody - least of all the literacy coach. I know that children learn in all types of environments. Heck, some children in the African bush learn to read using a stick in the dirt out in the open village common area. In addition to the physical use of space, one young lady tutee had on a very skimpy outfit that could have seriously distracted anyone. So, I guess I am commenting on and wondering about the role of environment (and not just strategies and training) in learning. In the school I work in, we have the latitude to significantly affect the environment including dresscode. We consider cultural/environmental elements to be part of the culutre of learning.
I gained significantly more from the experience than expected. Thank you to all the folks who allowed me to sit in.
This observation has raised a number of important issues for me as a literacy teacher and mentor. First, I seem to be missing some kind of framework of what to notice in my observations. I have experimented with a couple of readily available forms, but none seem to reflect the particular setting and needs of my community. Some seem overly supervisory and less supportive. It is time for me to develop a customized observation form so that I can be more systematic about what I notice, but also honor the uniqueness of my particular school. I also wonder if those observations change depending on the expertise of the teachers.
Second, I need to develop some kind of cheat sheet of carefully crafted, nonjudgmental questions that help teachers reflect and maintain communication and trust. I am careful to sensor what I say, but honestly, sometimes the first thing I sometimes think sounds something like “and do you have any established routines?” or ‘that round robin reading is really killing them.” I spend so much time biting my tongue and then the opportunity is lost. Luckily, I don’t say all of that I think, but I know I need to find more poignant ways to ask the important questions about practice to promote change in little ways one teacher at a time.
There were some common threads in the observations of four teachers that I did. The one clear thread, as shawn said, is how individualized the instruction was. To take the same goals and translate them into class settings involving 8-12 or more kids would be a large management challenge.
A second common thread was to get kids to surface the way they think about text and the way effective readers approach text. There was discussion of inferences, of metacognition, or prediction, and several other strategies.
I thought the most successful tutoring observation I did was when the tutor started by reading aloud a fascinating story with pictures to a pair of middle school girls. The expression in the tutor's voice was wonderfully encouraging and warm. The tutor would stop occasionally and ask the students questions to make sure they were following and to use strategies they were learning--including inferring the meaning of unknown words.
Then the students read a few pages, responding to tutor prompts. You could see the students trying to read fluently and expressively, following the tutor's model.
The extent to which students were writing during their literacy/reading class was also fascinating. Obviously the use of writing to assess what students understand of their reading is clear. I want to learn more about the connection between developing effective writing skills to become a better reader.
Sounds like a common thread among your observations is the need for a framework to guide observations and target support. We will talk more about this on Friday.
5 comments:
I have to admit that I was not looking forward to this activity. It's the summer and I preferred to read by the pool or play with my kids. But I dutifully drove down and ended up observing in four different spaces a total of seven reading coaches. And I can honestly say that I'm glad I went.
First, I really had never watched a reading coach before. Besides in some special education classes, most high school teachers do not help students learn to read effectively. So as an administrator I'm not sure I could have adequately supervised reading coaches. At least now I've seen them work in a variety of settings.
Second, watching these different coaches showed me exactly how differentiated and individual one has to be with each kid. Again, in high school we tend to categorize and do things in batches. That simply does not work in this environment. I observed one coach work with what seemed like a middle school student who struggled to read and a middle-school student who was just learning the language. There is no way you can help these two kids using the same strategies. Some coaches even posted each kid's plan on the wall.
Third, reading coaches need to have a lot of techniques in their repertoire. Watching a coach with two students who have very different needs is like watching a chef cook two different meals. The concept is the same but the ingredients, time frame, and utensils used are very different.
Thanks for making me go!
I enjoyed the opportunity to see three different coaches work with students at three different grade levels - I watched students work on varied strategies from rhyming word memory game and free writing to story boards and sticky notes. I also had the opportunity to speak directly with one of the tutors as she spoke about her stuggles and concerns working with one young man. Then I was fortunate enough to sit in as this tutor processed with Heather the literacy coach for the program.
First, a teach needs a large repetoir of strategies - especailly when working with younger children - because you can use more than two or three in a mere 30 minute work period.
Second, in the role of literacy coach listening is key and asking simple questions is the next best thing. As I talked with the tutor, I had to work at listening rather than defaulting into my usual habit of telling a person what I think s/he should do in a given situation. Listening and asking allows for a tutor, teacher (or student) to access and cultivate thier own expertise. Of course, what the mentee 'thinks' s/he wants is answers and a 'to do' road map. In my expereience though, I can't give them what they didn't already have.
Third, one of the environments I sat in on was rather chaotic as it had four groups working seperately but along side in a lobby area. I wondered that the environment didn't seem to concern anybody - least of all the literacy coach. I know that children learn in all types of environments. Heck, some children in the African bush learn to read using a stick in the dirt out in the open village common area. In addition to the physical use of space, one young lady tutee had on a very skimpy outfit that could have seriously distracted anyone. So, I guess I am commenting on and wondering about the role of environment (and not just strategies and training) in learning. In the school I work in, we have the latitude to significantly affect the environment including dresscode. We consider cultural/environmental elements to be part of the culutre of learning.
I gained significantly more from the experience than expected. Thank you to all the folks who allowed me to sit in.
This observation has raised a number of important issues for me as a literacy teacher and mentor. First, I seem to be missing some kind of framework of what to notice in my observations. I have experimented with a couple of readily available forms, but none seem to reflect the particular setting and needs of my community. Some seem overly supervisory and less supportive. It is time for me to develop a customized observation form so that I can be more systematic about what I notice, but also honor the uniqueness of my particular school. I also wonder if those observations change depending on the expertise of the teachers.
Second, I need to develop some kind of cheat sheet of carefully crafted, nonjudgmental questions that help teachers reflect and maintain communication and trust. I am careful to sensor what I say, but honestly, sometimes the first thing I sometimes think sounds something like “and do you have any established routines?” or ‘that round robin reading is really killing them.” I spend so much time biting my tongue and then the opportunity is lost. Luckily, I don’t say all of that I think, but I know I need to find more poignant ways to ask the important questions about practice to promote change in little ways one teacher at a time.
There were some common threads in the observations of four teachers that I did. The one clear thread, as shawn said, is how individualized the instruction was. To take the same goals and translate them into class settings involving 8-12 or more kids would be a large management challenge.
A second common thread was to get kids to surface the way they think about text and the way effective readers approach text. There was discussion of inferences, of metacognition, or prediction, and several other strategies.
I thought the most successful tutoring observation I did was when the tutor started by reading aloud a fascinating story with pictures to a pair of middle school girls. The expression in the tutor's voice was wonderfully encouraging and warm. The tutor would stop occasionally and ask the students questions to make sure they were following and to use strategies they were learning--including inferring the meaning of unknown words.
Then the students read a few pages, responding to tutor prompts. You could see the students trying to read fluently and expressively, following the tutor's model.
The extent to which students were writing during their literacy/reading class was also fascinating. Obviously the use of writing to assess what students understand of their reading is clear. I want to learn more about the connection between developing effective writing skills to become a better reader.
Sounds like a common thread among your observations is the need for a framework to guide observations and target support. We will talk more about this on Friday.
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