RM Winter 2017 FINAL

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Reading Matters
Teaching Matters
| 48| Reading Matters | Volume 17 • Winter 2017 |
pre-observation conference with a school colleague. Students
chose an observational tool (e.g., scripting, checklists, open-
ended notes) based on the observation focus and lesson topic,
conducted an observation, and held a post-conference.
As students examined observation practices from a new
perspective, they began to challenge common perceptions
and beliefs regarding observation and teacher evaluation.
As one student said, “Taking a moment to switch roles and
sit in the observer’s seat was an enlightening experience. As
a classroom teacher, several feelings go through your head
when someone, anyone, comes in to observe. I know among
the feelings that I experience are nervousness, fear, and stress.
Before the observation, I sat with the teacher and went over the
pre-observation form. I feel like this helped the teacher realize
that I was coming in only to support, not to evaluate. I wish all
observers would do this. It gives the teacher a chance to voice
his or her concerns because as teachers we are always looking for
ways to improve.” In a discussion about best observation practices,
students repeatedly mentioned professionalization and the value
of creating a collaborative environment for continued learning,
and nearly all students included pre-observation conferencing and
collaborative peer observations on their Literacy Action Plans.
Although this assessment was designed to give in-service
teachers an opportunity to work with a colleague within their
school, it could easily be adapted or modified for pre-service
teachers. For example, students in a literacy methods course
could engage in conferencing and observation related to
field experiences or model lessons, which would provide a
valuable opportunity to give and receive feedback in a low-
stakes environment. In-service graduate students could also
work with teacher candidates to simulate the coaching cycle.
Valuing Diversity PD
The Valuing Diversity project required students to develop
and implement a professional development session addressing
the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners. In
our initial conversations, students split into groups to develop
a set of principles for designing engaging sessions that
emerged from their positive and negative experiences with
PD (unsurprisingly, the majority of experiences appeared to
be negative). As a class, we developed five guiding principles
for PD sessions: (a) a focused, clear, and precise purpose; (b)
presenter(s) with detailed knowledge of the school and students;
(c) relevant and concrete applications to classroom instruction;
(d) interactive discussions and activities; and (e) choice. In an
effort to reflect the recursive nature of the assessment process,
I also incorporated these principles into the design of the
rubric used for grading the PD session. Also, because several
groups mentioned the provision of snacks as a prerequisite to
an effective session, we included that as a bonus principle.
To better understand the PD needs within their schools,
students created survey/interview tools and gathered data.
Students then developed PD sessions based on that data and their
own reflections; while some created instructional presentations
describing culturally responsive pedagogies and research, others
engaged teachers in hands-on experiments with new pedagogical
practices. Students shared their work in school-wide PD sessions,
learning community meetings, and small-group discussions,
which allowed them to reflect on how they might adapt their
work for whole-school sessions or conference presentations.
Like the Coaching Observation Reports, the Valuing Diversity PD
assessment gave students an opportunity to examine a common
school-based practice—PD—from an alternative perspective.
Several students also reported finding new strategies that they
were able to use in their own classrooms. As one student said, “one
of the greatest things about PDs is talking to other teachers and
stealing their ideas, and through developing and sharing this PD
with others, I had the opportunity to BOTH steal and share ideas.”
Although this assessment is designed specifically for in-service
teachers, one of the adaptations for future implementations
of the project asks students to share their Valuing Diversity PD
presentations with pre-service teacher candidates. This creates
new connections across pre-service and in-service courses, and
provides a valuable opportunity for new conversations to emerge.
Teaching Tips
One of the first questions I ask of new students is where they
get their ideas for `lessons and units. Two answers are repeated
again and again—Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers. While
some students are involved in professional organizations such
as SCIRA, ILA, and NCTE, journals that are designed to connect
to a practitioner audience, such as Reading Matters and other ILA
journals such as The Reading Teacher and the Journal of Adolescent
and Adult Literacy, are often missing from their radar. The Teaching
Tip assessment, in which students created a framework for a
practitioner research project or conference presentation, was
designed around two particular goals—to expose students to the
wealth of resources available in practitioner journals, and to spark
thinking about new ways of sharing pedagogical innovations.
Students’Teaching Tips were filled with practical strategies,
sophisticated connections to prior research, and thoughtful
reflections on the complex work of teaching and learning.
However, as I guided students’ development of practitioner
research projects and conference proposals based on their
initial work, the assignment proved to be more of a personal
challenge than I anticipated. I found myself explaining the legal
for consent and assent forms, the reasons behind exorbitant
journal subscription fees, and the typical literature review for
conference proposals. My most difficult task was to explain why
I was deleting beautifully written descriptions of classroom
and school contexts in the name of blind peer review.
I’m currently in the process of redesigning the assessment
for next year, and to be frank, I’m not exactly sure what form
it will take. I’ve considered a variety of possibilities, such as
creating a repertoire of TeacherTube videos or holding a
virtual mini-conference in which participants would share
ideas across time and space. Ultimately, if necessity is truly the
forerunner of innovation, it follows that our most innovative
practices come directly from the classroom—our teachers
are the ones in the trenches, doing the impossible work