RM Winter 2017

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

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

Reading Matters Teaching Matters

| 48 | Reading Matters | Volume 17 • Winter 2017 | scira.org

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