Choice Lit Topic: New Teacher Mentors
Universities put far more energy into the initial certification of teachers than they do into ongoing support for teachers in the crucial first five years. This “sink or swim” mentality has led to 50% of new teachers leaving the profession in these early years. Glub glub glub – the sound of many of the freshest faces and voices in teaching abandoning schools in discouragement.
The development of systematic, thoughtful support programs for new teachers isn’t optional; it’s essential for the future vitality of schools. We share advice and insight from master teachers as they mentor teachers who are in their first years leading classrooms.
Results
Integrating Student Teachers into Literacy Workshops
Entering my 17th year of teaching, I have had my share of student teachers in the classroom. Since transitioning to a workshop classroom for language arts several years ago, I...
New Teachers: The Power of Inexperience
Recently, some teachers in my school were discussing books our elementary students have loved over the years. Someone brought up Harry Potter. “Oh I remember that,” said a first-year teacher....
Evaluating the Literacy Classroom
In my career as an educator, the way teachers are evaluated has changed dramatically. I have a clear memory of my first evaluation. My stomach was clenched in first-year teacher...
Discussing Observations with New Teachers
Jennifer Allen's new teacher group discusses what they learn from classroom observations in this video taped early in the fall.
Assessment and Curriculum Mapping
In this video from a new teacher study group for grades 3-5 teachers, Jennifer Allen demonstrates how teachers can use assessment data to develop instructional plans for individual students, and create curriculum maps for an entire class.
Word Choice Lesson: A Collaborative Coaching Session
Jennifer Allen collaborates with a new teacher, Jessica, early in the fall to teach a lesson in Jessica's 4th grade classroom. Click here to download the workshop guide. COMMON CORE...
Making Assumptions
It had been a rough morning. I'd spent the last two-and-a-half hours in jaw-tightening silence, watching a novice teacher making misstep after misstep in his classroom. In my capacity as...
Literacy Coaching and Student Work with Diane Sweeney (PODCAST)
Diane Sweeney is the author of Student-Centered Coaching: A Guide for K-8 Coaches and Principals. In this podcast with Heather Rader, she talks about the dangers of focusing too much on...
You’ve Got to Be Joking
Kai's class was "obnoxious" (in his words). I'm accustomed to working with high-energy kids in need of redirection, but some days even I had to admit they knocked the wind...
Literacy Groundings
One thing I find educators cannot talk enough about is their personal literacy histories, that fundamental grounding of how they became literate. What happened in their lives that impacted who...
On Their Own (Almost): Coaching and Classroom Demonstrations Mid-Year
In this video filmed in mid-January, Jennifer Allen observes new teacher Jessica, and explains how she struggles to redefine her role in the classroom.
Can I Quote You on That?: Capturing Classroom Conversation
Sometimes inspiration for my teaching life comes from seemingly disparate experiences in my personal life. I spent a recent Saturday afternoon surrounded by a gaggle of giddy women who had...
Supporting New Teachers and Appreciating Their Gifts
The research is clear and the statistics are grim. The most important factor which influences student achievement is the skill of the teacher, yet we lose more than 50% of...
The Superpower of Reflecting
What is your superpower? Are you a great listener, storyteller, misconception spotter, advocate, or feedback giver? Educators have a multitude of superpowers, and we'll focus here on one that takes...
What’s the Evidence?
The first and most brutal fact that must be confronted in creating professional learning communities is that the task is not merely challenging: it is daunting. It is disingenuous to...
Conferring with Parents (Part 2)
Here are some suggestions from Choice Literacy Contributors about the best ways to have high quality parent conferences, with everything from pre-conference connections to electronic adaptations. This is the second...
Working with Adults: Structuring Effective Conferring
Most of us acquire the ability to run shortly after we learn to walk. Although the movement is second nature, given the choice, many of us choose not to engage...
Virtual Book Clubs for Teachers
My first encounter with a virtual book club was about three years ago. My regular, run-of-the-mill, face-to-face book club was on a field trip. We were taking a tour of...
Transitioning to Guide on the Side: Facilitating Collaborative Scoring
"I want to move as much of my professional development from sage on the stage to guide on the side," I wrote as my goal for the coming year. For...
Putting the “Mini” Back in Minilessons
Recently I watched a very engaging lesson. The teacher started the lesson by reading aloud a short story about a trip to the beach. Then she projected some photos on...
Keeping Students Front and Center
The other day I had a phone conference with teachers in a graduate course. They asked insightful and thought provoking questions around the challenges of working as a literacy coach....
