tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983887408506966042.post4012432573639172958..comments2023-06-11T08:12:02.840-07:00Comments on Teaching Successes with ELLs: Coaching Teachers of ELLs..A First for Me:)Denise Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06839471209132611813noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983887408506966042.post-14000144064063557372010-11-07T11:22:22.355-08:002010-11-07T11:22:22.355-08:00Your response has definitely lowered my anxiety qu...Your response has definitely lowered my anxiety quite a bit. I especially like your "taking on the role of a student" by asking key questions. <br /><br />I tried creating a blog, but the response has been zero to date. I probably need to talk it up more at meetings and one-on-one with the teachers I am assigned to for coaching. <br /><br />I hope your school truly knows how lucky it is to have a pro helping out in this area.<br /><br />Thank you so much for your response:)<br /><br />DeniseDenise Stewarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06839471209132611813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983887408506966042.post-22793436896014775962010-11-07T09:12:02.914-08:002010-11-07T09:12:02.914-08:00For forty years I taught high school level English...For forty years I taught high school level English and for 7 of those years, I was a part-time staff developer (1/2 day in class and 1/2 day with teachers in their classrooms). Now I'm retired but have returned as a part-time (consulting) instructional coach in our two-campus district. I had the good fortune to spend 50 hours last summer with the dozen or so year-two teachers I now coach. That gave us an opportunity to develop trust, a familiarity and an understanding of the confidential nature of our relationship with one another.<br /><br />During the summer, I used a constructivist approach to their learning. They created mini-lessons and presented them to one another in areas such as class community building / icebreakers, classroom management procedures to be taught in the first weeks of school. We created our own blog (private-just for us) where we're all authors and we've created a Live Binder to house and share our work, including the sharing of classroom strategies.<br /><br />I act as a co-teacher sometimes in their classes, modeling how to conference with students. Sometimes I take on the role of a student and raise my hand to ask a question that might be a kind of prompt "Should we be taking notes on this part?" or "Should I try to explain what I just heard you say to my partner here?" I can only get away with this because both the students and the teachers know me. I'm never going to say anything to embarrass students or teachers. I always focus my comments on the learning of the skills, the concepts, or the work products, never the people. After class and in private, the teacher and I do talk about specific student cases. That's what teachers want to talk about -- their learners and how they can best learn the next thing.John Zeckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09199945231348410645noreply@blogger.com