Master Teachers Supporting Educators in Underperforming Schools Truly Make a Big Difference

How can underperforming schools reverse the downward trend in the academic performance of their students?  This is no easy question to answer, but there is one approach which offers potential--the use of master teachers and outstanding administrators guiding teachers with solid support all along the way.  This unique team provides weekly guidance and mentorship in all areas of school life from lesson planning to creating a more positive school culture offering hope to students succeed in life through the acquisition of solid academic skills which will lead to college/university and a job. MASTER TEACHERS

Here in the United States, there are similar programs which have surfaced in the last few years.  President Obama's Race to the Top program goal is one of re-inventing education as it were.  The bottom line is to reverse the rising failure/drop out rate of both language minority students (English language learners) and those from low socio-economic status backgrounds.   To reach this goal, some districts are taking a new look at what kind of learning occurs in classrooms.  More accountability is called for on the part of both the students and the teachers.  Peer coaching has surfaced as one tool that has met the challenge and inspired some teachers to re-evaluate how they deliver instruction in the class.  Peer coaches are teachers with a track record of success and are respected/liked by their peers.  The changes being asked for such are as simple as making sure students understand the learning objective for example or conducting more frequent checks-for-understanding with random call-ons to hold all students accountable for paying attention and fully participating in the learning process are beginning to yield results.  Peer coaches can also model lesson delivery for those teachers who can't quite "see" how the needed changes the coach calls for would look like in his/her class.  Yes, this has led to the high D/F rates dropping in many classes. 

Administrators are also leaders here in looking for additional school resources to motivate students to want to reverse the failing trends.  This appears through after school tutoring with dedicated teachers and peer tutors with outstanding grades in the subjects that they are tutoring.  With teachers supplying work (ex.  homework, tests to redo, projects, etc.), the students seeking help have the opportunity to slowly bring up grades.  Further their teachers will receive insight into what their students were unsure of and that leads to teachers being more aware in delivering future lessons.

Implementation of common core will hopefully continue to reverse the negative numbers as more students begin to fully comprehend classroom instruction.

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

Examples of Informational Text for Both Social Studies and English Language Arts

COMMON CORE will build a bridge between content areas.  As students (especially ELLs) build those vital connections, their language skills will improve.  For ELLs, this translates to improvements in identifying and using academic vocabulary in all 4 language skill areas (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).

For all students, the COMMON CORE will better prepare them for life beyond high school be it the world of business or higher education.  In fact, due to the new format of student team work in solving problems, students will hone their speaking skills in discussion, persuasion, analysis, etc.  If students can not clearly articulate their points of view in a credible professional fashion, they will be at a distinct disadvantage in the real world. 

A major feature of the English language arts and social studies standards is the use of informational/non-fiction text.  When students leave high school, they will be faced with this form of written work.  This will be a major shift since in the past the focus in class was on fiction which left many students unprepared for the demands of business or university work.  Seventy percent of all reading will now be informational/non-fiction reading material for high school.

With this in mind, one activity might be creating activities around historical documents such as the ones below:

MAGNA CARTA  1215 A.D.

US CONSTITUTION
Created September 17, 1787 and Ratified, June 21, 1788

US DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE UNMODIFIED
July 4, 1776

Students would be given a copy of the Magna Carta and copies of the US Constitution OR the Declaration of Independence.  With the double bubble thinking map, students would look for similarities and differences between the two assigned to them.  ELLs might be provided with an outline of the key elements,  but would still have to look for key contrasts / similarities on their own.  After 5-7 minutes, students could then be assigned to small groups to share their findings with the understanding that EACH ONE will be held accountable for sharing results.  Accountability is done through random calls on students (teachers might use popsicle sticks with student names on them OR a randomizer app for a smart phone for example).  One could almost say that they would be teaching each other in a way with the teacher providing oversight and guidance as needed.

In groups, students would have to provide evidence from the two documents to support their positions.  For this, students would need to respond in complete sentences using academic vocabulary.  Finding evidence is a skill also used in English (and science). 

Of course, this is just a rough draft or an end product.  As teachers, you would of course have many mini-steps along the way to ensure that no one is left behind. 

It is my hope that as the new standards kick in, teachers might be willing to add their insight here as well as lessons.

Denise


ELL TEACHER PROS

P.S.  I am at a S.E.T.I. (Search for Extra-terrestial Intelligence) convention tomorrow all day so I may not be blogging tomorrow evening.  I will definitely share the highlights of the conference and how they would add to classroom instruction on Sunday though:)