The school year began with the kick off of the Pilot for the new Professional Growth and Teacher Effectiveness System. On Monday, August 27th, seventy teachers from the six pilot schools (Edgewood, McCornack, Howard, Cesar Chavez, Cal Young and Sheldon) participated in an all day workshop with Dr. Jon Saphier. Dr. Saphier is a leading researcher and founder of Research for Better Teaching, Inc. (http://www.rbteach.com/rbteach2/Home.html) The topic: Making Thinking Visible – Making Concepts and Skills Clear and Accessible to students.
Making Thinking Visible – Making Concepts and Skills Clear and Accessible to Students. Addresses the skills teachers use to deliver the cognitive knowledge and skills of the academic discipline. Clarity skills are vital for creating successful learning experiences for students, scaffolds learning and make teaching accessible in varied and powerful ways, checks to see if lesson has been assimilated, and gets inside students’ heads to identify misconceptions and confusion. Using Data day-to-day builds teachers’ capacity- the knowledge and skills as well as the courage and conviction- to promote learning and increased achievement. Participants will expand their repertoire of high-leverage strategies for planning, using formative assessments and feedback, motivating students, and applying principles of cultural proficiency to their teaching.
On Tuesday, August 28th, Dr. Saphier met with all building principals on Observing and Analyzing Teaching. This was the beginning of a seven part series to be delivered throughout the school year. Click here to view Dr. Saphier’s schedule. Observing and analyzing teaching helps school principals and administrators zero in on high leverage teaching strategies that make a difference to student learning, builds a common language and concept about teaching to support the District and state framework, and builds skills for identifying and providing results oriented feedback; collegial problem-solving, emphasis on using multiple data sources to assess growth opportunities, and help meet new requirements for teacher goal-setting and improvement planning.
Dr. Saphier has been examining and analyzing teaching for thirty years to find ways to improve instruction. He has identified four areas of Pedagogical Knowledge: Management, Instructional Strategies, Motivation and Curriculum Planning. All four areas are dependent upon a basic foundation of essential beliefs.
In Making Thinking Visible one essential belief is that all children have the capacity to learn. Intelligence (I.Q.) is not a ‘fixed’ limit. You can ‘get smart’. In most countries intelligence is equated with effort, if you work hard you can succeed. In classrooms around America we may hear “No one in my family is good at math.” The implication is that they are not good at math. At Eugene School District 4J teachers believe any student can be good at math or any other subject if effective instruction is provided and students put in more effort.
Another belief is that learning is connected to what students already understand. In other words, students are always building on what they know. Teachers teach, knowing that within each classroom there are students with a variety of experiences.
Dr. Saphier emphasized the complex nature of teaching. “Classroom teaching is the most complex human endeavor there is,” said Jon Saphier when presenting to the teachers participating the district pilot. Very few professions require making so many decisions in a short amount of time, one that may be close is that of air traffic controllers. Due to the complex nature of teaching, it is critical that teachers work with one another to share strategies that have proven successful for students. Collaboration among teachers is a vital. Teachers need opportunities to continually learn how to improve students learning by visiting classrooms, working together, and sharing what works best for them in specific situations. Collaboration between teachers provides the potential for all classrooms to have a higher quality of teaching and learning.
Dr. Saphier presented a ‘Continuum of Tools’ on Attention. He introduced a list or repertoire of fifty identified strategies that could be used by a teacher to gain the attention of a single student or a group of students. Teachers analyzed content where classrooms teachers were engaging students in critical thinking and using best practices. In these, it was evident that many different actions may be appropriate to insure an entire class is focused on learning the topic of the day.
Dr. Saphier was an excellent teacher and a perfect role model. He used his wide repertoire of strategies, to show multiple ways to engage students as he progressed through the day.
It is evident that the new Professional Growth and Teacher Effectiveness System is focused on the goal of improving student learning by teachers growing professionally. Teachers were enthusiastic at the end of this workshop, pleased that the new teacher effectiveness system is centered on teachers learning and becoming more effective and improving student success. This first workshop presented useable ideas, and challenges for future staff development opportunities with Dr. Saphier.
