Reflection: Week 5

Interesting coaching sessions with two different teachers this past week:

Our middle school teachers collaborate their lessons across grade levels.  We have common planning times, team meetings, and common assessments.  Because of this, the students have different teachers, but they learn the same material.  Varying personalities allow for slight differences in the presentation of the material, though.  That was very evident in my coaching experience with the 7th grade ELA teachers.

Samantha is new to the 7th grade ELA curriculum.  She's a new teacher to begin with, only having 3 years of teaching completed to date.  She is certified 7-12 English, and her previous two positions were in the high school, grades 9 and 10.  It's taking her a little while to adjust to the new curriculum, but she is eager and willing to try new things. 

Samantha asked me to help her with an interview lesson.  Her students were interviewing one another and writing an essay based on the answers to their questions.  Students were identifying character traits and practicing descriptive writing skills.  I asked her if she'd be willing to let the students video tape their interviews and insert the video in a google slide presentation.  We talked about time restraints and agreed that students would video tape three questions and insert the videos in the slides.  The students had so much fun with this!  The entire lesson took a few days to complete, but, overall, students were well-engaged and benefited from the activity by listening to how the questions were asked, listening to the responses, and adjusting all of that in the written portion of the assignment.  Some of them thought it was like being interviewed for a news segment on television. The lesson was so successful, and both the teacher and the students want to do something with video again, in future lessons.

At the same time, Chantel, a veteran, 24 year 7th grade ELA teacher, is doing the same lesson with her students.  I mentioned the video activity to her, and she is hesitant.  She uses a traditional interview process, has students complete a paper copy, and, then, has them write an essay.  Chantel and I are friends on social media, and she saw an activity where students were peer editing using recorded versions of the paper/pencil assignment.  She shared this activity with me and asked if we could give it a try with a few of her students.  I taught the students how to use Read & Write, and showed them how to use speech to text to write their essay, then, I modeled how to use the fluency component of the app to record the audio of them reading the paper aloud.  The recorded portion is then shared, via email, with the teacher.  A fluency grade level is determined by the app.  The students LOVED this!  "I read at an 8th grade level!  I read at a 9th grade level!"  They thought it was marvelous to learn this information.  They also appreciated "hearing" mistakes they had made when writing the essay, and they were easily able to make corrections.  The students shared their recordings with the teacher, and we decided to listen to them, privately, later in the day.  Chantel was amazed at how well this lesson went and how seriously her students were engaged in the revision process. All students in all her classes used this method to proofread their papers. 

During co-planning, I asked the teachers to compare the ways they conducted the interview assignment and what results were achieved.  Such a great dialog! 

Things going well:
The mugs were a hit!  Thank you for the generous gift!  All teachers received on and all teachers were very grateful!

Things for improvement:
Keeping up with paperwork and answering hangout messages

All in all, a great week!