Best Practices In Teaching

I just got done reading chapter 8 from Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde's Best Practice book entitled Seven Structures of Best Practice Teaching. There were many areas where my highlighter got a workout because I was highlighting every other sentence. Below are some of the ideas that I thought were noteworthy:

· Predictable schedules so students can prepare for what is coming up.

· Students working together in small groups, pairs, etc.

· Kids teaching each other.

· Student sharing & discussing.

· Positive classroom community.

· Group problem-solving.

· Whole group discussions to share learning from an activity, hold accountability, process through problems, etc.

· Talk about learning before, during and after.

· Evoke prior knowledge so students have an easier time making meaningful connections.

· Writers are readers and readers are writers. “If they can write it; they can read it!”

· Make students more responsible for their own learning by holding them accountable for their reading and writing.

· Quote: “Effective teachers are recognizing that writing and drawing are rightful bookends to reading, too neglected tools that help students actively process their encounter with ideas to deepen their engagement with the curriculum.” (p. 16)

· Students choose their own reading (books) and writing topics.

· Students collaborate with peers.

· Choice is an ABSOLLUTE MUST.

· Kids are constantly “doing” and “talking about” their work.

· Mini-conferences are important to help give kids the one-on-one attention/conversation/feedback that they need. (Teachers don’t even need to give feedback, they ask questions to guide students’ thinking about their own work.)

· Quote: “Building a productive workshop depends on initial climate-setting and group-building activities.” (p. 20)

· Quote: “Students reflect on their own work, review their own progress, identify their own problems, set their own goals, and make plans and promises to themselves about steps they are going to take.” (p. 20)

· By holding reading/writing workshops, students become active, responsible, self-motivating, and self-evaluating learners.

· Teachers do less talking and slowly hand over the control and responsibility to their students.

· Teachers need to be real and authentic when conferencing with their students.

· Teachers are encouraged to develop broad, interdisciplinary, thematic units based on student concerns.

· Let kids choose what & how they want to learn.

· Teachers should include activities that connect with students’multiple intelligences and cognitive styles.

· Encourage and stress goal setting and self-assessment.

· For assessments, use qualitative research (observation, interviews, questionnaires, artifacts, etc.)

· Student portfolios provide learning evidence.

· Quote: “Overlap assessments with instruction, instead of always relying on evaluations that occur separately, after the works is done (and when it is too late for students to improve their product or learn from the assessment!) (p. 28)

· The most valuable assessment activities are formative.

· Teachers identify a few “Big Ideas” and build units around those concepts. (Backwards Design)

· Teachers realize that not all students need the same lesson.

· Provide kid-centered time for practice and exploration.

· Learning is more effective when teachers present in shorter periods of time on topic of “Big Importance”

· Mini-lessons are helpful for teachers when differentiating their instruction.

· Teachers demonstrate how to...don’t just talk about it!

This article reminded me of many components of Reader’s Workshop by Debbie Miller and Writer’s Workshop from Lucy Calkins.