Meghann and I met prior to the lesson to discuss how to use the concept diagram in her English 8 class. Because it had been a few months since she was first introduced to the routine, we practice together how to go through each step of the lesson. I started with a review of what Susan and I went over in the staff development earlier in the year. We then moved through the guide and discussed how to implement this strategy specifically for the concept of dystopian genre. The guide was very straightforward and easy to follow.
While practicing the lesson we created a sample of what the diagram could look like after creating it with the students. I provided her a copy of the implementation checklist to help her follow along as she taught the lesson. She seemed to appreciate having the Cue-Do-Review steps in front of her to ensure fidelity of implementation.
Meghann was excited to try this strategy with her class, so the coaching went smoothly and was full of successes. Having had some previous experience with the staff development helped the individual coaching session run smoothly. Meghann had the background knowledge needed for the strategy and the willingness to try something new. Through coaching and practicing the lesson together Meghann realized that doing the diagram herself helped her tie down her own definition. This was an interesting part of the process. Although she is a seasoned teacher who has taught this specific lesson many times, she found that working through the concept of dystopian using this strategy helped her to think more deeply about it and understand it in a new way. This made her excited to try it with her class.
The most challenging part of the coaching was figuring out how to write the definition so that it included all of the “always” key words, but was not just a list. We worked together on this issue by changing the tenses and playing with the definition several time until it included all aspect and sounded like a definition rather than a list. This later proved to be time well spent because Meghann was later able to better create a definition with the students.
While practicing the lesson we created a sample of what the diagram could look like after creating it with the students. I provided her a copy of the implementation checklist to help her follow along as she taught the lesson. She seemed to appreciate having the Cue-Do-Review steps in front of her to ensure fidelity of implementation.
Meghann was excited to try this strategy with her class, so the coaching went smoothly and was full of successes. Having had some previous experience with the staff development helped the individual coaching session run smoothly. Meghann had the background knowledge needed for the strategy and the willingness to try something new. Through coaching and practicing the lesson together Meghann realized that doing the diagram herself helped her tie down her own definition. This was an interesting part of the process. Although she is a seasoned teacher who has taught this specific lesson many times, she found that working through the concept of dystopian using this strategy helped her to think more deeply about it and understand it in a new way. This made her excited to try it with her class.
The most challenging part of the coaching was figuring out how to write the definition so that it included all of the “always” key words, but was not just a list. We worked together on this issue by changing the tenses and playing with the definition several time until it included all aspect and sounded like a definition rather than a list. This later proved to be time well spent because Meghann was later able to better create a definition with the students.