Re-Framing the Teaching Demonstration

Components of an effective demonstration: “Hook”- attention grabberResearch to provide supportEngaged in the “doing” (writing, reading,

talking, thinking)Student samplesExtensionsTime to build connections

How is learning best facilitated?

Two criteria:Routines, patterns, expectations are

established so the learner is comfortable and secure.

Small nuances, tensions, or discoveries. We are “novelty-seekers.” The brain is constantly searching for nuances. (Salza, ?)

Setting Criteria for Learning in DemosHow have effective demonstrators

created a secure environment that incorporates the patterns of an effective demo?

How have effective demonstrations allowed for tensions or novelties that support deeper learning?

Coaching in Action In your coaching group, discuss the

methods and strategies other fellows or T.C.’s have used to set the criteria for learning to take place.

Then, brainstorm together ways you could create nuances in your demonstration or if you have incorporated these already.

Debrief---What did you discover?

So what does this mean as you consider your role as:

A teacher consultant?Peer coach?Learner?

Best Practice vs. Best Lesson: What’s the difference?

The difference that makes the difference…

Best Practice is… “those English language

arts methods, materials, approaches, and contexts that positively affect learning and productively address problems generally acknowledged by those in the discipline to be at once fundamental and profound”

Includes… “clear, concise,

compelling explanations for why they must be allowed to continue to develop context- and child-specific approaches and materials for teaching the English language arts and other, newer literacies.”

Questions to consider in response to demos:

1. Might this practice apply to many teaching demonstrations (e.g., “engages students in researching their own questions,” “begins, but does not end, with the students’ own lived experiences”)?

2. Is this practice likely to enhance the literacy learning of a highly diverse group of learners (e.g., “encourages students to identify in what contexts various language choices might be most effective,” “literature choices include widely varying community and family structures and values”)?

Demonstrations that “speak” Best Practice…Finding out vs. being told—discovering

our own truthsBeliefs and values are transparent

through strategies, not just toldEvidence of Multiple IntelligencesEffective ModelingSelection of diverse authors and textsText to text, text to world, and text to

self connections

Swenson, J & Mitchell, D. (2006) “Enabling Communities and Collaborative Responses to Teaching Demonstrations”

Coaching questions to encourage Best Practice:

“Coaching and the Summer Invitational Institute” by Susan Bennett

Now What? In your coaching groups, use the

questions as a foundation to discuss ways in which you might revise or plan your teaching demonstration. (We’ll share this afternoon.)

Let’s do some digging…How did it feel to “revise” your demo?How did you feel as you considered

questions from your peer coaches?How did these conversations help you

frame/ reframe your demonstrations?

New Understandings, Tensions, Questions…So what does this mean?

First draft, second draft, third draft demos… Our hope is that you share your demo with a

new audience after critical reflection and feedback from your peer coaches.

How can you use this process in other contexts (in your level meetings, in conversations with other teachers, presentations at the campus or district level, etc.)?