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An Update Following the Northern Regional meeting, Cornerstone colleagues shared in the last newsletter some of the "good things that followed" as a result of ideas, enthusiasm and inspiration gained there. Our Bridgeport colleagues introduced plans for a professional development session at their school. They report in this newsletter how it went! Looking
at Student Work
Looking at Student Work was one of those dreaded, ominous sounding professional development sessions that was on the list of have-tos. How would the staff respond, would they like it, uphill climb...you know the drill. We knew we had to do it, but we also were pretty adept at moving it aside in the interest of other have-tos that were more pressing at any given time. As with most things that one avoids, it wasn't all that bad - thanks to "a little help from our friends." The help first surfaced at the Northern Regional Meeting in the Timeline for 60 Minute Workshop (Word), and Conferring with Readers & Writers (PDF). A day later it appeared in our school with Kelly Hunter and her powerpoint presentation on "Protocol...Examining student work for what matters most!" Then it continued in a planning session with Johnnie Tankersley, our Literacy Fellow, and Sherry Takahashi, my fellow coach. Our last bit of help presented itself when Lissette Tosado, our newest faculty member, was willing to act as presenter of student work for our professional development session. Wow! Here's how the workshop unfolded... We used the Timeline for 60 Minute Workshop (Word to outline the session. It was surprising how such a simple tool could really focus our thinking. Johnnie shared with us some quotes she had that addressed two questions: What are protocols? Why use them? We used the quotes to set the purpose of the workshop at the beginning of the session and they moved us right into Kelly's powerpoint on protocol.
" Protocol...Examining student work for what matters most!" was an excellent way to introduce the staff to the entire process. It breaks down the protocol into five easy steps. We supplemented the powerpoint with Conferring with Readers & Writers (PDF). Although it is designed for use during student conferencing, the Research - Decide - Teach (RDT) components provided a base from which the staff could work. Our hope was that the RDT would focus teachers' thinking as they participated in the protocol. Finally, we conducted a shortened version of a Looking at Student Work session. Rather than having only a small number of people on the panel, for this initial exposure to the actual process, all staff members participated. We followed Kelly's five-step protocol as outlined in the powerpoint presentation using a first grader's work from Lissette Tosado's class. The "exposure" session went very well. Teachers actively participated in the discussion portion, Lissette came away with a variety of ideas concerning her student, and several teachers volunteered to be presenters at future meetings. This one-hour professional development session was a viable way for our staff to experience looking at student work using a formal, but user-friendly, protocol. Teachers commented that they liked getting feedback from colleagues across grade-levels. It enabled them to see where their students were coming from and where they might be headed. Sometimes, they noted, when working with a child on a daily basis we can lose sight of the student's strengths and achievements. "Fresh eyes" can help us recognize that again. Others remarked that they would especially like using the protocol for their struggling students. As you can see, our first taste of looking at student work was relatively painless. Thanks to all our friends who helped us out! Maybe now you'll give it a try, with "a little help from your friends!" Resource: |
