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Helping the new teacher this year
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As teachers gear up for another challenging but wonderful school year, one thing that is
consistent and often overwhelming for every teacher is the amount of meetings that will take place over the course of the year. As school-based administrators and teacher leaders welcome
new teachers to the profession, one way they can ensure new educators feel supported and
less overwhelmed is to make every meeting count. In an article by Linda Gilbert (2004) entitled "What Helps Beginning Teachers," there are two conflicting messages for new teachers on what they need: 1) time with other teachers and 2) less meetings. How can we possibly reconcile the two? One thing school leaders can do is make meetings productive while giving new teachers multiple opportunities to work alongside their more experienced colleagues. According to Gilbert (2004), the challenge for school-based teams becomes how to "embed support and professional development for new teachers in the day-to-day work of teaching by building collaborative structures that offer new teachers multiple opportunities to interact with more
experienced colleagues while doing meaningful work" (p. 39).
Suggestions to help facilitate effective meetings include:
1. Have teacher leaders (e.g., department chairs, lead teachers) attend sessions with new teachers.
In most cases, new teachers and teacher leaders return to school buildings ahead of their colleagues. The time before pre-service week is a great opportunity to have rookies and veterans attend sessions together on setting up gradebooks, learning new software, and completing other mandatory activities.
2. Establish meeting norms.
A great way to ensure meetings adhere to the allotted time is to consider establishing norms. Norms may include a meeting objective, an agenda with designated times by each item, and assigning the roles of timekeeper, recorder and facilitator (Jennings, 2007).
3. Make one agenda item productive.
A productive item could be an activity that contributes to the actual job, a teacher product (very similar to student products), or an action item/ task that needs to be completed with a clear deadline (Gilbert, 2004).
4. Opt for electronic communication.
If you are looking for the free gift that keeps on giving, give teachers one less meeting by replacing it with electronic communication. They will thank you for it every time. Electronic communication can be used in lieu of meetings that are purely informational, while reserving face-to-face meetings for more actionable items, time-sensitive information, or agendas where discussion is vital to progress (Gilbert, 2004).
Although these suggestions are not a cure all, perhaps they will help school teams to be more aware of how precious time is, both to the veteran and beginning educators. Help a new teacher this year by providing meaningful opportunities for collaboration through effective meetings.
References
Gilbert, L. (2004).
What helps beginning teachers? Educational Leadership,
62(8), 36-39
.
Jennings, M. (2007).
Leading effective meetings, teams, and work groups in districts and schools.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
For more information, contact Crystal Bell (
bellcr@vcu.edu), Program Specialist, T/TAC at VCU.
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Supporting students with solving math word problems
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Do you have students who are confused after reading a math word problem? Are they
unsure how to solve the problem and/or what the problem is asking? Many struggling math
learners, including students with disabilities, do not know an attack strategy to solve word
problems or a process to determine if addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division is
required to find the solution. How can teachers support students to solve problems
successfully? Two evidence-based instructional practices can be implemented to assist students
with their problem solving:
Teach students an attack strategy. An attack strategy is a mnemonic that guides students through a math problem solving process (Powell & Fuchs, 2018; Jayanthi, Gersten, & Baker, 2008). It provides students with specific steps to a structured approach to solving the problem. For example, the attack strategy RIDE guides students to Read the problem; Identify the relevant information; Determine the operation and unit for the answer; Enter the correct numbers and calculate, then check the answer. There are a variety of attack strategies available to meet students' needs. After selecting an attack strategy, it needs to be explicitly taught to students (Powell & Fuchs, 2018; Hott, Isbell, & Montani, 2014). Teachers need to explain the mnemonic, model the steps through thinking aloud, provide opportunities for practice (with feedback), and scaffold support as students learn and apply the strategy (Powell & Fuchs, 2018; Hott, Isbell & Montani, 2014; Steedly, Dragoo, Arafeh, & Luke, 2008).
Teach students to recognize the underlying structure of a word problem (i.e., schema instruction). Schema instruction teaches students to recognize the problem structure of a word problem (Powell & Fuchs, 2018; Gersten, et al., 2009). Students are taught to recognize additive schemas (i.e., change, group, compare) and multiplicative schemas (i.e., equal groups, comparison, proportion or ratio) to determine which operation to use to find the solution. The book Solving Math Word Problems by Asha K. Jitendra is a program designed to explicitly teach the different additive and multiplicative schemas. The book provides lessons to teach each problem type using a visual diagram specific to the problem type. Additional resources (e.g., checklists, student pages, progress assessments) can be found on an accompanying CD.
Attack strategies and schema instruction are instructional practices
that can support struggling math learners. By explicitly teaching these practices, teachers are providing students with strategies that
they can to use to have more successful experiences solving math word problems.
References
Gersten, R., Beckman, S., Clarke, B., Goegen, A., Marsh, L., Star, J. R., & Witzel, B. (2009).
Assisting students struggling with mathematics: Response to Intervention
(RtI) f
or elementary and middle schools.
Washington: D.C.: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Services, U.S. Department of
Education. Retrieved from
https://rti4success.org/sites/default/files/rti_math_pg_042109.pdf
Jayanthi, M., Gersten,R., & Baker, S. (2008).
Mathematics instruction for students with learning
disabilities of difficulty learning mathematics: A guide for teachers. Portsmouth, NH:
RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
Powell. S. R. & Fuchs, L. S. (2018).
Effective word-problem instruction: Using schemas to facilitate mathematical reasoning. Teaching Exceptional Children, 51(1), 31-42.
For more information, contact Chris Frawley (cdfrawley@vcu.edu), Program Specialist, T/TAC at VCU.
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Welcome new program specialist
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Crystal Bell brings ten years of experience to her role as Program Specialist in Secondary Curriculum and Instruction. She spent time as an instructional assistant, special education math teacher, and Special Education department chair in Henrico County Public schools. Crystal holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of William and Mary and a Masters of Arts from Regent University. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, spending time with friends and family, and serving at her local church.
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Understanding the human aspects of systems change in schools
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Implementing change can elicit a range of emotions from those involved at all levels of an organization. Throughout the process, it is natural for people to respond by feeling, thinking, acting, and reacting to doing something new. It is this human element of change that requires leaders to assess people's readiness to move forward with their feelings, perceptions, and experiences. Having this information provides an opportunity for leadership teams to be proactive and potentially head off barriers to creating the intended change.
A resource that leaders can use to better understand the "affective dimensions" (Hall & Hord, 2015, p. 81) of systems change is Implementing change: Patterns, principles and potholes by Gene Hall and Shirley H. Hord. In this book, the authors share their "construct for
understanding the personal side of change" (2015, p. 81) as it unfolds in schools, programs, or classrooms. They refer to this as the Stages of Concern (SoC) to capture the range of feelings and perceptions that most people have in response to evolving change.
Hall and Hord (2015), have operationalized each of the seven SoC across four levels (i.e., unrelated, self, task and impact). At the bottom are people who are unconcerned or focused on other priorities. The next level captures self concerns (i.e., informational and personal). People represented at this level are seeking more information and wondering how the proposed change will affect them. Moving beyond that level, is the third stage which captures those with management concerns working to fit in all that is required to put the innovation into practice.
The last level represents impact concerns (i.e., consequence, collaboration, and refocusing). The implementers in this category are concerned about student achievement, identifying ways they can team with others, or scaling up the innovation to maximize the benefits for everyone.
Hall and Hord (2015), recommend that leadership teams consistently monitor the Stages of Concern using one or more of the following techniques: the One-Legged Interview, an Open-Ended Concerns Statement, and the Stages of Concern Questionnaire. The data collected from using these methods can provide a window into the human side of systems change in a school settings. To learn more about how the Stages of Concern and how they can be used as a tool for creating sustainable change, visit the T/TAC at VCU lending library.
Reference
Hall, G.E., & Hord, S.H. (2015). Implementing change: Patterns, principles, and potholes (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
For more information, contact Mary Tobin (metobin@vcu.edu), Program Specialist, T/TAC at VCU.
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Creating inclusive schools
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As school divisions prepare for the opening of a new school year, creating inclusive
opportunities for students with disabilities is an area of focus. While every inclusive school will
approach the development of their environment differently than another, schools dedicated to
serving all students will share certain characteristics (Kluth, 2019).
Inclusive schools' characteristics include a committed leadership team, reflective
teachers, a supportive culture, relevant curriculum, and responsive instruction. According to
Kluth (2019), administrators and other leaders should help students, staff, families, and the
communities understand their inclusive philosophy (Kluth, 2019). Teachers may begin a process of reflection in response to a particular problem that has arisen with an individual student or their class as a whole or they may want to find out more about their inclusive teaching practices.
Kluth (2019) suggests that school leaders and educators concerned with creating an inclusive school culture might invite parents and community members to visit classrooms, create inclusive class and school wide projects, and serve as a knowledgeable resource for students, families, and community members. She describes an inclusive classroom where units of study are relevant, themes of investigation are interesting, and content is appropriately challenging.
Research suggests that teachers of inclusive classrooms are concerned about reaching and motivating all learners (Kluth, 2019). Teachers that encourage inclusive environments within their classes are more prepared to adapt materials, structure their lessons, create positive instructional arrangements, and develop student specific curricular outcomes and
goals. As school divisions prepare for a new year, the elements previously described will provide schools with a jump start into beginning the journey of creating more inclusive schools and provide reminders of best practices when developing these practices from year to year.
For more information, contact Amber Butler (butleram2@vcu.edu), Program Specialist, T/TAC at VCU.
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