Mentor’s guide: Co-planning with feedback
What is this practice? Co-planning with feedback involves you and the teacher candidate working together to design or modify aspects of instruction, explicitly discussing 1) goals for student learning, 2) possible choices you could make and their pros/cons, and 3) ways of supporting specific learners in your classes. Co-planning may take different forms over the course of the year, with the TC playing a more peripheral role early on (e.g., modifying an activity, suggesting a reading for students). As TCs gain more experience, they can take the lead in designing increasingly larger chunks of instruction. Your role at that time becomes more advisory, probing their thinking and providing feedback on plans. Why is it important? Planning and modifying instruction is a pivotal part of the work of teaching. As an experienced teacher, you have planned and modified your instruction over many years, and much of your planning may nowadays play out “in your head.” For the TC, on the other hand, it is imperative to experience how planning and modifying lessons is done as an explicit and regular practice, and the kinds of considerations that go into designing cohesive instruction. Download PDF > Co-planning with feedback...
Science lesson planning checkpoints
Tasks that prompt students to show their reasoning are great for formative assessment purposes, but only if they help you delve deeply into what students are thinking! This planning tool provides useful checkpoints for designing tasks that ask students to write evidence-based explanations in science. (Recommendations based on analysis of 76 assessment tasks and 707 samples of student work.[1]) [1] Kang, H., Thompson, J., & Windschitl, M. (2014). Creating opportunities for students to show what they know: The role of scaffolding in assessment tasks. Science Education, 98(4), 674-704. __________________________________________________ Download PDF > Planning checkpoints...
Tool: Setting up co-planning conversations
This tool helps both mentor and TC get ready for co-planning, once a lesson topic has been identified. Consider using the “Mentor’s Pocket Guide for Making Your Thinking Explicit” as you discuss. Begin the co-planning process at least a couple days ahead of the lesson being taught, so TCs have enough lead time to plan/modify, receive feedback, and make adjustments. _________________________________________________________________ Download PDF > Tool for co-planning conversations Download Word version (can type into) > Tool for co-planning conversations...
3 Conversation Practices
How to select the right kind of conversation to have about teaching and learning For mentors, different kinds of dialogue with teacher candidates can provide unique opportunities for learning and growth. In broad strokes, there are three types of mentoring conversations, each used for different purposes—calibrating, consulting, and collaborating. Each is defined by who identifies problems of practice, leads the analysis of teaching outcomes, and suggests next steps. These conversations usually happen before and after observing a teacher candidate. During the observation, the mentor generates or collects data from students that can be used for the post teaching discussion. These can be literal notes about what was said, student work products, exit slips, or other forms of documentation. Download PDF > 3 Types of mentoring conversations...