During the clinical experience, aspiring teachers work alongside accomplished educators in classrooms to learn the work of the profession. With guidance, these novices closely observe instruction, actively experiment with pedagogical strategies, build relationships with students, and reflect on their own learning. Their mentors shape these experiences and foster the development of both competent practice and a professional identity.
To do this work, however, mentors need their own specialized forms of support. This website provides them with introductions to mentoring practices, videos on these practices, suggested trajectories for giving increasing responsibilities over to the novice, tools to use when observing instruction, and protocols for providing feedback. We invite critique on these resources from our colleagues in the field—both experienced teachers and those learning the craft.
Below you will find Mentoring Practices Overview, videos, and primers for each practice.
Mentoring Practice: OVERVIEW
Effective mentor teachers combine specific practices to help their teacher candidate (TC) learn throughout their clinical experience. These six practices allow novices to see, hear, and try out what goes into good instruction. While there are other practices, these six form the “core” of the mentor’s repertoire.
Mentoring Practice: MODELING THE WORK OF TEACHING
This practice refers to demonstrating some part of the work of teaching under authentic circumstances for a specific purpose. “The work of teaching” also involves modeling how to interact with other teachers, interact with parents (face-to-face, on the phone, via e-mail), interact with students outside of instructional time, deal with management issues, and inquire into your own practice.
Mentoring Practice: CO-PLANNING WITH FEEDBACK
This practice 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 will evolve over time as the candidate takes on more responsibility for teaching and learning.
Mentoring Practice: PRE-BRIEFING AND DEBRIEFING
Pre-briefing and debriefing refer to short discussions you have with the teacher candidate before and after a teaching episode, an encounter with a student, or an interaction with a parent. These can be episodes where either the mentor or the candidate takes the lead in enacting something that is worth observing and reflecting upon.
Mentoring Practice: MAKING THINKING EXPLICIT.
This practice involves describing the reasoning behind your instructional decisions and the ways you respond to professional situations. Being explicit is also a way of communicating with the candidate during all the other mentor practices.
Mentoring Practice: CO-TEACHING
Co-teaching refers to intentionally sharing teaching responsibilities with your TC, where you both play active roles in instruction during the same lesson. There are several possible arrangements, and over the course of the year, mentors can use co-teaching to help candidates take on more and different responsibilities for face-to-face instruction.
Mentoring Practice: ANALYZING STUDENT WORK TOGETHER
This practice involves you and the teacher candidate systematically looking at artifacts from students to unpack patterns in students’ understandings or experiences, and determine how to respond instructionally.