Professional Book Reflections

READINGS & REFLECTIONS

Since days when school is in session rarely allow me the time to do the amount of professional readings I feel is necessary to do my job well, I took the opportunity during Feb. vacation to dedicate three solid days to dig in.  While it may not seem like your idea of a good time, to me it was luxurious and wonderful personalized professional development!

I have been wanting to read three books and managed to get them all read during this time.  Two of the books are by Robert Marzano and reflect professional development that is now being undertaken by teachers and administrators in several Maine school districts.  Marzano has designed a framework for classroom instruction and has written several books that describe different aspects of this framework. His framework is centered around three things:

• The use of effective instructional strategies
• The use of effective classroom management strategies
• The effective use of curriculum design

The two Marzano books I read during Feb. break were THE ART & SCIENCE OF TEACHING and BECOMING A REFLECTIVE TEACHER.  Here is a brief summary of each.

THE ART & SCIENCE OF TEACHING

In this book, Marzano discusses answers to the following 10 design questions that he feels teachers should pose to themselves.  What will I do to…

1. Establish and communicate learning goals, track students progress, and celebrate success?
2. Help student effectively interact with new knowledge?
3. Help students practice & deepen their understanding of new knowledge?
4. Help students generate & test hypotheses about new knowledge?
5. Engage students?
6. Establish or maintain classroom rules or procedures?
7. Recognize & acknowledge adherence & lack of adherence to classroom rules & procedures?
8. Establish & maintain effective relationships with students?
9. Communicate high expectations for all students?
10. Develop effective lessons organized into a cohesive unit?

 BECOMING A REFLECTIVE TEACHER

This book uses the above elements of the framework to understand more fully the nature of effective teaching.  It is organized into three broad categories:

• Lesson segments involving routine events
• Lesson segments addressing content
• Lesson segments enacted on the spot.

Each of these categories is explored using the design questions referenced above and then broken into more specific elements around which it is intended that teachers will set growth goals for each year.  It is suggested that for observation and evaluation purposes teacher self identify a couple of areas for reflection and feedback making growth meaningful to their own personal/professional practice.

The third book I read, FOCUS: ELEVATING THE ESSENTIALS, is written by one of my very favorite authors, Mike Schmoker.  On of the reasons I admire Schmoker’s writing is that he is a master at the simplification of what has become a much too complicated professional practice.

Schmoker sifts our professional teaching practice down into four categories:

• Clear learning objectives
• Teaching/modeling/demonstrating
• Guided practice
• Checks for understanding/formative assessment

He maintains that classroom instruction and student learning will only improve when we put our focus in these areas.  This a definitely a book worthy of our attention and aligns very well with the Marzano framework cited above.