Bridge Builders: Teacher Leaders Forge Connections and Bring Coherence to Literacy Initiative

Autor/inn/en	Ippolito, Jacy; Dobbs, Christina L.; Charner-Laird, Megin
Titel	Bridge Builders: Teacher Leaders Forge Connections and Bring Coherence to Literacy Initiative
Quelle	In: Journal of Staff Development, 35 (2014) 3, S.22-24 (4 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0276-928X
Schlagwörter	Literacy; Reading Instruction; Secondary School Teachers; Secondary School Students; Teacher Leadership; Teacher Role; Educational Improvement; Consultants; Writing Instruction; Faculty Development; Communities of Practice; Teacher Collaboration; Coaching (Performance); Program Evaluation; Interviews; Focus Groups; Surveys; Scaffolding (Teaching Technique); Critical Reading; Massachusetts + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Alphabetisierung; Schreib- und Lesefähigkeit; Leseunterricht; Sekundarschüler; Lehrerfunktionsstelle; Lehrerrolle; Teaching improvement; Unterrichtsentwicklung; Consultant; Berater; Schreibunterricht; Community; Lehrerkooperation; Programme evaluation; Programmevaluation; Interviewing; Interviewtechnik; Survey; Umfrage; Befragung; Kritisches Lesen; Master-Studiengang
Abstract	This article describes an initiative designed to improve the content-area literacy skills of all students at a Massachusetts high school and to demonstrate the important role teacher leaders play in bridging the various elements of school improvement efforts. Meeting students' language and literacy needs within content-area classrooms is becoming ever more challenging, thus, in 2012, the school called on university-based consultants to help teachers and leaders focus on disciplinary literacy instruction, exploring discipline-specific ways of reading, writing, and communicating. A multiyear professional learning initiative began that included four essential components: (1) Content-area teachers would apply to participate in discipline-based professional learning communities; (2) Faculty-elected teacher leaders would convene the professional learning communities and work collaboratively with each other; (3) A site-based project leader would be designated; and (4) University-level instructional coaches would act as outside consultants. Teacher leaders were essential to the project's early success because they served as bridges between various personnel and components in the project. Project evaluation work is underway to assess teacher and student learning for the first year, and qualitative data (interviews, focus groups, surveys, and student work) demonstrate that the work of teacher leaders is paying off. Students across departments are using similar interactive reading guides to scaffold close reading. By connecting the work of outside coaches to the effective professional learning community structures they built, teacher leaders have forged new connections within and across groups and are pivotal in making instructional experimentation not only possible, but also productive. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Learning Forward. 504 South Locust Street, Oxford, OH 45056. Tel: 513-523-6029; Fax: 513-523-0638; e-mail: NSDCoffice@nsdc.org; Web site: http://www.learningforward.org/news/jsd/index.cfm
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10