J. Terry Gates, Mary E. Bickel

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Catch 'em Teaching!

• J. Terry Gates, Mary E. Bickel
• Building Bridges, Jefferson City, Missouri Nov.
  6-8, 2011

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Deepen achievement now. Create better futures for
kids.
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What can kids do with their knowledge and skills?
They can choose to be

• 1 Knowledge-keepers.
• 2 Knowledge-tellers.
• 3 Knowledge-builders.
• Knowledge-builders make magic!!

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Building frameworks today

• 1 Frame and share ways to strengthen kids
  tutoring skills.
• 2 Frame a group instruction process for peer
  teachers.
• Kids who teach learn more deeply.

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What are frameworks?
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How is peer teaching different from pair
learning, cooperative learning, group projects,
etc.?

• Cooperative Learning
• Content
• The content is structured by the teacher.
  Students follow directions. All must learn the
  content.
• Instruction
• Students have equal duties to help group members
  learn, and try to raise the groups achievement
  level.
• Assessment
• Students make mostly informal judgments about
  contributions of other members as they go along.

• Peer Teaching
• Content
• The PT can decide what content comes next, or if
  prior content needs to be re-taught to
  learner(s).
• Instruction
• The PT is expected to select and apply effective
  approachesways to raise the achievement level of
  their learner(s).
• Assessment
• The PT deals directly with responses from their
  learner(s) and gives feedback about their quality.

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Two frameworksfor your peer teachers

• 1 Tutoring MOAT!
• 2 Group instruction POLAR

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Framework 1 Tutoring

• What do tutors do? They MOAT!
• Motivate.
• Get the learner moving re-direct their efforts.
• Offer
• Give explanations, hints, and games.
• Ask
• Pose questions, challenges, and wait four
  seconds.
• Thank
• Thank learners for their efforts, celebrate
  successes.
• !
• Use individual initiative, creativity, unique
  reinforcers.

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The expertise gap in tutoring.
High
Learner frustration zone
Learner's content knowledge level
Challenge zone
Tutor frustration zone
High
Low
Tutor's content knowledge level
The interactional side of the Zone of Proximal
Development. Adapted from L. S. Vygotsky. 1978.
Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA Harvard U. Press,
p. 86.
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Tutors need a framework for coaching.

• Remember
• Recognize, recall, and define facts, terms,
  dates, names.
• Understand
• Summarize ideas classify, infer, compare,
  explain, etc.
• Apply
• Utilize a learned procedure to solve a similar
  problem find real-life uses for the information.
• Analyze
• Reduce a complex set into constituent and related
  parts, and explain how the parts relate
  differentiate, assign functions, organize, etc.
• Evaluate
• Use criteria to assess the value, effectiveness,
  or applicability of creative processes and
  solutions to problems.
• Create
• Combine materials, knowledge, ideas, and
  processes to make something new.

Adapted from David R. Krathwohl. Autumn 2002. A
revision of Blooms Taxonomy An overview. Theory
Into Practice, 41(4), 212-218. See also Anderson,
L. W., and D. R. Krathwohl (Eds.). 2001. A
taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing A
revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Education
Objectives (complete ed.). New York Longman.
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Cross-age peer tutoring builds success.
Missouri school districts No. of districts in 2008-09 Avg. no. 2009 diplomas
All districts awarding 2009 diplomas 457 136.42

Districts with an A high school 256 185.7
Non-A districts 201 73.21
Adapted from http//dese.mo.gov/schooldata/ftpdat
a.html (accessed 27 January 2010). The table is
titled graduation_rate.xls. Reported in J. T.
Gates, M. E. Bickel, S. Hembrough. (2010).
Missouri's A Tutoring Resource A Status Study.
St. Louis, MO The Hoenny Center, Appendix B1.
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Think POLAR
Framework 2 Group instruction

• Plan

Organize
Lead
Assess / reinforce
Reflect / improve
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POLAR
reflect/ improve

• plan

organize
assess/ reinforce
lead
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Whats the in POLAR?
Personality

• Real-life teaching situations require a lot.
• Intuition, creativity, individuality,
  perseverance, several kinds of knowledge, much
  more
• Teacher-to-teacher talk, even with kids.
• Teaching grows with people who do it.
• A Pathway in Teaching from early grades.
• Adapt these ideas!
• Do them YOUR way!

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Safe, structured opportunities

• End-of-the-day wrap-up
• Second grade - The College School, Webster
  Groves, Missouri - Colleen Corbett and Cristina
  Rapp
• Student has each job for 2 weeks per year, in
  final 15 minutes each day jobs rotate each
  Monday
• Stack chairs, straighten library, etc.
• Journal entry
• Scrapbook page
• Joke of the day
• Juicy word
• Calendar work (color day block, ask questions)
• Science Fridays, featuring the scientist of the
  week

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POLAR opportunity

• Note In the presentation, we showed a video of
  four second-graders quizzing their peers on a) a
  riddle (Joke of the Day), b) a vocabulary word
  (Juicy Word), and c) two questions about
  February. They illustrated four different
  teaching personalities (philosopher, drill
  sergeant, nurturer, and game show host) and many
  good teaching skills.
• The discussion centered around several
  observations
• Their personalities came through clearly. The
  mentors job is to reveal to them the personality
  traits that are effective in teaching and to help
  them find alternative behaviors for traits that
  impede learning.
• There were some brilliant teaching skills
  displayed by these children as well as some
  habits that should be changed.
• These kids responded to answers their peers gave
  to their questions in various ways, consistent
  with their individual differences (above). The
  impulse to respond is going to be there in every
  similar situation, but how the child behaves on
  that impulse can be coached for effectiveness.

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So, what do my kids need from me in peer teaching?

• 1 Safe, structured opportunities.
• 2 Professional tips.
• 3 Some minimal supervision
• Coaching.
• Feedback.
• Debriefing.
• Prompts for reflecting.

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Why debrief kids?
Reveal teaching strengths to themselves. Let you
know what theyre thinking. Get kids planning for
improvements. Hear some great insights about
teaching. A third grader reflects on teaching
natural science topics to 2nd graders in the
park It was hard. I didnt get a break until
lunch and I had to stand up all the time.
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Our invitation

• Join our Professional Partners National Network.
• Add more peer teaching strategies to your
  classroom planning.
• Apply for a Hoenny Center Grant for an action
  research report. (See Resources at
  www.hoennycenter.org.)
• Share your peer teaching successes, tips, and
  classroom research through our web site.
• Invite colleagues to help you build a K-12
  vertical system in your district.
• Start a Pathway in Teaching program.
• Keep us posted at teachers_at_hoennycenter.org.

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On the next frontier of teacher development.

• www.hoennycenter.org
• teachers_at_hoennycenter.org