ID_+Thought+Provoker+6

Thought Provoker 6 Prompt

Read Chapter 5 in Understanding by Design. Several viewpoints of the optimum instructional consultant-teacher relationship were presented in Chapter 6 of Helping Teachers Teach - expert/passive client, physician/patient, and helper/partner. Think about your own style of interaction with others.

Which of the viewpoints presented in the chapter matches your vision of the instructional consultant-teacher relationship?

In Chapter 6 of //Helping Teachers Teach//, Turner and Riedling mention the "instructional consultant as a leader and the subject-matter expert [teacher] as simply provider of information" (p. 61), the "physician-patient" (p. 61) relationship, and the "helper-on-a-team" role. My own style of interaction definitely falls in line with the approach that Turner and Riedling say is best: that of instructional consultant (IC) as helper on a team. This approach allows the IC to come in humbly and helpfully, to offer suggestions as needed, and to ultimately respect the authority and responsibility that the teachers hold. Unless you own a private school (and serve as the IC), it's not really your place to dictate in such matters. Teachers may nod and tolerate dictatorial treatment, but ultimately, their classroom practice is up to them. To really persuade, a gentler, more respectful approach is needed. Let me add that all of this assumes the teacher is competent. In a situation where a teacher was drastically under-performing (legs propped on desk about to doze off while students watch //Iron Man 2//), I would prescribe a more direct approach.

Based on the information presented in Chapter 5 of //Understanding by Design//, here is an example of how my style of interaction could be helpful in guiding peers to develop appropriate essential questions. As IC, I have been invited to a department meeting of foreign language teachers at Happy High School. Today, they are talking about ways in which to create essential questions. They thought that in foreign languages that the creation of essential questions was just an academic exercise. Sonia says, "I can see how you have big ideas to work with in Spanish 3 and 4, but down in 1 and 2, we're dealing with skills, fundamentals, building blocks. Writing essential questions seems like a waste." Janine says she agrees. I use this opportunity to explain that lots of skills-based teachers think the same thing, and as a Spanish teacher, I was in complete agreement. But I have since learned that the skills teacher can frame questions around "four categories of big ideas relevant to effective skill learning: As the goal of our foreign language instruction is that students demonstrate "fluent, flexible, and effective performance," it is imperative that we focus not just on the "key concepts" which is where many of us prefer to dwell. We can to start from the top and move down as we trace the big ideas we are trying to convey in our curriculum. If we are unsure as to what the curriculum is, we can look at our state standards (I actually place a huge maybe on this. In the State of Texas, the foreign language standards are abysmally vague--allowing for a wide range of interpretations as to depth and breadth--and I would actually recommend that teachers in Texas look to other states's standards for guidance rather than the TEKS). Using the recurring nouns, we can create questions. There would be more give and take in this exchange than it appears, but I would probably not share much more than that at one meeting.
 * 1) key concepts
 * 2) purpose and value
 * 3) strategy and tactics, and
 * 4) context of use" (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p. 113).

References Turner, P. M. & Riedling, A. M. (2003). //Helping teachers teach: A school library media specialist’s role//. 3rd ed. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). //Understanding by design//. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.