Job-embedded Professional Development

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Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1346] from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Taylor, Jackie jataylor at utk.edu
Date: Mon Jul 9 14:48:57 EDT 2007

Cristine Smith here. Glad to join the discussion this week. Like Marilyn, I'm also interested in site-based professional development, or, as we called it in our article, "job-embedded professional development". The idea is that teachers from the same program come together in a group and look at a particular topic of interest over time. The difference is that, rather than getting trained "from the outside", the teachers look at what are called "student artifacts": student writings, student answers on assessments, students diagnostic evaluation of reading skills, etc. The point is first to focus on student learning, not on teachers' teaching. What can a group of teachers learn from each other and from looking at student work that will give them ideas and strategies for improving instruction? Then, the teachers may go to the research, may call in an outside advisory to give them information about new approaches, may go on the internet, may read books or articles and then may decide on trying out a new plan of action. Teachers try it out in their classes, and then come back to the group with more student artifacts of how it worked.

This type of professional development is called "job-embedded" because it is literally part of the job of figuring out how to do instruction. It happens right in the program, so teachers don't have to travel, and it involves extensive teacher sharing. It is becoming more and more common in K-12 but is fairly uncommon in adult education (although I know CalPRO in California has done some innovative work around job-embedded professional development...could someone involved in that let us know what you did and how you thought it worked?)

My question is: how viable is this for adult basic education, adult literacy, adult ESOL and GED practitioner professional development (both teachers and administrators)? Would it work with tutors? Generally, it helps if there is a facilitator to get the group started, to help set up mechanisms for sharing work (which can be kinda scary) and teaching approaches. But it's meant to be teacher controlled. What do you think would stand in the way of more adult ed programs using this type of professional development?

Looking forward to more discussion... Cris

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1350] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Marilyn Gillespie marilyn.gillespie at sri.com
Date: Mon Jul 9 18:44:43 EDT 2007

Chris,

One thing I've been seeing lately in some K-12 settings is that one teacher becomes a "master teacher" with some of his/her time freed up to help organize the job-embedded staff development. Then the master teachers also coordinate with master teachers at other schools and bring back ideas. Do you think this could be a way for more experienced teachers to grow within their jobs? Has anyone tried this successfully?

Marilyn

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1352] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: jhalaesl at aol.com jhalaesl at aol.com
Date: Mon Jul 9 20:10:48 EDT 2007

Because so many of our Adult ESL/ESOL instructors teach part time and solo at satellite sites, job-embedded "think tank" PD is not viable for our program. Instead, we have developed a Practicum approach. I demonstrate in an instructor's classroom or learning setting with her/his students, then debrief with the instructor afterwards. This can be facilitated by a coordinator/trainer from within the program, or among instructors.

There is great advantage to introducing an approach or technique this way. It helps the facilitator customize the PD on the spot, creates an immediacy for Q+A, and has the benefit of direct application of new learning.

The Practicum is also offered to other programs as a seminar or series of workshops.

Joanne Hala
Literacy Services Coordinator
Jointure for Community Adult Education, Inc
Raritan NJ

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1355] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Cristine Smith cristinesmith at comcast.net
Date: Tue Jul 10 11:10:36 EDT 2007

Marilyn: I like that idea. What we need, though, is some perhaps generic training for master teachers or for those who facilitate job-embedded professional development that would help them learn some of the techniques and approaches to helping a group use artifacts, gain trust, move through a process of identifying problems and strategies and trying them out, etc. I have been tempted to write a guide for adult literacy programs that would "mine" the facilitation protocols used in K-12 but adapt them to adult education, and this guide could be meant for master teachers and J-E facilitators. If I only had 6 more hours in a day....! Best...Cris


Cristine Smith
Assistant Professor
Center for International Education
University of Massachusetts
285 Hills House South
Amherst, MA 01003
413-545-2731
cristine at educ.umass.edu

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1356] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Cristine Smith cristinesmith at comcast.net
Date: Tue Jul 10 11:24:11 EDT 2007

Joanne: Your practicum idea does sound like a good idea for teachers who work solo at satellite settings. It seems like it would give teachers new ideas through observation. Have you also added a component where the teacher can be observed by the facilitator or by other teachers, in addition to being the observer? That would be a nice counterpart to observing new techniques demonstrated by the coordinator/trainer.

For many programs, as you mention, the key hurdle to job-embedded PD is just to find the program monies to free up teachers' time to meet on a regular basis. However, job-embedded PD could substitute, at least in part, for the regular off-site PD that practitioners get. If practitioners in programs don't get paid PD release time at all, then that's a larger issue that programs and practitioners have to deal with their state office about. AALPD has done a lot of work advocating for more PD support for teachers, but we still have a long way to go to getting policies that support teachers to get a minimum amount of PD (whether on or off site) for ALL practitioners. Best.Cris

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1357] Re: job-embedded professional development
From: jgreiner jgreiner at proliteracy.org
Date: Tue Jul 10 12:11:49 EDT 2007

Hello Joanne,
You raised a good point about how the working conditions of instructors impact their ability to engage in professional development. In fact, most Adult Ed and ESL instructors do teach part-time, often isolated from other teachers.

An interesting implication from Cris, Marilyn, and others' research on teacher change is that when teachers participate in PD together, they are somewhat more likely to change their practice. And it seems that Cris and Marilyn are both saying that job-embedded PD is dependent upon teachers' ability to work, and think, together.

So my question, similar to Cris's: If most teachers teach part-time in isolated settings, is it realistic to think that program-based teacher inquiry or "think tank" type projects are feasible on a broad scale? (I'd like to think they are!) And, if so, what program-level accomodations need to be made to make it work?

All the best,
Jane
Jane Greiner
Training Coordinator
ProLiteracy America
(315) 422-9121 Ext. 283

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1358] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Fish, Susan Susan.Fish at oregonstate.edu
Date: Tue Jul 10 12:27:48 EDT 2007

It seems like many of these great ideas add up to mentoring or coaching.

The local program directors in our state (Oregon) have expressed some interest in this as a way to make professional development local, so I've been reading about mentoring/coaching programs in K-12 and attended a wonderful seminar by Steven Barkley who wrote, Quality Teaching in a Culture of Coaching. I was inspired by the model he uses which is based on a three part observation cycle and which includes ways to coach administrators.

Maybe someone out there has answers to some questions that I know we'd have to answer to implement such a strategy.

  • How would the mentor/coaching teachers be chosen? K-12 seems to just assume that more experienced teachers will mentor newer ones.
  • How would we keep supervision and evaluation out of mentoring/coaching? Barkley had really solid ideas about what language to use to distinguish the two, but some of the program directors I've spoken with want it to serve both purposes.
  • How might this work in a community college setting where there is little tradition of mentoring teachers?
  • Has anyone had experience with paying coaches and coachees?

Thanks for bringing the job-embedded focus into this conversation!

Susan
Susan Fish
Director
Oregon Professional Development System (OPDS)
Western Center for Community College Development
Oregon State University
541.737.9059

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1359] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: jhalaesl at aol.com jhalaesl at aol.com
Date: Tue Jul 10 12:35:44 EDT 2007

Cristine:
Yes, we have configured the Practicum in many different ways, according to the needs of the instructor. And the demo lessons are never observation only. If an instructor feels comfortable jumping in during the demo, great! If it takes a few demos, or alternating demo and instructor solo lessons, that is also arranged. One instructor likes the 1/3 schedule--a single demo, then 3 weeks on her own testing out and personalize the techniques.

All of our programs, at all levels and for learners/instructors/trainers, are participatory. (what Freire called the "banking theory of education" is NOT alive in our program). In the 6-week program, the trainees participate in planning, materials design, problem-solving and troubleshooting, and instruction. Post-class discussions and debriefings are give and take in a very open environment. I am the one who learns the most!

re: PD compensation, release time, etc.
Unfortunately, there is little support here in NJ. First, we do not have an office of Adult Education. Most of our ESL/ESOL programs are funded by the NJ Dept of Labor and Workforce Development, which mandates a minimum number of PD hours for all practitioners. However the funding allowable for mandatory PD is insufficient. We try to be as creative as possible. Thankfully, our current practitioners are very dedicated and willingly volunteer time for PD.

Joanne

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1361] Re: job-embedded professional development
From: jhalaesl at aol.com jhalaesl at aol.com
Date: Tue Jul 10 12:49:42 EDT 2007

Jane -
I agree, it seems that broadening the reach of these types of PD approaches seems feasible. What, if any, are the loses? I think of The Teaching Gap. Have you read the book? Research based and good observations of US educators' misperceptions of their own application of new PD learning.

Also, by broadening the reach, we lose the real-time benefits. There is much to be said for on-site PD. And with "live" learners, if possible. I find this especially true with practitioners who do not consider themselves creative and those who have some fear of the "teachable moments" that inevitably occur and redirect the original plan.

I have facilitated PD in a variety of ways, with different audiences. The best feedback came from those Practicum-like workshops.
Joanne

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1362] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Cristine Smith cristinesmith at comcast.net
Date: Tue Jul 10 13:06:32 EDT 2007

Susan: Great questions! Job-embedded PD is a little different than the practicum idea, I think, because job-embedded PD assumes a group of teachers working together; the facilitator's job is not to know anything necessarily about the content but just to set up the group's activities ("OK, now let's share artifacts.what if we now work on a new lesson plan", etc.) Having said that, while mentoring or coaching is usually one-to-one, NCSALL experimented with a model of PD called "mentor teacher groups", where one experienced teacher was trained to be a "mentor" to five teachers, and the teachers all met BOTH with each other in a group and one-on-one with the mentor. If you want more information about this type of PD, see the Mentor Teacher Group guide at: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=1015

As for your questions, here are some of my thoughts:

  • How would the mentor/coaching teachers be chosen? K-12 seems to just assume that more experienced teachers will mentor newer ones.

In my experience, there has to be an affinity between the two participants (practitioner and mentor or coach). Assigning people has its dangers because what if you just don't respect the person who has been "allocated" as your mentor or coach? The best way, I think, is to let teachers choose who they want to mentor and coach them. However, this isn't always possible because of funding and job constraints. The best we can do sometimes is to give people some choice either to be mentored or coached by a particular person.or not. But for job-embedded PD, the group of teachers can choose themselves whether they want someone from their midst to facilitate (hence, the need for a guidebook for job-embedded PD facilitators.I really do need to write this, I think!), or whether they want to ask someone from the state or district or program PD system to help them. But again, the facilitator of job-embedded PD is not supposed to have all the "content" answers but rather a facilitator of the group to work together to figure out itself what it wants to do.

  • How would we keep supervision and evaluation out of mentoring/coaching? Barkley had really solid ideas about what language to use to distinguish the two, but some of the program directors I've spoken with want it to serve both purposes.

Partly, I think we just need to say over and over again that PD is PD and it is NOT supervision and evaluation. It can NEVER be both at the same time because the nature of PD itself (at least GOOD PD) is such that a teacher has to feel free to express their needs, areas of difficulty, etc., and that is the antithesis of what teachers want to do when evaluated. Keeping PD (whether it is mentoring, coaching, job-embedded, workshops, whatever) separate from supervision really hinges, I think, on the mechanism and activities of the PD. For example, peer coaching has a particular protocol for observation and feedback. The coach or observer doesn't just come in to your classroom, sit in the back and watch for any little thing you do wrong or right (that IS supervision). Peer observation requires that the coach and teacher meet beforehand, and that the TEACHER gets to tell the coach/observer what particular feature of teaching or learning s/he wants the coach to observe and collect data on. Then, there has to be actual data collected, not just subjective opinions. So, for example, a teacher might ask a coach, before the observation, to count the number of times that the students ask to have the instructions repeated (to gauge how well the teacher is delivering instructions). Or a coach might count the number of minutes that particular students are waiting for the teacher to come around and correct their work. Then, after the observation, the coach and teacher sit down and the coach describes the data s/he collected about THAT particular question, and the teacher and coach analyze it, debrief, think of options for new strategies for improvement, etc. The one thing the coach does NOT do is just say any old thing s/he thinks she saw in the person's teaching. In this way, teachers know what is being observed, they define the problem or issue, they get real data (not just opinions) about what happened in the class, and they get help thinking of alternative strategies. It also goes without saying that no report or official documentation is written for inclusion in someone's personnel file (another difference between mentoring/coaching and evaluation).

  • How might this work in a community college setting where there is little tradition of mentoring teachers?

I haven't ever worked in a community college setting, so I'm not sure about this, but I would guess that there's as little tradition in community-based or LEA adult ed programs for mentoring OR job-embedded PD as there is in any community college. The answer is that the program/school/college leadership has to be supportive to alternative PD, and figure out how to change structures so that teachers can meet with each other and in groups.

  • Has anyone had experience with paying coaches and coachees?

Like all PD, both the coach and the "coachee"/participant should be paid for their time, by getting paid PD release time. It's no different than any other PD: teachers should be paid for their time, facilitators/trainers/mentors/coaches should be paid for their time, including prep time to organize and plan the PD. I can't imagine that there would be any reason why coaching or mentoring should be any different than what we advocate for any other PD. (Easier said than done, but we have to keep pushing on this until all policymakers "get it").

Hope this helps. Best.Cris

Cristine Smith
Assistant Professor
Center for International Education
University of Massachusetts
285 Hills House South
Amherst, MA 01003
413-545-2731
cristine at educ.umass.edu

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1363] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Marilyn Gillespie marilyn.gillespie at sri.com
Date: Tue Jul 10 13:06:46 EDT 2007

Chris,

I think this is a great idea. One of the things I've seen job-embedded master teachers do is learn how to access student achievement data, interpret it and create graphs and displays that help teams of teachers use the data to think about classroom improvement. They also learn about portfolios, interim assessments and other classroom based assessment tools teachers can use and then help them to interpret what they learn as a team. Teachers often simply don't have time to learn about all that in addition to managing curriculum. I saw one group of teachers that was looking at samples of student work together and it was great because different teachers were able to make suggestions based on their individual experiences and skills sets.

I think there is probably a lot we could adapt from K-12 but, as you say, time and funding is always an issue.

On another note, I am working with NIFL to help them develop a research agenda for adult literacy. As part of that work we are doing an "environmental scan" of non-federally funded research in adult literacy and ESOL. One of my recent tasks was to call states to see if they had funded any research outside of with federal monies and we are finding very little. What we have found though is dozens of dissertations on adult literacy that have been done over the past ten years. It would be fascinating to see which of these addressed issues related to teacher professional development and learn from what they have found. Another great task for someone who might have the time.

Marilyn

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1364] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Marilyn Gillespie marilyn.gillespie at sri.com
Date: Tue Jul 10 13:18:25 EDT 2007

Susan,

In some of the school districts I have visited the mentors are paid by the district. They work 1/2 time in one school and 1/2 time in another or split up teaching and mentoring. In other cases, they visit all the schools in the district first and then meet with district staff to prioritize which schools will get the attention of the mentors based on school needs (and in their case on student achievement results). They are not in supervisory positions. The school principal evaluates the teachers. Teachers apply for the job of mentor and are hired by the district. I'm not sure how that would work in community colleges. Could those positions be paid by the state or regional resource centers?

I think there would be some ways to research mentoring models and also to check with associations of community colleges to see if there is any information on mentoring in those contexts but I do see that this would be more challenging in those settings.

I think in our under-resourced settings the real danger is that the mentors get saddled with administrative tasks and aren't provided the time to focus on curriculum, instruction, and classroom based assessment.

Marilyn

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1365] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Sherman, Renee RSherman at air.org
Date: Tue Jul 10 14:02:59 EDT 2007

Hi Susan,

There are several states that have instituted mentoring programs. Indiana has been incorporating mentoring as part of their professional development for a number of years. They may be a good resource for you.


Another resource is a 2000, PRO-NET publication: An Adult Educators' Guide to Designing Instructor Mentoring. The guide can be accessed on calpro-online.org. It discusses the mentoring relationship, how programs can support mentoring, and lays out several steps in designing and implementing a mentoring program.

There are a number of research studies being conducted at the K-12 level currently to determine the effectiveness of mentoring/coaching.

Renee

American Institutes for Research
1000 Thomas Jefferson, NW
Washington, DC 20007-3541
202-403-5327
rsherman at air.org

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1368] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Niki McCartney Nikim at tairawhiti.ac.nz
Date: Tue Jul 10 17:07:52 EDT 2007

Hello all
I am currently trialling a Team Teaching project which is in fact job embedded PD.The aim is to help the tutors help the students who have low literacy levels. I meet with the tutors for one hour per week. The first meeting involved identifying the literacy and numeracy component requirements in their mainstream programmes. Since then in each weekly meeting we reflect on the past week's work and overview the following week. The project is still new in that we have only met 4 times but it seems to be having a postive impact with tutors with comments like, 'it's the sort of thing I do anyway but you are providing a structure for how to go about it'. I find it extremely rewarding as it is giving the tutors more tools and strategies and in the application they are seeing more engaged students. I am also available to model particular strategies for the tutors in the classrooms but this has not yet happened. Any questions or comments relating to this project approach would be most welcome.

Niki McCartney
Literacy Facilitator

Tairawhiti Polytechnic
290 Palmerston Rd
Gisborne
New Zealand

Te: 06 869 0810 ext 744
Fax: 06 868 6606
Email: nikim at tairawhiti.ac.nz

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1369] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: jhalaesl at aol.com jhalaesl at aol.com
Date: Tue Jul 10 18:21:10 EDT 2007

Niki- it sounds like you are right on track with an approach that works for you and the tutors. Affirmation of what a tutor/practitioner is already doing can be as effective as learning new approaches. And the ideas shared among tutors, even if they are simple, easy , and not "reinventing the wheel", can have a positive impact. Somehow those more "grass-rootsy" ideas are less threatening and therefore more likely to be tried. Perhaps because the risk is less.

I suspect you will see even greater benefits when you add the modeling component. I have found that tutors (in our program tutors = volunteers; instructors=paid staff) and new instructors want so very much to be doing the right thing. Whatever encouragement we give can be empowering.

Joanne

Joanne Hala
Literacy Services
Jointure for Community Adult Education, Inc.
Raritan NJ

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1370] job-embedded professional development
From: Wrigley, Heide heide at literacywork.com
Date: Tue Jul 10 19:07:46 EDT 2007

Hi, Niki and others

Here's one more example on "embedded staff development" from a different part of the world. When I did an evaluation of EFL teaching in Egypt, we got to know teachers who were part of a materials development project. The teachers were at first reluctant to try out new ideas but since they were selected to be part of a teacher training book, they agreed to try out new models and then write up what they did and what made the strategies work.

It was really quite brilliant, I thought. The teachers who were selected were by no means the best teachers - they were a group that struggled with moving toward a more communicative approach to language teaching. But as part of the team project, they did much more reading on language acquisition than they normally would, they took a plunge and changed their practice (at least some), and then struggled on how to write lessons that others could understand. A knowledgeable facilitator helped them to keep their eye on the ball and not get mired in non-essential details and the rest of team provided support. Since there would be presentations of the materials, there was a real deadline and a real audience for their work.

I never saw the final product and don't know how great it was, but the process of having teachers work as a team and deal with teaching and learning issues through the writing of lessons struck me as a very worthwhile approach to professional development .

Heide Spruck Wrigley
Mesilla, NM

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1381] Re: [Professional Development 1368] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Lipson, Jim jlipson at pima.edu
Date: Wed Jul 11 11:42:49 EDT 2007

Wow...adult education in New Zealand! Who knew?

This approach seems a bit closer to what we've been doing with our practica in terms of bringing teachers together on a regular basis. Like any multi-level class, the teachers all bring a wide variety of skills and experiences. Having a chance to meet regularly allows them to not only share but to also form a professional learning community (PLC). This notion of PLCs is an exciting initiative our state has been promoting. Toward that end our program's Professional Development Committee/team is now working with the book Professional Learning Communities at Work by Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker (Solution Tree). This a great resource that we are excited to work with.

Jim Lipson

Volunteer Coordinator
Pima Community College Adult Education
520.884.8628

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1373] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: mmingle at comcast.net mmingle at comcast.net
Date: Tue Jul 10 20:19:46 EDT 2007

About job-embedded professional development and adult ed . . .

Having done a little work in K-12 professional development before returning to an adult ed professional development program, I was familiar with the concept of job-embedded professional development and, more specifically, the technique of examining student work to address achievement issues and refine curriculum.

I think it was your article that brought it back to mind and got me thinking about how we could use this approach for adult education/literacy programs in our region of PA.

So . . . I'm actually going to give it a try . . . I'm going to attempt to introduce the concept of examining student work to a group of practitioners in a literacy council as a form of on-going professional development for the program.

By examining assessment data, this particular agency has noticed students struggling with GED essay writing. Agency staff members have attended general workshops about the GED essay, how it is scored, and how to prepare adults to write GED essays.

But the agency still faces the issue of students not passing that portion of the GED.

Rather than attempt to provide another generic essay writing workshop, the only thing I could think to do was to ask the teachers to bring samples of student writing and, as a group, examine the work and see if the instructors can figure out where students are having the most difficulty.

I see my role as a facilitator of the process -- not the expert on GED essay writing.

I want to introduce some templates, processes, frameworks for examining student work and talk about why we are going to give this a try and then just let the teachers "have at it" using one or more of the techniques.

I found some excellent resources on examining student work and would love to get many more examples, research, etc. Here are just some of the resources I have so far; please recommend more . . .

The Looking at Student Work Web Site
www.lasw.org

Teachers Learn From Looking Together at Student Work
Education World
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr246.shtml Accessed June 19, 2007

Learning Teams
When Teachers Work Together, Knowledge and Rapport Grow
By Joan Richardson, Tools for Schools, August-September 2001
http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/tools/tools8-01rich.cfm Accessed June 19, 2007

Mary -- Mary Mingle
Central Northeast Professional Development Center
8 North Grove Street Suite 1
Lock Haven, PA 17745

mmingle at comcast.net
Phone: (570) 893-4052
Fax: (570) 748-1598

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1374] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: mmingle at comcast.net mmingle at comcast.net
Date: Tue Jul 10 20:27:37 EDT 2007

Cristine:

Reflecting on your question about what would stand in the way of implementing job-embedded professional development in adult ed . . .

Some barriers might include:

Situations where a smaller agency has only one staff member teaching a particular content-area or subject - it's hard to form a program "group" of one (could individual practitioners from different agencies work together to examine student work, for example?)

Once started, keeping the ball rolling -- keeping that group of teachers meeting and workin together without the guidance of a trained facilitator

Convincing potential facilitators that they do not have to be an "expert" in the content or topic to facilitate the process -- getting these facilitators trained in the processes, using the templates, etc.

Convincing teachers and program administrators that this "non-traditional" approach to professional development really is professional development and discovering how to "give credit" (CEU's, Professional Development Hours, etc.) to practitioners engaged in this on-going activity

-- Mary Mingle
Central Northeast Professional Development Center
8 North Grove Street Suite 1
Lock Haven, PA 17745

mmingle at comcast.net
Phone: (570) 893-4052
Fax: (570) 748-1598

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1379] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Marilyn Gillespie marilyn.gillespie at sri.com
Date: Wed Jul 11 11:14:38 EDT 2007

Mary,

These resources look great! Thanks for the tips. One of the issues K-12 teachers who are preparing students to take writing tests are coming up with is that students often don't know how to read and understand what is required in the writing prompts. The National Writing Project has a team working on training materials to help students understand writing prompts. I think one of the best ways to help teachers (and students) is to have them look at and understand the rubrics used to evaluate their writing. Then you can target the problems. Is it responding to the prompt, organization and transitions, sentence fluency, word choice, grammar-punctuation-spelling, or "voice"? The Arlington Refugee Education Program (REEP) has developed some great rubrics for adult ESOL and a training model for teachers. www.arlington.k12.va.us There is also a new book out by Steve Graham and Charles MacArther called /Best Practices in the Teaching of Writing /(2007) that gives very practical, research-based suggestions for practitioners (K-12 but it applies to writers in general). Vicky Spandel's book on the six trait writing model /Creating Writers Through 6 Trait Writing Assessment /also has some helpful tips that would be useful for professional developers. There is also *6**trait*s.blogspot.com based on her model.

As an aside, George Hillocks has recently written a book called /The Testing Trap: How State Writing Tests Control Learning. /I think a lot of writing researchers are concerned that students are only being taught to write a 5 paragraph formulaic essay and missing out on all the other kinds of writing they need. In adult education we need to be concerned about preparing students to meet the writing demands of community college. I am really hoping I can find a way to research what teachers in the field are doing with respect to writing instruction and what students need to succeed in entry-level community college courses. Anyone else interested in this? Feel free to contact me at marilyn.gillespie at sri.com

Marilyn

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1380] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Cristine Smith cristinesmith at comcast.net
Date: Wed Jul 11 11:36:53 EDT 2007

Mary, that's very cool. I think focusing on writing is a particular fruitful area for adult education teachers to work together on, in job-embedded PD, because there are concrete artifacts to start from (student writing) and because many adult education teachers feel at a loss about how to teach writing. Thanks for the sources on examining student work. The other sources I know about are in journal articles or reports, which are less readily accessible, but if I find anything particularly rich, I'll post it here. I'm going to go and look at these and see what could be adapted for a guidebook for adult ed. Let us know how the teachers' working group goes. Best.Cris

Cristine Smith

Assistant Professor
Center for International Education
University of Massachusetts
285 Hills House South
Amherst, MA 01003
413-545-2731
cristine at educ.umass.edu

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1377] Re: from Cris, job-embedded professional development
From: Sharon Reynolds reynols1 at ohio.edu
Date: Wed Jul 11 10:17:10 EDT 2007

Hello -

Ohio ABLE has initiated a statewide Peer Coaching project. We have trained ABLE instructors and program administrators in the skills associated with coaching. They are now working with individual teachers and administrators upon request.

Our coaches serve as supportive listeners, who observe, ask questions, and share ideas. Through the coaching process, teachers and other education profes-sionals explore ideas, question behaviors and assumptions, think through challenging situations, and develop lasting, supportive, collegial relationships. Coaching is different from mentoring in that mentoring involves a novice and a veteran, sharing expertise. Peer coaching involves two professionals of similar positions: teachers coach teachers; adminis-trators coach administrators.

It is made very clear to everyone involved that evaluation is not part of our coaching program. The fact that our coaching program is peer-to-peer makes avoiding evaluation and judgment easier.

In Ohio ABLE, teachers and administrators can request a peer coach if they have com-pleted the basic training in learning disabilities. The interested teacher and administrator coachees must complete an online pre-coaching module to ensure that they understand the coaching process. Coaching can take place via e-mail, phone, or in person. State professional development funds pay peer coaches for their time and reimburse for mileage.

Some teachers may request a peer coach to come to their class to observe a new lesson or technique. The peer coach observes objectively and reports to the teacher. Others may request a coach to assist in planning. Peer coaches are also available to model lessons or co-teach. Most importantly, peer coaching encourages teachers to reflect on their practice, with feedback from their peers.

Ohio ABLE has two individuals who work as a team to coordinate the peer-coaching program, run jointly through the Central/Southeast ABLE Resource Center and the Ohio Literacy Resource Center. We have developed a peer coaching brochure and a website (literacy.kent.edu/coaching) containing information for teachers interested in participating in coaching. The website houses the pre-coaching module, all necessary forms, and other resources for the peer coaches.

The book you mention is a great resource. Let me also suggest several other resources that we have used in helping to organize our coaching system:

Cognitive Coaching - by Arthur Costa and Robert Garmston
Student Achievement through Staff Development - by Bruce Joyce and Beverly Showers

How to Plan and Implement a Peer Coaching Program - by Pam Robbins

Sharon

Sharon Reynolds
Coordinator
Central/Southeast ABLE Resource Center
338 McCracken Hall
Ohio University
Athens, Ohio 45701

1(800 )753 - 1519
(740) 593 - 0969
FAX (740) 593 - 2834 <mailto:reynols1 at ohio.edu> reynols1 at ohio.edu

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1382] Re: job-embedded professional development
From: Cristine Smith cristinesmith at comcast.net
Date: Wed Jul 11 11:46:09 EDT 2007

Heide: This example from Egypt brings up another good point that can be applicable to job-embedded PD: for some groups (although not all), having a real task and a product is a motivating factor. The product can be as simple as a list of 10 new ways to approach writing instruction, or a short article in a newsletter about the experience of the group, but some groups do work better when they know they are completing something that will ultimately help other teachers. I also applaud the joint lesson plan writing: as someone else on the list mentioned, this is a key feature of professional development and instructional improvement in Japan, and I think that it can be doubly effective in that teachers themselves learn to write comprehensive lessons AND the lessons exist for them and other teachers to see, as good and tried models.

Another tool related to this that may be helpful to some facilitators who want to use a lesson-plan writing approach to job-embedded PD and looking at student work is the NCSALL Health Literacy Study Circles Plus. There are three study circles that focus on helping teachers learn about the issue of health literacy through looking at and trying out model lesson plans, and then creating and sharing their own lessons and curricula with each other. The guides are available free for downloading from the NCSALL website: check them out at http://www.ncsall.net/?id=891 and http://www.ncsall.net/?id=1058. Best.Cris


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