Creative Teaching - Award Winning Teacher Training Workshop

The National Award Winning Nursery Teacher Training Program - creatiWITTY. Separate programs for Preschool Teachers and Primary Teachers. Triggers new 'creative teaching ideas'. Mail pollencubes@gmail.com for detailed info.

Workshop Leader: Satish Chathanath

About Trainer: Satish Chathanath has 20+ years experience in Creative Industry. He is a Writer, Teacher and a Consultant with twin start-ups that mix Creative Communications, Product Design, Training and Education. He creates teaching aids and learning products for preschool and kindergarten. He is the recipient of Best Teacher Training Award in the prestigious Indian Education Awards, 2016 and Winner of IDA Award in Product/Solution in Early Learning. He also helps companies, brands and individuals to tell their visual stories clear and great.

Reciprocal Teaching

Let’s start with a basic definition for Reciprocal Teaching. “Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity in which students become the teacher in small group reading sessions. Teachers model, then help students learn to guide group discussions using four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting.”  Source

It is a reading technique by which we aim to improve reading comprehension of a student

Here’s an example of what reciprocal teaching is NOT. A lot of times, the activity illustrated below is mistaken for reciprocal teaching.

Your teacher prepared a list of topics and assigned one for each student in your class. You were given about a week’s time to prepare for the topic. You were also told that you could take up to 5 minutes to explain the topic to the class. If you were like most students, you would have first been filled with apprehension or fear. This fear would usually be a fear of public speaking or a fear of lack of knowledge of the subject. Normally, you’ll realize your audience is people you know and so there’s not much to fear. You also know that this ‘seminar’ is mandatory, so you read up on the topic, and actually try to understand it so when you’re in front of others you’re actually able to explain it. You end up learning the concept because to teach anyone anything, you should be able to understand it first. You notice that the audience is usually more receptive. While the class may not pay full attention to the regular teacher, there’s a high chance they’ll pay more attention to a peer who is explaining a concept.

The above illustration is not reciprocal teaching. Reciprocal teaching is actually about helping students understand challenging text they are reading. Challenging text includes poetry, literary novels, unstructured writing and even scientific publications.

In reciprocal approach to teaching, the instructor instills four clearly defined reading strategies that are simultaneously and actively used to support comprehension: The four reading strategies are Questioning, Clarifying, Summarizing, and Predicting. Students are taught to alternatively take the role of Questioner, Clarifier, Summarizer and Predictor while analyzing a text. The Clarifier tries to answer questions raised. The Summarizer tries to succinctly capture the meaning of the text and the predictor attempts to predict what the author intends to reveal in the next sequence. The instructor invariably helps out the Clarifier by answering the bulk of the questions, particularly when the text is very challenging. This technique is effective for small groups of students. There is a wide body of research supporting the effectiveness of this method in novel situations.

Here’s an excellent summary of how to use this method summarized from an article written by Donna Dyer of the North West Regional Education Service Agency in North Carolina)

1.      Divide your learners in sets containing four learners each

2.      Give a small placard to every learner in the set naming each learner's role:

·         Summarizer

·         Questioner

·         Clarifier

·         Predictor

3.      Make your learners read a page or so of the reading material. Motivate them to use note-taking methods. Ask them to underline things they want clarification for. If necessary, get them to use sticky-notes to prepare themselves for the discussion to follow.

4.      When they read the assigned text, the Summarizer first points out the major ideas up to where they’ve read.

5.      The Questioner then steps up and asks questions of the parts they require assistance in:

·         Confusing information

·         Unclear sections

·         Linkages to pre-learned concepts

6.      The Clarifier then tries to clear up the confusing parts and also tries to answer the questions asked by the Questioner.

7.      The Predictor speaks up next. He/She tries to predict what the author will reveal next or, in the case of a passage from literature, the predictor might suggest upcoming events or plotline.

8.      The learners then pass their role to the person on their right, and then the next passage is read. Learners keep repeating this step in their new roles. This alternation of roles is carried out till the complete passage is read.

9.      The instructor is required to guide the learners’ in using the four strategies successfully in their set. When the learner’s improve skills, the instructor’s role reduces.

Teacher Leadership

For many in an organizational setup, promotions into leadership positions are given as an appreciation for their top-notch performance in their role. Teachers, though, are unique. The demands and experience of teaching, and the skills and knowledge necessary to become a great teacher, make great teachers particularly great leaders. Today more than ever, a number of interconnected factors argue for the necessity of teacher leadership in schools. The current educational context is one of rapid and unrelenting change. The pressure on schools to improve and to raise standards of achievement is always on the rise. However, the real challenge that most schools are facing today is no longer ‘how to improve’ but ‘how to sustain improvement’? And the answer is a direct finger pointing towards teachers.

When we talk about schools and teachers, another important factor is parents. Today parents have a lot of expectations from teachers and schools. From inculcating values, teaching culture and traditions and academic excellence, teachers tend to play the most important role in child development. For this level of commitment, teachers need to possess and equip themselves with leadership skills. Modeling successful teaching strategies, serving on committees and participating in decision-making are hallmarks of teacher leaders.

What is Teacher Leadership?

Teacher leadership is predominantly concerned with evolving high quality education and coaching in schools. It has at its core a focus upon improving learning and is a mode of leadership premised upon the principles of professional collaboration, development and growth. Teacher leaders lead within and outside the classroom, they recognize and contribute to a community of teachers and inspire others on the way to better educational practice.

There are two key dimensions of teacher leadership. Firstly, a focus on enhanced learning results through progress and next, a stress upon collective professional activity.

Teacher leadership integrates three main areas of activity:

• ·         The leadership of other teachers through coaching, mentoring, leading working groups
• ·         The leadership of evolving tasks that are central to enhanced learning and teaching
• ·         The leadership of pedagogy through the development and modeling of effective forms of teaching.

Teacher leaders can be curriculum developers, leaders of a school improvement team, and mentors of new or less experienced staff with a strong link to the classroom. The important point is that teacher leaders are, in the first place, expert teachers, who spend at the majority of their time in the classroom but take on leadership roles at times when development and innovation is needed. Their role is primarily one of assisting colleagues to explore and try out new ideas, then offering critical but productive feedback to ensure developments in teaching and learning are achieved.

Why Teacher Leadership?

The collaboration nurtured through teacher leadership has shown immense capacity for change and improvement at the school and classroom level. Numerous researches provide evidence of the positive effect of teacher leadership on teachers’ potential and levels of morale. Research also shows that teachers who work together in a meaningful and purposeful way are more likely to remain in the teaching profession because they feel respected and prized in their work.

Collaboration is at the core of teacher leadership. For teacher leadership to be most effective it has to incorporate mutual trust and support. Another research study suggests that it is tough for teachers to produce and withstand the conditions for improved classroom learning if those conditions do not exist for their own learning.

To generate and sustain teacher leadership, one will require:

• ·         Empowerment and encouragement of teachers to become leaders and to provide opportunities for teachers develop their leadership skills
• ·         Time to be set aside for teachers leadership work
• ·         Opportunities for continuous professional development that focuses not just on the development of teachers’ skills and knowledge but on aspects specific to their leadership role.

What does it mean to you to be a teacher leader? What are the ways in which teachers can take leadership? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

      Written by Fathima Khaja

Why Continuous Training for a Pre-Primary and Primary Teacher is so Important

It is important to understand that teaching is an evolving skill. Great teachers help create great students. In fact, research shows that an inspiring and informed teacher is the most important school-related factor influencing student achievement, so it is critical to pay close attention to how we train and support both new and experienced educators.

Preschool and primary education is the first exercise in which children are separated from their comfort zone and safe hands of their parents. So, to start with, it has to be a place which is a second home to the child; a place, which has adequate material to draw and make the child feel at ease and safe. A child learns the importance of his own name, things and friends. The skills and knowledge that the child develops in preschool has a huge impact on the aptitude and attitude of the child later in life.

Today, teacher development has moved beyond simple in-service workshops and has expanded into a more robust system of continuing education. Clearly, the one-time erratic teacher training programs yield no good result. At the end of the day, teachers want development and training that is relevant for their students.

What is professional development?

Professional development refers to numerous types of learning experiences related to an individual’s work. Be it any profession, people participate in professional development programs to improve their performance on the job by acquiring and applying new skills and knowledge.

How does professional development help teachers?

In the field of education, research shows that teaching quality and school leadership are the most important factors in raising student achievement. For teachers to be as effective as possible, they need to constantly develop their knowledge and skills to implement the best educational practices for their students. Professional development is the only way teachers can learn so that they are able to better their performance and elevate student accomplishment.

Is it mandatory to conduct teachers training?

Yes. It is essential atleast twice a year as even well experienced teachers confront great challenges every year. Numerous factors play an important role such as changes in subject content, new teaching methods, advances in technology, changing student needs and a lot more. These issues can be discussed upon and may also arrive at a possible solution.

Isn’t online professional development a good choice?

When it comes to learning content and observing demonstrations, online professional development may be useful. Some also provide interactive training among participants, but there are a few limitations. By engaging in online training, the teacher is in isolation, than as a participating member of a team, this may result in losing out on important experiences and insights. An educators’ collective growth has a greater impact than individual learning does.  And above all, one will not be aware of how well the teacher applies his or her learning towards student’s benefit.

How does teachers’ training benefit students?

No teacher is born perfect. A teacher can never know exactly how a student learns and what affects the student’s learning, and how the teacher can change her way of teaching to increase the student’s learning. Whether a student is a high, low, or average achiever, they will learn better if their teacher regularly engages in high-quality development.

What are the different aspects a teacher’s training program helps?

Teacher’s development focuses mainly on learning modalities. Everyone learns differently, that’s nothing new. Learning is a complicated concept as everyone is unique in their own way, and learns in their own way as well. While one student may enjoy reading and being read to, another might learn more if illustrations and charts accompany reading. While one may enjoy physical movement, another student may prefer quiet and serene surroundings.

That being said, there are four modalities, it includes visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), kinesthetic (moving), and tactile (touching). The more senses or modalities a teacher activates in class, the more learning will take place. Teachers are constantly trained on these modalities so as to understand what method of learning best fits their student.

How do you determine the value and results of professional development?

The results of professional development can be assessed through surveys, tests, observations, video recordings, and interviews. If students begin to achieve at higher levels, because of the effective methods of teacher training, professional development is worth the cost. Teachers learn new knowledge and skills because of their participation and use what they learn to improve the quality of teaching and leadership.

Teachers have the power to make a change in the school or classroom. If you have experienced a particular training development that helped you overcome a teaching challenge, do share with us your story in the comments below.

Written by Fathima Khaja