An online teacher professional development session

Identify a teacher from the teacher profiles whose instruction would benefit from attending a professional development session.

Mrs. Josephine Tribble – Sixth Grade English:

Mrs. Josephine Tribble has worked as teacher of Language Arts/English for 6th graders at Kelsey Middle School since 2 years, following the Kelsey educational board’s syllabus. In the course of an academic year, Mrs. Tribble, thus, teaches a total of five novels, besides the requisite writing and composition skills. The educational board necessitates measurement of pupil accomplishment based on the District Assessment Program. Mrs. Tribble finds her pupils below average with regard to language arts and reading. She has requested the school’s principal to provide additional funding for helping her offer low-readability, interesting study material to her pupils. But the principal claims funds cannot be arranged and thus, Mrs. Tribble recognizes the need to come up with material by herself in order to improve her pupils’ performance. Furthermore, Mrs. Tribble struggles with interacting with her pupils and managing their conduct. She has resorted to "Goodie Tokens" for rewarding appropriate conduct.

Select a task-specific seminar in your district, state, or online that you would recommend for this teacher.

Oxford Teachers’ Academy - Online professional development

This represents a series of Oxford University Press-designed web-based self-study courses aimed at English language instructors’ professional growth. After successfully completing these courses, the enrolee is entitled to Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education certification. The courses incorporate the components of enrolee knowledge-sharing and interaction. Educational institutes are entitled to offer the courses as in-house, moderated, professional growth initiatives. Goals and subjects of study have been charted on the EAQUALS Language Teacher Training and Development Framework (Oxford Teachers Academy, 2018). Mrs. Tribble will benefit from attending this professional development session.

Create a follow-up plan supporting this teacher in implementing the skills learned at the professional development session.

Before the start of the teacher improvement/professional development session, the educator in question (Mrs. Tribble) reviewed applicable information from the previous academic year with the program administrator. This included observation reports, MOSL outcomes and feedback, which helped them together ascertain areas requiring improvement. Mrs. Tribble will likely need to work on the following areas:

1. Incorporation of content-connected information and pedagogy into instruction planning and instructional processes for helping pupils acquire mastery over key sixth-grade-specific standards and content.

2. Planning and execution of learning activities aimed at pupils’ cognitive participation and progress through grade-specific content.

3. Supervision of pupil learning through meticulous, advance planning of continuous evaluations, and integrating them smoothly into class to determine whether or not pupils have succeeded in the desired learning outcomes.

4. Providing pertinent, timely and constructive feedback to pupils, which guides them with regard to areas where performance improvements are necessary.

Appropriate activities or action steps were decided on by the administrator, besides other areas like differentiation, timeline and improvement evaluation, following discussion of the professional development plan with Mrs. Tribble during the initial meeting (adapted from Danielson, 2009).

Follow-up plan for Mrs. Tribble:

Distinct recommendations in the form of practical, feasible activities ought to be offered to Mrs. Tribble for helping her achieve professional development in the areas determined:

1. For the purpose of incorporation of content-connected information and pedagogy into instruction planning and instructional processes for helping pupils acquire mastery over key sixth-grade-specific standards: (Fall)

a. Before commencing every lesson, ask yourself: “What is the pupil learning outcome desired from the lesson?” When planning the lesson, every component of instruction ought to be analysed as follows: “How will pupils’ understanding of the concept be facilitated by this instructional component?” (Daily) (adapted from Danielson, 2009)

b. Prior to commencing any unit, ascertain potential pupil misconceptions. When planning for lessons in the unit, ask: “Which misconceptions are expected to crop up during the lesson? How can they be dealt with?” (Periodically: before commencing every unit)

i. A potentially-effective approach is: employing a Misconceptions Template.

2. For the purpose of planning and execution of learning activities aimed at pupils’ cognitive participation and progress through grade-specific content: (Fall)

a. When planning, ascertain the ways in which in-lesson activities offer avenues for differentiation, application of higher-order thinking skills, collaboration with peers and pupil choice. (Daily)

i. The administrator will observe one lesson and provide feedback on how pupils’ cognitive engagement was achieved through the learning activity.

3. For the purpose of supervision of pupil learning through meticulous, advance planning of continuous evaluations, and integrating them smoothly into class to determine whether or not pupils have succeeded in the desired learning outcomes: (Winter/Spring) (adapted from Danielson, 2009)

a. Before individual lessons, ascertain no less than one approach for supervising pupil learning in the course of the lesson, to evaluate whether or not pupils have acquired mastery over the desired learning outcome. Upon lesson completion, reflect on the extent to which the evaluation approach facilitated assessment of whether pupils were learning all through the course of the given lesson and had acquired mastery over the desired learning outcome.

b. Ascertain ways to track pupil evaluation information gathered using the aforementioned step and routinely employ this process for guiding future instruction and lesson planning.

i. During inter-visitations with coworkers, converse on their evaluation information management system.

4. For the purpose of providing pertinent, timely and constructive feedback to pupils, which guides them with regard to areas where performance improvements are necessary: (Winter/Spring)

a. In case of individual lessons, ascertain no less than one approach for offering pupil feedback and guiding them to understand areas for individual performance improvement. (Daily)

b. Periodic self-evaluation for ascertaining whether or not precise, well-defined, constructive, pertinent and timely feedback was provide. (Every fortnight)

5. For the Areas of Improvement #1, 2, 3, and 4:

a. Meet with coworkers demonstrating superior practices, observe their emphasis on particular concepts, come up with cognitively stimulating activities, and evaluate concepts, particularly within the instruction of same subject coworkers. (Monthly) (adapted from Danielson, 2009)

Timeline for Completion: Determine a timeline to accomplish the aforementioned activities or action steps. (Refer to the above-indicated timelines)