Hi Chris, Thanks for trusting us enough to reach out to us for support. I can understand your reticence to enter others' classrooms, because I tend to be somewhat shy myself and kind of have to push myself to put myself out there too, but if you were a good enough teacher to be asked to be a literacy coach, then you will do a great job in your new role.
I have to say that I was absolutely shocked and amazed by your email. Take heart! No!!! That is absolutely NOT what you are supposed to be doing. How do you give a model lesson? You teach somebody else's class the same way that you would teach your own students....it's that simple. Only you probably don't know their names, so you will have to ask them to tell you (and the teacher, who should be in the room most of the time can help). You also have one thing going for you: students are USUALLY more cooperative and helpful to visitors than to their own teacher; I have only known one exception to this. My eighth period class last year who were even disrespectful to a visitor. However, this is certainly the exception. Usually students love to novelty of having a guest teacher, and no, you don't have to give out pep talks and prizes. Just getting to do something different is usually interesting enough to them, and they generally enjoy participating and getting attention from another adult. I would certainly suggest meeting with the teacher in advance. Ask her/him if there is a stategy that he/she would like help implementing in the classroom? Our district coordinator has helped with modeling writing workshop (conferring with students, especially), portfolios, etc. You also could model reciprocal teaching, think-alouds, you and the teacher could model together how to speak to each other in a literature circle (and how not to speak to each other, etc.) I strongly suggest trying to make your lessons relevant to what the teacher is currently working on. Let me know if you have any other questions. There are also some other literacy coaches on Real Writing Teachers' listserve and Middletalk (and I think this list) who should be able to help you with ideas. May Dartez/GA On Apr 8, 2007, at 12:10 PM, Chris Knoblaugh wrote: > Do you think that is what I am supposed to do? I > haven't received any guidance, and I'm pretty sure I > have become a nuisance for asking questions. When I > asked my colleagues, they said that is what always > happens in demo lessons. > > Do your experiences match that? > _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
