One of the most important relationships a principal has is with his or her instructional coach (or coaches). The strength of this partnership directly impacts student outcomes because it builds collective teacher efficacy. In this article, Student-Centered Coaching experts Diana Sweeney and Ann Mausbach share three practices to elevate the work of…

Your students are sitting at their desks, using a checklist to revise their writing. You see that some are consistently checking off the same areas they always do as "needing improvement" and that others are simply marking off a skill as "mastered," scarcely glancing at the piece of writing in front of them. The authors suggest…

English teacher Cris Tovani knows from her experiences teaching elementary school that students are naturally curious. But, too often, students are so trained to be question answerers that by the time they reach high school, they no longer form questions of their own and instead focus on trying to figure out what answer the teacher wants. Tovani…

Many teachers shy away from conversations about diversity issues in the classroom--because they feel pressured to cover the mandated curriculum, or because they worry about students' and parents' reactions, or because they're afraid they'll say the wrong thing or won't know how to respond to comments that can make everyone feel uncomfortable. In…

"One teacher resists making appointments!" "My problem is with a teacher who says 'Why should I have to change my teaching when most of my students are proficient?'" "Teachers act as if I'm too young to know anything." Instructional coaches, principals and others responsible for leading change in schools find teachers…

A growing number of students in U.S. classrooms have spent more than five years in U.S. schools but have not yet attained fluency in English. These students account for 30 percent to 70 percent of English learners, and most have been in U.S. schools since kindergarten. Through research and their own experiences, Jana Echevarria, Nancy Frey, and…

In terms of teacher quality, Steele believes the best teachers have reached a stage she terms inspired, and that teachers move progressively through the stages of unaware, aware, and capable until the most reflective teachers finally reach the inspired level. Inspired teachers have a wide repertoire of teaching and class management techniques and…

Because they focus on the quality of instruction, teacher evaluations can be powerful catalysts for teacher and school improvement. But today, the typical teacher evaluation consists of a single, fleeting classroom visit by an administrator untrained in evaluation. Often he or she wields a checklist of classroom conditions and teacher behaviors…

Describes the reasons for the Hunter teaching model's effectiveness. First, it is clear; second, it can be immediately applied; and third, it promotes a common vocabulary that gives teachers a common language with which they can work together in the development of the teaching process. (MD)

During the last few decades, the author and his colleagues have developed an instructional framework for infusing thinking into content instruction in every subject and at every grade level. In thinking-based learning, teachers explicitly teach students thinking strategies and important habits of mind and then give students opportunities to apply…

Hunter's "seven-step lesson plan" has been misinterpreted and misunderstood. The plan was developed to be used flexibly, through misinterpretation it has been used too rigidly. The seven steps would be better understood if conceived as "generic" instructional processes to be "considered" in every teaching situation.…

According to the Spectrum concept, all teaching is a chain of deliberate acts resulting from a decision-making process that begins before the teaching transaction and continues through evaluation. The Spectrum places all styles of teaching on a continuum according to whether teachers or learners are most responsible for decision making. (PGD)

A California school district used the Hunter teaching model for a study to measure the effect of the model on teachers and students in two schools over a four-year period. Evaluation shows that student achievement and teacher behavior improved during the first three years then dropped during the fourth. (MD)

When Richmond County, Georgia, teachers formed study groups to become proficient in new teaching strategies, their students' achievement and behavior improved markedly. The teachers adopted an organic approach to school renewal, restructuring the workplace and using training to bring research-based teaching models into teachers' regular workday.…

At a new charter school serving predominantly defiant underachievers and special-needs students, a psychology teacher was challenged to implement founders' brain-based principles. She succeeded by establishing a climate of relaxed alertness, immersing students in meaningful experiences, and guiding them in processing their experiences. (MLH)