Best Practices

Chapter 8 of Best Practice: Today's Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 2003)offers seven structures of best teaching which include: small group activities, reading as thinking, representing-to-learn, classroom workshop, authentic experiences, reflective assessment, and integrative units. Some of these practices I have incorporated into my teaching on some level, but I was really interested in the concept of classroom workshop and how to creatively use this concept in high school within a 45 minute period. Two challenges I see in this approach for professionals new to the field include possessing a mastery of the course content prior to teaching the course if the teacher and students create the curriculum map for the semester, and classroom management issues with students who simultaneously work in groups, independently or one-on-one with the teacher. Maybe this process could be introduced to second and third year teachers who may be more familiar with the course content and more flexible in learning new styles before the traditional lecture approach takes hold on their practice. Another challenge to this concept is that unlike elementary schools where individuals remain with a certain grade level for some time, on the high school level, many teachers are frequently assigned different teaching responsibilities from year to year. It would be difficult to incorporate this process if each year the teacher is trying to become familiar with the course content prior to teaching and exposing the material to the students. This approach (which I really do like) would call for the administration of the school to strategically plan the length of time each teacher would teach a particular class. Barring attrition, this is easily accomplished if this is a goal for the administration. As we saw in the example of Delois Strickland, incorporating any new process into one's teaching practice takes several years to not only become familiar with the process, but to tweak it for greater student-centered learning, especially if the teacher is more familiar and comfortable with the traditional approach to classroom learning. I can see how all of these principles can really energize the students and the teachers for greater shared responsibility in the learning process.