Melissa Pedraza Accountable Talk Reading Inclusion

 

Example of mentoring:
Leslie talks about her role as Melissa's mentor.

Leslie Richmond works with the UFT Teacher Center at the school, helping the school to attain its educational goals. She has been focusing on bringing the teaching philosophy "Balanced Literacy" into the school, and encouraging teachers to reflect upon their practice. She has been mentoring Melissa Pedraza for three years. In this conversation, Leslie and Melissa reflect on their work together and the process of mentoring in general.

7:45 min. quicktime video. (FAST: 19 MB / SLOW: 3.7 MB)

• UFT Teacher Center, facilitating with moving the school in a new curricular direction.
• How Leslie and Melissa's relationship has developed from more hands-on (where Leslie would do demo-lessons), to more post-class evaluations, with co-planning conversations outside class that help Melissa to move to the next step.
• Leslie's encouragement of Melissa taking on the challenge of National Board Certification, as a natural outgrowth of Melissa's desire to change aspects of her teaching practice.
• Melissa's development of skills in teaching students with special needs: using students to help differentiate instruction for each other.

Melissa talks about her work with Leslie.

5 min. quicktime video. (FAST: 17 MB / SLOW: 2.5 MB)

• Working together on Balanced Literacy.
• Leslie's mentorship through the National Board Certification process and beyond.
• The progression of Melissa's teaching skills amidst the bombardment of a complex array of ideas and expectations for new teachers--Leslie's help in deciding "what to teach."
• How the mentorship has helped Melissa to reflect on her own teaching.
• Leslie responds and speaks of the great demands that are put on teachers, and how she, using the National Board Certification process, tries to help teachers like Melissa move through these expectations toward developing a solid and empathetic teaching practice.


Leslie and Melissa talk after reading class.


PART I: 7.25 min. quicktime video (FAST: 24 MB / SLOW: 3.5 MB)
PART 2: 5:23 min quicktime video (FAST: 17 MB / SLOW: 2.5 MB)

Part I:
• Review of the day: Leslie tells what she noticed in the class today, noting that the children are at the point in the year when they are able to speak accountably with each other without as much help from the teachers.
• Discussion of goals (accountable talk and text-to-text connections) and lesson plan for the upcoming class.
• Decision to continue to talk about the problems in the two books the class talked about today, with a focus on the emotions that the texts are bringing up.
Part II:
• Discussion of how to address both teaching goals and the emotions that the books bring out.
• Step-by-step discussion of how the next day's reading class will go.