Rochelle Lee Teacher Award Study Groups are school-based professional learning communities. Study groups develop a goal to guide their learning throughout the school year, and meet monthly to discuss instruction and push their practice to reach their goal. Learn more about National Teacher’s Academy study group and what they learned about the components of a balanced literacy program.
School: National Teacher’s Academy (upper grades)
Text: Textured Teaching: A Framework for Culturally Sustaining Practices by Lorena Escoto Germán
Study Group Leader: Laura Gluckman
Study Group Members: Jessica Kibblewhite, Melissa Hausser
Goal: Our goal is to examine our own curricula in order to make changes and include our students in the process through the co-creation of lessons and the development of a toolkit by building critical consciousness. However, we then shifted our focus to broader questions, “How can we be most responsive to our students?” “What does responsiveness look like in a crisis?”
With the guidance of our coach Jessica U., we began to think more broadly about what engagement and responsiveness meant in this “crisis” year. We began to implement pieces from the sections on interdisciplinary and experiential learning, with a focus on collaborating with students to develop small routines that ended up having a large impact to heighten their critical consciousness.
Overall this year we found small ways to cultivate and protect joy, while also supporting students in critical thinking and building critical consciousness.
