Return-Path: <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id j3L0ijG23627; Wed, 20 Apr 2005 20:44:45 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 20:44:45 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <1c3.27040f21.2f98511c@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: BlastGrant@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:2073] Re: learners' role in teacher training X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: 9.0 Security Edition for Windows sub 1200 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: O Content-Length: 3367 Lines: 57 Here's a model we've used in New Mexico. We build many of our student workshops around a question or a theme. For example : What can a teacher learn from a student? What makes a good ABE teacher? What should every teacher know if they are going to teach adult students? The key to a student workshop is group preparation. The students meet together to talk through the theme together. They listen to each others' ideas. They speak their ideas out-loud to find the words to express their ideas and feelings. The meetings build a team for the students. They are presenting to a room full of teachers, and that is intimidating. Spending time together sharing ideas lets students meet the room full of teachers as a team. During the prep, the students find the main themes they want to talk about. Our trainer asks questions that they think the teachers might ask them to give them time to work out their answers. In the workshop, the students begin by speaking for a few minutes each. Each student has one main point they want to make to teachers. This opening gets ideas and themes into the room. Then we have a discussion between students and teachers for the rest of the workshop. We try to keep 75% of our time for Q&A and discussion. Discussion works to students' strengths. Answering teachers' questions is lot easier than figuring out what teachers want to hear and then planning out a full hour workshop. Students in BLAST prefer to hear teachers questions and then respond to questions from the heart. Even shy students who don't think they'll want to speak jump in once the conversation gets going. The topics are interesting and they realize they have something to say. One key agreement we make with students is that they do not have to speak if they don't want to. That gives them the permission to keep quiet if they are uncomfortable. We've never had a student be in a workshop and not speak. But that agreement has been a critical source of trust for students. We also emphasize that they can always answer a question with "I don't know," and that answer is sufficient. Facilitation is also critically important. Our facilitators begin by setting ground rules: Respect, each student is speaking from their experience, not proclaiming truth; Teachers can disagree and students are not always right, but we encourage them to listen to how students think, even if they disagree. Facilitators rephrase questions from teachers if students don't understand (teachers can speak with jargon they don't realize is jargon, e.g. words like assessment, retention) . Facilitators also ask students to clarify if their point is not clear. Students speak in stories. They speak from their experiences and the experiences of other adult students. We encourage that. Its their style. At the end of a story, we ask them what the story teaches us -- what's their main point, or the moral of the story. Finally, we write the main ideas from the student/teacher discussion on a wall chart. Dialogues are great, but they can end with so many ideas that its hard to know what you are taking home. So we write it all down. We have found its much more satisfying for teachers, especially concrete thinkers who want the brass tacks -- not just stories from students.
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