It would be safe to say that no public
school teacher in Philadelphia has seen or heard any colleague forcing a
student to face the wall and repeat the same phrase 25 or 30 times. Any
principal who witnessed such an occurrence would be within his or her rights to
formally reprimand that teacher.
Wall Practice:
1. After giving feedback and monitoring to the point of automaticity, have teacher(s) turn toward a wall in the room to practice the skill 10-20 more times (primarily used for multi-teacher PD sessions).
2. Frame as optimal practice because greatest number of reps can be achieved this way.
3. Emphasize the importance of every rep being executed perfectly and with exaggeration of nuances.
1. After giving feedback and monitoring to the point of automaticity, have teacher(s) turn toward a wall in the room to practice the skill 10-20 more times (primarily used for multi-teacher PD sessions).
2. Frame as optimal practice because greatest number of reps can be achieved this way.
3. Emphasize the importance of every rep being executed perfectly and with exaggeration of nuances.
Incredibly, that is precisely what
teachers in some district schools are being forced to do. It is but one of the tactics developed by Jounce Partners
as part of its intensive coaching and professional development plan,
already in use at McDaniel Elementary, one of the eleven schools designated
last year as "Priority Schools". The district has approved Jounce as a
partner for principal and teacher training in schools that have been included
in its "System of Great Schools".
The district hired Cambridge Education to conduct surveys of the
parents, teachers, students and community members at last year's "Priority
schools". APPS members heard these stakeholders ask for more staff, return of
NTAs and librarians, more counselors, smaller class size, less standardized
testing and more after-school activities. We did not hear any member of any the
eleven school communities ask for the removal of teachers and principals or
more training for teachers. Nevertheless, the SRC approved a resolution to
enter into a $70,000 contract with Jounce Partners for "Implementation of
High-frequency teacher Coaching for School Transformation" at McDaniel
Elementary. That resolution, one of 142 approved by the SRC at its June 2017
Action Meeting, stated:
Through this partnership, Jounce will intensively
train the school leader and coaching team to implement the high frequency
coaching model described above. Jounce personnel will function as on- site
instructional coaches, coaching teachers daily to kickstart implementation of
the high-frequency coaching model. Jounce will also co-plan and co-facilitate a
summer coaching institute, will participate in regular classroom visits, will
co-facilitate monthly coaching step back meetings, and will work with school
leaders and teachers to establish and codify weekly co-teaching and coaching
practices. The partnership will provide an on-site Jounce coach for 5 half days
each week, who will directly coach teachers in addition to working with the
leadership team.
There was no deliberation or discussion
among SRC members before the vote, no explanation of the program by Dr. Hite in
his remarks, and no staff presentation on the subject. The McDaniel faculty was
told just months before the resolution passed that they had to reapply for
their jobs; future employment at the school was contingent on their agreement
to participate in the Jounce training. A ten-day summer "training institute""
was mandatory.
The district has contracted with Jounce to
work at other district schools including Vare-Washington in previous years. In
Spring 2017, the SRC approved a new charter application for Deep Roots Charter,
to be operated by Jounce staffers.
One teacher subjected to the training
program in a Philadelphia charter school for three years 1has described it as "dehumanizing". The Jounce program breaks down both teaching and learning
into isolated skills:
High-repetition practice: In a coaching session, a teacher may repeat the same specific skill twenty times, thirty times, or even more, allowing her to build automaticity, which leads to a) excellent execution every time, and b) freed up cognitive energy for teaching tasks.
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