Article+response-+An+Early+Start+on+Thinking



Hi All,

I just re-read the article from Educational Leadership by Ann Epstein that I passed on to you in December. I had a couple thoughts come to mind as I read it that I thought I'd pass on to you. Let me know your thoughts from the article too! First of all, I thought it was interesting when Epstein stated that "for students to become critical thinkers, teachers must not only encourage such behaviour in the classroom but also model critical thinking themselves". I was thinking that this is so true, and this collaborative inquiry project that we're all engaged in together provides that opportunity to become critical thinkers as we evaluate what current practices are working right now in our classroom to promote critical thinking and investigating, planning and trying out new teaching strategies to further engage our students in critical thinking. The section on team planning struck a chord with me as well, and again, I considered how this is exactly what this project is allowing us to do as you co-plan and co-teach lessons together and then meet back again to de-brief (just as the teachers, Sara and Chloe from the article did). I like how they had the anecdotal notes provided to show the dialogue between the 2 teachers as they considered ways to continue providing for the students' learning needs based on their observations and the children's interests. Epstein states that "if you teach without a teaching partner in your class, you can partner with a teacher in another classroom or record and review anecdotes on your own. The important thing is to observe, record, review, and plan regularly, preferably daily". I agree, that the collaboration that can happen between teaching partners can make the planning experience so much richer to meet students' needs. Looking forward to hearing your feedback from the article!