Madeleine Gregg

REACH: A Framework for Differentiating Classroom Instruction.

Today, teachers are responsible not only for meeting the diverse needs of all students but also for ensuring improved educational outcomes. Accordingly, school personnel are seeking proven ways to strengthen traditional classroom practices. Beginning with the plight of two teachers—one general and one special education—the authors offer a rationale for differentiating instruction. Then they review the literature on differentiated instruction, highlighting the myths, models, and evidence to support it. The authors draw on the accumulated research to provide a framework for differentiating instruction. Using REACH as a mnemonic, the framework they developed includes a comprehensive inventory and several practical strategies for using it. They revisit the case vignette to illustrate the application of the REACH framework.

Mapping Out Geography: An Example of Epistemology and Education:

Geography has recently emerged as a topic of considerable interest among educators, but there is little consensus about either content or pedagogy in the precollegiate geography curriculum. However, geography education is essential if students are to develop a sense of “geographic literacy” and an ability to reason spatially. A major problem is that many teachers who never studied geography are now being asked to teach it. This literature review discusses the epistemology of geography and the rationale for including it in the curriculum. Research about geography learning and teaching is then reviewed. Finally, a previous, unsuccessful attempt to reinstate geography into the high school curriculum is examined in the light of today’s geography education reform efforts. Without an understanding of both the core epistemological themes and concepts of geography and the problems that students face as learners, the five themes currently being proposed for use in the K–12 curriculum are of limited use.

Virtual Coaching for Novice Teachers

Technology enables university professors to observe and literally whisper in the ear of a teacher during instruction.

How Are They Now? Longer Term Effects of eCoaching Through Online Bug-In-Ear Technology

In this study, using mixed methods, we investigated the longer term effects of eCoaching through advanced online bug-in-ear (BIE) technology. Quantitative data on five dependent variables were extracted from 14 participants’ electronically archived video files at three points in time—Spring 1 (i.e., baseline, which was the first semester of enrollment without eCoaching feedback), Spring 2 (i.e., 1 year later with eCoaching feedback), and Spring 3 (i.e., 2 years later after exiting the program without eCoaching feedback). Qualitative data were collected by means of interviews with participants regarding their ongoing participation in eCoaching. Quantitative analysis, using repeated-measures ANOVA, confirmed initial improvements in participants’ teaching practices and P-12 student engagement generally withstood the test of time. Also, qualitative findings indicated, as time went on, participants had more positive than negative attitudes toward eCoaching through advanced online BIE.

Learning From the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute: Documenting Teacher Development

This study explores the extent to which experiences designed to help preservice teachers take advantage of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute moved them to acquire deeper knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement. The pre-service teachers came from two teacher education programs that differ with respect to situated activity, discourse communities, and authentic practice. Before and after a visiting the museum, undergraduate preservice teachers (n = 49) created concept maps, or “webs,” of the Civil Rights Movement, responded to discussion prompts in small groups, and prepared field-trip activities and follow-up lessons. Analyses of the webs, conversations, activities, and lesson plans revealed that all students gained a considerable amount of information, appreciation, and understanding. Differences in the two groups support the idea of teacher education frameworks that build from the “community of learners” model.

Problem Posing from Maps: Utilizing Understanding

Abstract In this study, pairs of students in fifth and seventh grade generated and answered questions based on maps. More than 90 percent of the questions they generated made sense with reference to the map on which they were based. Each of these questions was coded in terms of both its informational content (symbols, latitude and longitude, and scale) and the process by which a map user obtains the information from the map (map reading, map interpreting, map inferring). Results indicated that students most often generated three types of questions, which together accounted for more than 80 percent of all the questions: 1) read symbol, 2) infer latitude and longitude, and 3) interpret scale. Qualitatively, the questions were analyzed for what they revealed about student confusion about map content. Problems with all three aspects of map content were common among both fifth- and seventh-grade students. The problem-posing technique proved useful for evaluating students knowledge.

The Stealth Approach: Geography and Poetry.

Abstract This article examines the ways in which the poetry strand of literacy instruction can help teachers infuse geography into the elementary classroom. Teachers can use poems to target important aspects of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. When the poems contain substantive geography content, teachers can “sneak” geography mini-lessons into discussions of vocabulary or reading comprehension, for example. As they teach children about the language play of poetry and as the children reread poems to develop fluency, teachers can keep core geography concepts central to the childrens attention. This article discusses how various poems with geography content contribute to each component of literacy instruction.

Strategies for geographic memory: Oh, what a state we're in!

This study used protocol analysis to find differences in strategy use and reasoning among five groups of subjects who were given a blank map of the United States and asked to locate states. The subjects were both children (in 5th and 11th grades) and adults (3 levels of education). For all subjects, boundaries influenced the recall, with land‐water boundaries most salient and states located along a national boundary more memorable than states bounded only by other states. Three phases of geographic information use were found. In Phase 1, subjects rapidly accessed directly stored and generally correct information. In Phase 2, subjects reasoned about state names and locations using three categories of information: visual‐perceptual, experiential, or content‐based. In Phase 3, subjects used processes of elimination to finish the task.

Can You Skype Me Now? Developing Teachers' Classroom Management Practices through Virtual Coaching.

A t 9:39 AM on a cold November morning, the first author (i.e., Marcia) was working from her university office in North Carolina, when she received a Skype instant message. The message was from a second-grade teacher located several states away, whom we will call Kalli. Kalli’s message was: ‘‘Are you busy right now? ‘‘M’’ is having a meltdown and I need some backup.’’ For the next 10 minutes, Marcia virtually coached Kalli as she provided individualized positive behavior support to M and engaged the whole class in language arts instruction. Marcia and Kalli began their Skype interactions as part of a federal training grant that included a master’s level course in behavior management. When Marcia first Skyped into Kalli’s classroom, M was exhibiting a variety of challenging behaviors, including whining, crying, yelling, and making repeated requests for teacher assistance. He was also out of his seat frequently. Based on the results of a functional behavior assessment Kalli had completed, the hypothesized function of M’s meltdowns was to gain teacher attention. So, Marcia focused her feedback on helping Kalli carry out the strategies included in M’s positive behavior support plan with fidelity. In a short period of time, M’s challenging behavior decreased dramatically. At 9:54 AM, after quickly debriefing with Kalli and disconnecting the Skypebased virtual coaching session, Marcia sent Kalli this instant message: ‘‘You did an exemplary job—absolutely masterful. Hang with it during the extinction burst—it will get better. However, if he endangers self or others, then he needs to be removed to the office. Keep up the great work and the positive attitude (hug)!’’ Approximately 3 minutes later, during a routine break in instruction, Kalli replied, ‘‘thank you thank you thank you.’’ Like Kalli, many frontline practitioners find it a real challenge to translate the principles of effective classroom management into everyday practice. New special educators frequently report that they exit teacher preparation programs unprepared for the realities of the classroom (Kaff, Zabel, & Milham, 2007; Rush & Harrison, 2008; Westling, 2010), whereas in-service teachers report that classroom management is one of their top professional development needs (Cakmak, 2008; McNally, I’anson, Whewell, & Wilson, 2005). Traditionally, teacher educators have relied on college courses and topic-based workshops to foster classroom management skills; however, there is little evidence to suggest that these formats provide special education teacher candidates with a strong grounding in the use of evidence-based classroom management practices (Simonson, Myers, & DeLuca, 2010). Rather, it is supervising teachers, not college instructors, who have the greatest influence on preservice teachers’ classroom management beliefs and practices, with preservice teachers basing classroom management procedures on those used in their mentor teachers’ classrooms (Oliver & Reschly, 2010; Putman, 2009; Sandoval-Lucero, Maes, & Chopra, 2011). This is not to suggest that learning from mentor teachers is unwelcome. Indeed, if the mentor uses evidence-based classroom management practices, then emulating those practices is certainly to be desired. However, the fact that the strength of mentor imitation is greater than skills taught elsewhere suggests that time spent in teacher preparation courses, professional development activities, and other forms of mentorship are of little practical value in developing a teacher’s classroom management skills, a finding that is much more problematic. If the material taught in other venues is to provide the value that it should, changes in teaching methods will have to be made. New technology, such as the Skype-based virtual coaching used with Kalli, has already begun to provide a promising direction for these changes, making possible new forms of interactions between students and university instructors (Israel, Knowlton, Griswold, & Rowland, 2009; Rock, Zigmond, Gregg, & Gable, 2011). Still, the need for additional research remains, particularly in the area of Web-based coaching (Gallucci, Van Lare, & Boatright, 2010; Kretlow & Bartholomew, 2010; Rock, Gregg, Thead, et al., 2009; Rock et al. 2012). VIRTUAL COACHING CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Geography and Multiple Abilities Program: Innovations in Teacher Education--Reconnecting Teaching to Students' Needs.

Abstract The University of Alabama is now offering a new and innovative, five-semester program that provides preservice teachers with both knowledge of and skill in using strategies and teaching methods associated with general and special education. The goal of the Multiple Abilities Program (MAP) is to enable teachers to accommodate the wide range of learning styles and developmental readiness for instruction of all learners in a given classroom, regardless of the labels with which the children are identified. This article describes MAP in light of the geography strand of the MAP curriculum. MAP students work with five topics in geography, which they use to develop a greater understanding of how authentic teaching and learning of geography are mediated by cognitive, affective, and social needs of children. MAP students take a particular topic in geography and design and implement instruction for it by creating authentic learning activities that offer elementary school students an opportunity to explore t...