At the Heart of Teaching: A Guide to Reflective Practice

by Grace Hall McEntee, John Appleby, JoAnne Dowd, Jan Grant, Simon Hole

Overview

Featuring engaging narratives, this “how-to” book delves into reflection as a concept and provides specific, replicable tools for professional practice. Each chapter draws on a particular school situation demonstrating the value of teacher reflection and describing the nuts and bolts of the process, including protocols for handling many different circumstances.

“At the end of each chapter I was dying to go back to the classroom and adapt a new idea into my practice. But probably more importantly, I saw my own practice in a new light as I read these engaging accounts of the work of other teachers. They ring true and honest to what schooling is about and how and why good teachers never give up—and why they love their work.”
—Deborah Meier, Co-principal of Mission Hill School and author of In Schools We Trust

“Typical professional development fare will rarely take us close to the particulars of our own practice. . . . As I read through these chapters, finally, it’s that sense of thoughtful becoming, that possibility of action in the midst of uncertainty that, at the end of the day, is the promise of this book.”
—From the Foreword by Mike Rose

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807777541
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	09/14/2018
Series:	the series on school reform
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	570 KB

About the Author

Grace Hall McEntee is a retired public high school teacher, co-founder and editor of the AISR Writing Within School Reform Publication Series, and co-founder of Educators Writing for Change. Jon Appleby teaches English at Noble High School in North Berwick, Maine. JoAnne Dowd is the curriculum coordinator for School Administrative Unit 21 in Hampton, New Hampshire, and is a national NSRF facilitator. Jan Grant is the founder and director of Forum and Associates, a consulting firm in Kingston, Rhode Island, dedicated to educational reform initiatives. Simon Hole teaches fourth grade in Narragansett, Rhode Island. Peggy Silva is co-author of Standards of Mind and Heart: Creating the Good High School and writing coordinator at Souhegan High School in Amherst, New Hampshire.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	ix
	Acknowledgments	xii
	Introduction	xiii
1.	Changing the Blame Game	1
2.	The Presentation: Examining Students At Work	10
3.	When Students Reflect Together: Socratic Discussions	23
4.	Student-Centered Meetings: A Protocol for Working with Families	34
5.	Storytelling and the Art of Reflective Conversation	41
6.	Reflection Is at the Heart of Practice	50
7.	Linking Student Learning to Teacher Practice through Critical Friends Groups	61
8.	All Together Now: Reflection as a Community Activity	67
9.	New Territories	78
10.	More than One Kind of Sandwich: A District Begins a Conversation about Reflective Practice	93
11.	Growing Reflective Practitioners	102
	Index	121
	About the Authors	125

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“At the end of each chapter I was dying to go back to the classroom and adapt a new idea into my practice. But probably more importantly, I saw my own practice in a new light as I read these engaging accounts of the work of other teachers. They ring true and honest to what schooling is about and how and why good teachers never give up—and why they love their work.”
— Deborah Meier, Co-principal of Mission Hill School and author of In Schools We Trust

“Typical professional development fare will rarely take us close to the particulars of our own practice….As I read through these chapters, finally, it’s that sense of thoughtful becoming, that possibility of action in the midst of uncertainty that, at the end of the day, is the promise of this book.”
—From the Foreword by Mike Rose