Putting Research-to-Practice in Teacher Preparation: Learner Ready Day One

Friday, September 29, 2017

Morning Breakout Sessions

  • Developing and Implementing Practice-based clinical Assessments aligned with the edTPA

    Presenter: Joan Nicoll-Senft

    Location: Fife & Gwent

    This session will provide participants with an overview of evidence-based practice strategies as outlined in the Developing Quality Fieldwork Experiences for Teacher Candidates: A Planning Guide for Educator Preparation Programs and District Partners (2017). Participants will be provided with a detailed overview of three field-based clinical assessments: 1) the use of a universal design for learning (UDL) lesson plan template to develop and teach 2 – 3 lessons in an early field placement, 2) a video analysis assignment designed to demonstrate a candidate’s understanding of the standards, objectives, and assessment of language and literacy in the middle stage of a program, and 3) a unit planned for implementation immediately prior to student teaching for implementation during the candidate’s upcoming student teaching experience. Developed for a Masters of Teaching (MAT) Program designed to prepare beginning secondary and special educators to collaborate to support struggling learners in the general curriculum, these assessments are aligned were carefully sequenced and aligned to the edTPA by program faculty.

  • Bringing Partners To the Table: Putting Principles Into Practice

    Presenters: Lauren Tafrate, Sally Drew, James DeLaura, Nancy Hoffman, and Cara Mulcahey

    Location: Kent

    This presentation explains the creation of a district partnership structure as part of a full redesign of teacher preparation over the past two years at Central Connecticut State University.  It will highlight the ways CCSU’s process aligns with the CEEDAR Center’s guidance document: Developing Quality Fieldwork Experiences for Teacher Candidates.

  • A Practical Approach to Teaching Argumentation

    Presenters: Cheryl Dickinson and Sabine Januski

    Location: Crowne 1

    The presenters identify a scaffolded process for teaching students to write and orally defend arguments. The argumentation process is supported by five universally accepted principles of learning. Student artifacts from a range of learners illustrate the process and effect on student achievement.  The process is applicable to existing curricula.

    Download Handout from Session:

  • Using the CEEDAR Course Enhancement Module for Behavior Management to Support Pre-Service Candidate Learning and In-Service Teacher Professional Development

    Presenters: Kara Faraclas, Judy Terpstra, and Don Briere

    Location: Highland

    Classroom and behavior management skills are essential for effective classroom instruction, yet many teachers report feeling underprepared to manage challenging student behaviors.  University instructors share initial experiences using the CEEDAR Classroom and Behavior Management Course Enhancement Module to help prepare teacher candidates to use evidence-based assessment and behavior intervention practices.

  • Learning to Teach: A Framework for Crafting High-Quality, Practice-Based Opportunities

    Presenters: Lynn Holdheide and Abby Foley Marshall

    Location: Ballroom

    Change is hard and it does not occur overnight. It requires practice, coaching, reflection, and MORE practice, coaching and reflection. Over the last decade teachers have been charged with changing their practice via a plethora of reform initiatives. Knowing that it takes years to develop a level of expertise, how can we honestly expect teachers to change a slew of practices at the same time?  This session will discuss the essential features of high-quality practice-based opportunities – inclusive of feedback, coaching and reflection – and offer the notion that targeting specific high-leverage (and evidence-based) instructional practices will likely lead to increased student achievement and lessen the anxiety of already over-taxed teachers. Join us for a lively and provocative discussion that may just help retain quality teachers.

  • Using Lesson Study to Prepare Preservice Educators

    Presenters: Amber Benedict and Carly Roberts

    Location: Jersey

    This presentation will include an overview of Lesson Study and recommendations for how it can be incorporated into preservice teacher education programs to improve candidates’ knowledge and implementation of evidence-based practices. The presentation will include detailed information about how to structure and implement each step of the Lesson Study process, including a framework for collaborative planning, tools to guide collective analysis and debriefing, and work samples from our experiences and research integrating lesson study into preservice special education teacher coursework.

    Download Session PPT and Handouts

Afternoon Breakout Sessions

  • Framework for Disciplinary Writing in Science Instruction

    Presenters: Sally Drew and Jeff Thomas

    Location: Jersey

    This session will provide participants with research- and evidence-based strategies for helping adolescents become better writers in science. Participants will learn a comprehensive framework for including writing in science in ways that support students’ learning and writing development, while also aligning to the writing purposes of the CCSS and NGSS.

  • Practice-Based Clinical Experiences: Linking Assessment and Instruction in Literacy

    Presenters: Ashley Oldham and Sharon M. Ware

    Location: Fife & Gwent

    In order for teacher candidates to be Learner Ready Day One, EPP’s must provide robust and distributed practice-based opportunities across teacher preparation programs. This presentation will focus on how one EPP designed a series of courses where candidates apply evidence-based literacy practices in a collaborative teaching environment. Connections to edTPA will be discussed.

  • Developing Prospective Teachers’ Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Mathematics and Beyond

    Presenters: Lindsay Keazer and Shelly Jones

    Location: Highland

    This presentation will review research on teaching prospective teachers about culturally relevant pedagogy, share projects used to foster prospective teachers’ thinking about incorporating students’ cultures into teaching mathematics, and share findings about how prospective elementary teachers consider culture when developing culturally relevant lesson plans.

  • Using Supervised Tutoring to Enhance Teacher Candidates’ Learning of High-Leverage Teaching Practices

    Presenter: Louise Spear-Swerling

    Location: Crowne 1

    This presentation describes supervised tutoring experiences embedded in two methods courses that are part of an undergraduate teacher preparation program in special education at Southern Connecticut State University. One tutoring experience involves math and the other involves basic reading. Both experiences help to develop teacher candidates’ learning of high-leverage teaching practices such as explanation and modeling; diagnosing common patterns of student thinking; analyzing instruction for the purpose of improving it; and setting long-term and short-term goals. The structure of each clinical experience and its place in the overall teacher preparation program, as well as the benefits and challenges of structuring clinical experiences in this manner, will be discussed. Time will also be allotted for Q & A.

  • Developing Quality Fieldwork Experiences for Teacher Candidates: A Planning Guide for Educator Preparation Programs and District Partners

    Presenter: Georgette Nemr, Suzanne Robinson, and Rosemary Tralli

    Location: Ballroom

    Presenters will share a framework and set of tools laid out in a guidance document for planning field/clinical work experiences that are evidence-based and practice-focused that across the teacher preparation program but prior to student teaching. The session leaders will provide 1) a process and set of tools for EPP teams to use in planning fieldwork experiences, 2) how to engage LEA partners in planning and supporting EPP fieldwork, and 3) examples of how some of these strategies have been operationalized in varied EPP contexts.