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Collaborative Peer Coaching That Improves Instruction
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Collaborative Peer Coaching That Improves Instruction
The 2 + 2 Performance Appraisal Model

Edited by:


October 2004 | 136 pages | Corwin

"This book should be required reading for all teachers and administrators seriously seeking ways to engage teachers in their own professional development and learning."
Rudolph F. Crew, Former Chancellor
New York City Schools

"The book is an action-oriented game plan to improve teachers' performance-designed, initiated, and implemented by teachers. It tackles one of education's toughest issues-teacher isolation."
Anne Bryant, Executive Director
National School Boards Association

"The authors present a wonderfully simple idea for turning a school into a learning community. It is a powerful, growth-oriented strategy for creating instructional focus in a school."
Roy D. Nichols, Jr., Superintendent of Schools
Troup County (GA) Board of Education

Dramatically enhance teaching and learning by reviving teacher collaboration!

Behind a simple equation, 2 + 2, lies a rich yet realistic approach to enhancing teaching and learning. As Collaborative Peer Coaching That Improves Instruction demonstrates, the current method of job appraisal consists of sporadic classroom visits from school administrators that frequently serve to reinforce teacher isolation rather than promote professional development. In contrast, the 2 + 2 method, a practice where teachers visit each other's classrooms long enough to provide two compliments and two suggestions for improvement, has not only been proven to enhance teaching skills and student learning, but has also increased job satisfaction by reviving productive teacher collaboration.

Through the presentation of detailed case studies that illustrate the authors' actual experience implementing the program at an inner city school, this work chronicles how the 2 + 2 method:

  • Restores the vital connections between teachers and students, teachers and administrators, and teachers and teachers
  • Encourages teaching and learning to develop beyond what standardized tests reveal
  • Provides a low-cost, easy-to-implement program that is realistic, given teachers' time constraints and limited school budgets
  • Transforms schools into cultures of collaborative teaching and learning
  • The 2 + 2 program is much more than a simple equation; it is a powerful tool that can revolutionize a school's approach to teaching and learning.


    David C. Berliner
    Foreword
     
    Prologue
     
    Acknowledgments
     
    Introduction
     
    About the Authors
     
    1. The Performance Appraisal Paradox
     
    2. The Fine Art of Feedback: An Interlude
     
    3. What Is 2 + 2 Anyway?
     
    4. The Feedback Dilemma
     
    5. The 2 + 2 Pilot
     
    6. 2 + 2 Takes Shape
     
    7. 2 + 2: A Matter of Leadership
     
    8. 2 + 2 Takes Off
     
    9. Beyond the 2 + 2 Basics: A Second Interlude
     
    10. Institutionalizing 2 + 2
     
    Epilogue: Two Years Later
     
    2 + 2 for Teachers: Frequently Asked Questions
     
    Index

    The authors present a wonderfully simple idea for turning a school into a learning community. It is a powerful, growth-oriented strategy for creating instructional focus in a school.

    Roy D. Nichols, Jr., Superintendent of Schools
    Troup County (GA) Board of Education

    The book is an action-oriented game plan to improve teachers' performance--designed, initiated, and implemented by teachers. It tackles one of education's toughest issues--teacher isolation.

    Anne Bryant, Executive Director
    National School Boards Association

    A refreshing dose of what the educational world (and others, too) needs for joyful accountability.

    Jack Canfield, CEO
    Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprises

    The authors present a powerful idea with the potential to transform schools by tearing down walls between teachers.

    Rudolph Crew, Fomer Chancellor
    New York City Schools

    The 2+2 system fosters collegiality and contributes to professional development by reducing teacher isolation and encouraging collaboration among teachers.

    James Cooper, Commonwealth Professor of Education
    University of Virginia

    Encouraging teahcers to visit each other's classrooms and create an environment of sharing and mutal trust has the potential to transform the profession.

    William Lee
    United States Commissioner of Education

    Sharing ideas and feedback leads to teaching improvement and helps create valuable discourse on the learning process. A 2+2 program is a powerful way to change the culture of isolation. Education majors would experience a shared teaching culture--a model to emulate one day in their own classroom.

    Evan Dobelle, President
    University of Hawaii

    "Collaborative Peer Coaching That Improves Instruction: The 2 + 2 Performance Appraisal Model provides a simple method for performance apraisal for teachers that could be used by either peer teachers or administrators...The model provides feedback, encouragement, discussion, discourse, perspective, and collaboration in the improvement of instruction...model has been effective...The components of the model can be applied to other professions, especially those in the fields of social service and customer support."

    Susan Catapano
    American Psychological Association
    PsycCRITIQUES
    Key features
    • Simple to implement, and no additional funding is required!
    • 2 + 2 has been tested, modified, and used with success in several school districts
    • Highly readable story format that clearly illustrates how the 2+2 process should unfold, from initiation to institutionalization.
    • FAQ section
    • Reproducible classroom observation forms, teacher surveys
    • Sample 2+2 teacher comments and suggestions

     

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