During the September school holidays, Pat and I attended Dr Anita Archer's Train the Trainer professional development course.
The five day course was targeted at teacher and school leaders looking to improve and maintain the instructional delivery skills of their colleagues and teaching staff.
Dr Anita Archer is an educational consultant to school districts in the US on explicit instruction, the design and delivery of instruction, behaviour management, and literacy instruction.
Here are some of the key messages we received from our workshop with Dr Anita Archer during the holidays.
Not surprisingly, Dr Archer's central goal is student learning. She recommends the research-validated approach of explicit instruction, which increases:
- student accountability and productivity
- teacher expectations of student behaviour and work
- student interaction with peers and the teacher
- clarity and focus in planning and delivery
- student retrieval and review of previous learning
Dr Archer gave us a variety of techniques from her 51 years of teaching and academic expertise. In the near future, Pat and I will gradually share some of these explicit teaching strategies, as well as some of our own associated gems and challenges for teachers.
- Catherine Black
