Teaching grown-ups May 8, 2008

Some weeks ago, a person from the early childhood department was visiting my classroom, and she saw me doing story time using the repeated interactive read-aloud strategy, so we talked about how it works, and I offered to do a little workshop on it for the other pre-K teachers in the district.  She said, “sure”, so then she came to my room three times to videotape me doing the three read-alouds.

Yesterday was the all-day meeting for the pre-K teachers, and my part was after lunch, after the head of the early childhood department spoke to us.  (I was hoping she’d leave for some important appointment, but alas, she stayed put.  I’m not sure how she feels about me, because on the one hand I have a solid reputation as a good teacher, but on the other, I ask difficult and pointed questions at our meetings.)

A third of the way through my presentation (what is a repeated interactive read-aloud (RIRA)?  how is it different from the way teachers usually read stories?  what does the research say?  how is it connected to the standards?  etc.) I started to worry, as no one was asking questions and everyone’s face looked blank.  Thankfully, Sarah’s video was perfect, and people started to warm up and ask questions, and at the end, the other teachers were excited about it and I was hugely relieved.

It was quite nice to come back to school today and hang out with four and five year olds.