I am amazed at the response of our elementary teachers to the opportunities for GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) training. This summer we have 43 teachers attending two-day trainings in June and July and 50 signed up for the five-day training in July. The district is supporting the training costs and the teachers are giving their time to learn about this program.
I can’t remember any initiative in our system that has generated this level of enthusiasm and commitment in such a short period of time. What is driving this behavior? We need to bottle it for use in other initiatives. I have some ideas after attending some of the training this year in our district and observing some of our teachers implement what they learned, but would like to hear from you.
I can’t remember any initiative in our system that has generated this level of enthusiasm and commitment in such a short period of time. What is driving this behavior? We need to bottle it for use in other initiatives. I have some ideas after attending some of the training this year in our district and observing some of our teachers implement what they learned, but would like to hear from you.
For those who have already attended or for those who have heard the stories, what is it about GLAD that has resulted in this level of commitment? If you had to describe what the program is for someone with no information, what words would you use?
4 comments:
What is GLAD? It's a collection of best practice instructional strategies that have a powerful impact on our students.
I was in a unique position this year and my students got to be a demo class for one of the 5-day sessions. As I observed my students quickly grasping difficult content, using high academic language, holding high level conversations, truly collaborating with each other, and having a great time, I was immediately sold. While we're helping our students become collaborative workers and effective members of a team, I have seen incredible growth academically and socially. Students are holding themselves and each other more accountable for their learning. Quiet and reserved students are participating and contributing on a regular basis. Looking at all of the strategies I have tried with my students, which is a lot, the biggest impact has been with the T-Chart for Social Skills (we focus on Habits of Mind) and Numbered Heads (spoons).
GLAD is an amazing collection of strategies that really push our students in what Tahoma stands for. The level of impact these strategies have had on my students' learning has shown me the importance of GLAD and I am grateful to have the opportunity to become a district GLAD trainer.
I love working in a district with such high standards and rich curriculum. What has been missing is a way to make this kid friendly and exciting. From what I have observed about GLAD is that kids retain basic information, they have a voice in their learning, and are building schema that sticks with them. This is the bridge for our kids to attain such complex learning that is expected of them. I have only observed it in other classrooms and tried a couple of strategies myself, but am deeply grateful for the district's support in letting me go this summer and truly become a more effective teacher.
I agree that the enthusiasm among teachers has been overwhelming! I have also heard from parents of students that have a GLAD trained teacher, and they have commented on their child’s burst of enthusiasm for school and their child’s use of high level curriculum vocabulary. I think the workshop is powerful in that it uses a classroom of students in the training itself. The trainer puts in action the effective strategies and best teaching practices with the kids, so the trainees can see how it would actually work in their own room with their own students. The demonstration shows what effective scaffolding is and how it benefits the child’s learning. Cooperative learning groups are utilized and classroom management tools are demonstrated. The students are eager, engaged and enthusiastic while working with high level content. Students negotiate for meaning, engage in content related dialogue and get many opportunities to verbalize their thinking. In many of the other trainings I have attended, the demonstrator explains materials/strategies and teachers read about it, but with GLAD the trainers are also modeling with students. Participants receive not only the how to and why, but this is what it “looks like”. This is very beneficial for the trainee. On a final note, I am impressed at how GLAD strategies work with all students. Every student is able to participate and be successful in a GLAD classroom.
Words I would use to describe GLAD: engaging, powerful, active, mulit-sensory, energizing, and effective.
I have never attended another training in my 14 years of teaching to which I have responded so immediately, yet at the same time sustained that response over time. I was lucky to attend the 2 day and then the 5 day trainings with a fellow first-grade teacher. We were able to use the afternoons during the 5 day training to plan our upcoming Australia unit and continued to work together to plan our last integrated unit about marine life using GLAD skills.
GLAD takes students' natural enthusiasm for learning and channels that. It takes many things I wanted to do more of (cooperative learning, keeping students actively engaged, teaching the outcomes and indicators, gradually releasing responsibility for learning to students, finding the time to interact with and respond to all students' learning concerns and triumphs, scaffolding learners who needs more help and challenging students who are ready to learn more) and incorporates them all. I love that it is a whole package, there are the skills and there is the classroom management support so you can actually teach the skills effectively.
For example, one of the strategies to to draw a graphic organizer in front of the students, talking and writing as you introduce information. This requires your full attention to be on the board and not on the students, which could lead to problems with student attention. While you are doing this, you have two "scouts" sitting up front looking for students who are "making good decisions, showing respect and solving the problem." Every so often you have the scouts pass out super scientist awards, which are collected by students and in turn are used as notes for a later project. It all fits so neatly together and is extremely well thought out.
Another amazing part has been watching my students share information with each other. As it is an ELL program, the repeated vocabulary and chances for students to work together and help each other also works well with struggling readers or learners. All students are required to stay focused and involved because of how the learning is structured.
The response from my class this year has been extremely positive. I have been amazed at the ability of my first graders to do all but one of the same GLAD activities as I saw modeled with fourth graders at the 5 day GLAD training.
This has also required me to "dig deeper" into the material I am teaching. Many is the morning that my first-grade teammate and I greeted each other with, "You'll never guess what I learned about sea horses last night" or "Did you know that...?" I found my enthusiasm for the information I was teaching was contagious and students responded to that excitement.
I am excited to take refresher courses this summer and get all the materials prepared this summer to teach the material from all three first-grade integrated units with the GLAD approach.
Susan Noonan
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