I was approached by a history teacher who really wanted to see how the concept mastery routine could be implemented in her class. She invited me to be a guest teacher for the block. This created some challenges and interesting successes. I do not typically teacher history, so I was coming into the class as the strategy expert for this lesson. The history teacher and I worked together to create a draft of the diagram prior to the lesson with the students. She was vital in creating this diagram, because I am not the content expert. After creating the draft, I felt as though I had a good enough grasp of the concept to be able to teach it.
When it came time to implement the routine with the class, I came in as an unknown teacher to most of the students. I was surprised at how engaged they were in the lesson given the lack of a relationship with me. Having the content expert there to guide them and help with the discussion aspect of the lesson was invaluable. This may not have been the easiest way to implement the routine, but it was a fun challenge to try it with a subject, teacher, and students that I typically do not work with. It really shows the power of the routine because it was a successful lesson despite the roadblocks.
When it came time to implement the routine with the class, I came in as an unknown teacher to most of the students. I was surprised at how engaged they were in the lesson given the lack of a relationship with me. Having the content expert there to guide them and help with the discussion aspect of the lesson was invaluable. This may not have been the easiest way to implement the routine, but it was a fun challenge to try it with a subject, teacher, and students that I typically do not work with. It really shows the power of the routine because it was a successful lesson despite the roadblocks.