Description
Many peer-mentoring guides claim to be unique. This one is. It trains middle school science teachers to be effective mentors for other middle school teachers—and does so using a long-term, inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning how to be a more effective science educator.
Developed under a grant from the National Science Foundation, the principles of this guide’s procedures and materials were field-tested with 50 mentors and new teachers in a variety of middle schools. Making Science Mentors comes with everything you need to set up and run a comprehensive program:
• 10 session-by-session lesson plans
• A planning and observation protocol to guide mentor-mentee interaction, both in conferences and during classroom observation
• Handouts and citations (on paper and on CD) for use in preparing mentors
• Video clips on DVD that show middle grades science classrooms and teacher mentoring
Making Science Mentors is ideal if you have state, district, or school-based teacher preparation programs and don’t want to start from scratch when setting up a research-based mentoring system. As the authors promise, “Using this guide, you will master inquiry-based mentoring and share it with mentors, who, in turn, will share it with their mentees, all in the name of improving the classroom experiences—and achievement—of students.”
Ideas For Use
This guide will enable you, as a facilitator, to prepare science mentor teachers from a wide range of backgrounds to support teachers new to middle-grades science. In your work with these mentors, you will model an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning. The mentors you prepare will, in turn, share this approach with their mentees—who may be recent college graduates, career changers, or new to teaching at the middle grades—and support them in using it with their students.
Contents
Acknowledgments
About this Guide
Venn Diagram Graphic
About the Program
The Program at a Glance
The Program in Brief
The Program in Detail
Getting the Program Started
Program Evaluation
References
About the Authors
Session Plans
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
Session 5
Session 6
Session 7
Session 8
Session 9
Session 10
Appendix A: The Planning and Observation Protocol
Appendix B: Handouts and Overheads
Resources