Hope Winburn

November 9, 2015
I-Search Part III: Reflection
Knowledge about Effective Professional Development and Adult Learners
The two readings from the course that most informed my decisions in terms of
how I created my PowerPoint and how I structured my presentation were Knights What
does Coaching look like? and Hasbroucks Teaching Teachers: Providing Effective
Professional Development. Knight emphasizes that coaches need to give teachers
equality, choice, voice, dialogue, reflection, praxis, and reciprocity. During my
presentation I asked for teachers thoughts about the research to create a dialogue and
give teachers a voice. Ending the presentation with creating a lesson plan provided an
opportunity for praxis as well as choice because the teachers were able to decide which
strategy and graphic organizer they thought was best to find the main idea. Finally, at the
end of the presentation I asked teachers for feedback so that we could all reflect on the
presentation itself as well as its instructional implications.
Hasbrouck reminds us that teaching teachers is similar to teaching students in that
the coach has to meet the needs of the learner, model the new strategies, and provide
opportunities to practice with feedback and support. However, we must also remember
that teachers, unlike students, come to us with expert knowledge in their field, and beliefs
and attitudes about teaching practices. I chose my presentation topic based on the needs
of the school and teachers. TCAP scores and RTII feedback showed us that content
teachers were struggling with teaching writing in their classes and during RTII. I
provided a step-by-step example of one of the strategies and explained how the same
procedure could be applied to the other strategies and graphic organizers discussed.
Finally, teachers were able to practice creating a lesson using the main idea strategy
while I walked around the room, available for questions and able to provide immediate
feedback. However, in my language and demeanor, I tried to show respect and
consideration to the teachers so that the content would be accessible and appropriate for
my adult audience.
Search Process
I started by asking my coach for advice and resources on content writing, but she
was less familiar with this topic so I decided to ask Emily Pendergrass for input.
Professor Pendergrass led me to a book called Literacy Skills and Strategies for Content
Area Teachers by Melissa Sethna. This book provided suggestions for activating prior
knowledge, brainstorming, predicting, annotating, questioning, and finding the main idea.
I got the bulk of my information from this source, but I wanted to cross-reference her
findings with other research to confirm the strategies effectiveness. I went to her works
cited page and found four more sources that proved to be helpful. My last step was to ask
you for help and you provided me with Keenes Assessing Comprehension Thinking
Strategies. This book was particularly beneficial because it included so many applicable
activities, which I did try out with my practicum student to confirm their effectiveness.
Overall, I found many sources that provided strategies for finding the main idea, but the

ones I focused on in my presentation were the ones that worked best in practice when I
used them with my student.
Effectiveness of Presentation
I think that my presentation was effective at showing the rationale for why this
topic was being addressed as well as providing a multitude of strategies that teachers
could try. However, I wish that I had gone more in depth on webbing and actually
modeled it with a text, rather than simply stating the steps in the PowerPoint. I also wish I
had spent more time allowing teachers to create the lesson plan as well as getting teachers
to reflect on the PD and give me feedback.
Adaptations for Future Use
In the future I will focus more on the application part of the presentation than the
introduction. I would use a text to model using one of the strategies and I would also
model creating the lesson plan with that strategy. I would take more time at the end for
teacher feedback so teachers could share their thoughts and I could know what worked
and what did not. Allowing time for reflection would be the most important adaption I
would want to make in the future. Overall, I think my presentation was effective at
presenting the data, presenting evidence-based strategies, and showing teachers that I
valued their knowledge and experience. However, in the future I will make sure to
include more modeling and time for reflection to ensure that the professional
development presentation is most effective for helping teachers, which in turn helps
students.