Teachers Use Book Studies in Professional Development

Professional development efforts at Salem Middle School earned the WCPSS school a mention in the Sept. 10 issue of Teacher Magazine. The magazine has an article "Hitting the Books," about teacher book groups gaining traction as a way for educators to reflect on ideas and create change in schools. Salem Middle is one of eight schools from across the US mentioned in the article that uses book studies as a professional development tool. A group of teachers at the school have been reading Classroom Assessment for Student Learning by Rick Stiggins, Judith Arter, Jan Chappius and Steve Chappius. Salem teacher Bill Ferriter said a learning team of teachers used parts of the book as a guide as they broke each social studies standard into measurable parts and wrote assessments for each. The magazine article describes book study as easily localized professional development that can be shared among a team of teachers that's economical at a time of rising costs and declining revenue.

Posted by Bill Poston at 3:55 PM on September 26, 2008 | Leave Feedback

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