The Reciprocal Teacher

In their book 180 Days of Teaching, Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle (2018) write that “what we understand and practice in writing profoundly influences what our students learn. We can only teach what we know well” (81). This blog is my attempt to re-engage with the writing process in order to continue to grow as a teacher. Since blogging is so very different from other forms of writing, this process is going to be a challenge for me. However, I know that writing about teaching is not only a way to learn, reflect and keep track of the changes that I go through, but also a way to feel more engaged in the process of teaching.

Two of my core beliefs as a teacher are that I have as much to learn as my students, and that my students have things to teach the world. I like to imagine existing, and teaching from, the overlapping area of a Venn diagram where the traditional teacher and student make up the outer edges of the diagram, and the middle is where the interactions between them take place. In my view, I see both myself and the students in the centre — there are no hard, impenetrable edges and roles become soft, malleable, permeable and, from my vantage point, interchangeable. I am calling this process of “being in the centre,” reciprocal teaching. While reciprocal teaching has been defined and understood as a cooperative process whereby students take on teaching roles and learn from each other (Palincsar & Brown 1984; Brown 1986; Carter 1997), my understanding of the term positions me as student, and therefore involved in both the learning and teaching.

So far, I have realized that reciprocal teaching involves persistence, dedication, and bravery; I must move away from what is safe and known and venture into the new. This means moving away from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset (Dweck, 2006). I am continually reminding myself that every moment is a “teaching moment,” for me.

This blog is a place where I will reflect upon this transformation and journey. My topics of interest (so far) include: reciprocal teaching, adult education, critical literacy, going cross-curricular, integrating numeracy into subject-specific courses, working with applied learners, exploration into tools and strategies for assessment and evaluation.