[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 4 | January 27, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036]
Teacher researchers pause each morning as they walk into their classrooms and ask, “What will my students teach me today?” To answer that question, they listen to and watch their students engage in authentic work; collect work samples, photographs, and transcripts to document what their students say and do; and use that information to evolve their practice as they celebrate and support the voices and experiences of the children they teach. In this sense, teacher researchers are innovators, curriculum drivers, agents of school change, and directors of their own professional development.
Support and Growth
As a doctoral student, I participated on the Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum Teacher Researcher Team led by Jane Hansen, Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia and Reading Hall of Fame Member. For years, in preparation for our teacher research team meetings, I selected a piece of student writing that spoke to me. It would be a piece that made me scratch my head and ask, “What can I learn as a writer and teacher of writing from this young author?” or “What do I need to do next to support her growth?” I would capture these contemplations in a one-pager