Principal Observation Summary
I went to observe my principal Mr. Eustace, by sitting in on a weekly cabinet meeting. When the meeting began, the principal asked Penny (a literacy staff developer) if she gave out copies of the article, “Clarifying Differences between Reading Skills and Reading Strategies.” His tone was both relaxed and disarming as he started the meeting. “It has a lot of good stuff for when we bring this to the teachers. We may not all agree with the same philosophy, but there is a difference between a reading skill and a reading strategy. We tried introducing this concept to the staff a few years ago, and it wasn’t the right time. Now, we have created a list of all the reading skills, with strategies that would be necessary to teach each skill.”
He looks around the table and makes brief eye contact. Ms. Capo (the data specialist) begins talking about the skill recalling facts and details, and the strategies that are needed to teach that skill. Faith (math staff developer) says “what about paraphrasing?”Eustace interjects with enthusiasm, “I think that’s absolutely a strategy that should be taught.”He wanted to make everyone feel like they had a part in creating the list, and took notes on the input made by the staff developers.
He is clearly the facilitator, but is open to input from members of his cabinet. Sitting at the head of the table with pen in hand, legs crossed, he spends half his time listening to, and writing down what has been said at the meeting. He wants this list to guide the reading instruction from kindergarten up to fifth grade. Currently, there is no set reading curriculum that we all follow for literacy. Aside from the new Common Core State Standards, teachers use a variety of different sources to create their instruction. Mr. Eustace reviews the reading skills and strategies list that has been created, and asks if anyone can come up with another strategy. Ms. Faith makes a suggestion, which he quickly writes down. He clears his throat and moves on to the next skill.
By the end of the meeting, Mr. Eustace says that all the notes will be compiled and used to make the new reading skills and strategies list. This list will be given to all the teachers in the school at the next professional development. It should serve to clarify any confusion that teachers may have on how to teach a reading skill, and on what strategies to use to teach them.