The question of how best to facilitate the transition to the Common Core State Standards is shaping policy and practice nationwide. At Mills Teacher Scholars, we are using our teacher-led inquiry process to support teachers and schools to look deeply at a given CCSS- related area. In this month’s newsletter, read about Maggie Sheffer's year-long investigation of how to support students to make sense of complex text, find out how our school site scholar partners are using classroom-based evidence to understand the CCSS competencies, and learn about the rich cross-district learning in our Teacher Scholar Leaders Network.
 

In "Reading Closely, What Does it Really Mean?" Teacher Scholar Maggie Sheffer writes:
“I knew I wanted my students to read closely, but I wasn’t sure what that entailed…Through my inquiry work at Mills, I was able to turn my frustration into advocacy, and enter the debate on what close reading means and how best to teach it”

Read how Maggie began to make sense of the Common Core State Standard skill of “close reading.” 
 

Academic discussions. Grappling with complex text. Supporting ideas with claims and evidence. These are key concepts  in the age of the CCSS and each of our school site partners have chosen one of these areas as a focal point for their classroom-based inquiries. Read more about how focused inquiry work is helping teachers better understand student learning in these areas…
 

On Saturday, October 17th at the Mills College School of Education over 50 teacher scholars dedicated the day to understanding student learning. Teacher scholars from the Scholars Group spent the time deepening the first steps of their individual inquiries, while members of our Teacher Scholar Leaders Network worked to refine the Mills Teacher Scholars data analysis protocol and think together about next steps for supporting collegial learning at their school sites. All had the privilege to hear a talk by Program Associate Laura Alvarez on how to support academic discourse in the classroom through the “mode continuum.”  
 

We are pleased to welcome Jennifer Ahn and Ana Moreno as Program Associates, Jean Witzke as our new Program Assistant, and Winnie Cheung, our Technical Support Assistant. They bring with them a wealth of experience and will help us to continue to expand and strengthen our program work. 


Click here to read their bios and meet the rest of the MTS team.