Lesson Plan on the Roles and Responsibilities of the Co-teacher, Madrich Teachers and Expert Teacher: Part Three

When mentoring our pre-service and in-service teachers we need to describe and model both research-based and clinically tested best practices. This is one of many lessons we will be sharing on teaching Judaic content, lesson planning, models of teaching, differentiated and individualized instruction and learning activities designed to transform the classroom into a Jewish community of cooperative learners. The title of this lesson is “The Roles and Responsibilities of the Co-Teacher, Madrich Teacher and the Expert Teacher”. Since there are 13 elements in each lesson plan we will divide this lesson plan into four parts. This is the third part of a four part lesson. Click on the hypertext for part one and part two of this lesson.


Instructions for Quad Member Number Three

1. You will be required to teach your home teammates the definition and the responsibilities of the mentor teacher.

2. Below is the information that you will be teaching your home teammates. It contains questions and answers. Your job is not to read the questions and answers to your home teammates. Your job is to take notes, put this information into your own language, and teach it to the members of your home team.

3. What is a mentor teacher? A mentor teacher is a seasoned teacher with at least five years of excellent teaching performance evaluations. He or she is responsible for training the student teacher and the co-teacher to perform the teaching responsibilities of a Judaics classroom teacher.

4. What does a mentor teacher train the student and co-teacher to do?

• Plan lessons
• Determine content and curriculum (i.e. what should be taught)
• Create a positive classroom environment
• Develop multiple ways of delivering instruction
• Use multiple ways of measuring what students have learned
• Manage student behavior
• Take attendance and keep accurate records
• Collaborate with other members of the instructional staff including teaching assistants (madrichim), co-teachers, teachers, and administrators
• Communicate with and engaging parents, guardians, and members of the Jewish community to participate in classroom and school activities

5. Are there other areas of expertise that the mentor teacher should possess?

The mentor teacher should have additional areas of expertise in the supervision of student and co-teachers?

6. What are these additional areas of expertise that a mentor teacher should possess?

Mentor teachers should have expertise in these three supervisory areas:

1. Conferencing skills: knowledge on how to give feedback to and receive feedback from student and co-teachers
2. Observational skills: knowledge of what to look for in the classroom (i.e. Are students engaged in learning? How is the teacher managing student behavior? Did the teacher’s lesson plan meet its objective?)
3. Reflection skills: knowledge of methods to help student and co-teachers to effectively plan, implement, and evaluate a lesson


Instructions for Quad Member Number Four

1. You will be required to teach your home team mates the definition and the responsibilities of the expert teacher.

2. Below is the information that you will be teaching your home teammates. It contains questions and answers. Your job is not to read the questions and answers to your home teammates. Your job is to take notes, put this information into your own language, and teach it to the members of your home team.

3. What is an expert teacher? An expert teacher is the professional at a supplemental or day school who trains the madrich teacher and mentor teacher to discharge their responsibilities.

4. What else does an expert teacher do? The expert teacher also coordinates the committee of madrich and mentor teachers in the school. This committee matches madrich and mentor teachers with their mentees, and offers seminars in classroom management, instruction, assessment (i.e. measuring student learning), etc. The expert teacher should have extensive experience as a teacher, administrator, and/or staff developer with expertise in Judaics, and the theory, research, and best practices in instruction, curriculum development, supervision, and staff development for Jewish educators.

On the next post we will share the fourth part of a four part lesson on the roles and responsibilities of the co-teacher, madrich and expert teacher.