This document summarizes a peer coaching report for a math teacher who implemented new teaching strategies. The teacher introduced Think-a-lot Thursdays, where students complete practice problems in groups, and Free-Response Fridays, where students take practice tests. Both classes performed better after implementing these strategies, with one class showing more improvement than the other initially. By the end of the year, both classes were doing well and the students had become more proficient at learning independently with the new approaches.

1. Peer Coaching Report
Name: A. Jorge García Date:6/6/2011
Peer Coaching Focus:
“Can I improve student performance in Math 4R­11 by adding Think­a­lot­
Thursdays and Free­Response­Fridays?”
Peer Coaching Partner:
I have benefitted greatly from my discussions with my Peer Coaching
Partner, George Drakatos. I have found it invaluable to bounce new ideas off him
from Think­a­lot­Thursdays and Free­Response­Fridays to other topics such as
teaching and learning Mathematics with technology.
Peer Coaching Stategies:
I had two sections of Math 4R­11 this year. This is a special section of
preCalculus students that are also Juniors. Most of these students were Honors
Mathematics students that dropped to Regents Mathematics sections some time
during their High School career. Math 4R­11 gives them an opportunity to hone
their skills and reenter the Honors Program by taking AP Calculus AB (Math
5HAB) next year. We accomplish this by covering a traditional preCalculus course in
3 Quarters of the year and introducing concepts from Calculus during Quarter IV.
The pace is very difficult for these students to maintain. Therefore, I am
trying new strategies to encourage my students to keep up with the pace as well as
to maintain a good grade in the course. Think­a­lot­Thursdays is a cooperative
learning strategy whereby I give a preTest before each test as a review sheet.
Students learn a topic best when they have to explain it to a peer. So, I have the
students work in groups and compete for bonus points for the next day which is a
Free Response Test I call Free­Response­Friday.
I incorporated these strategies gradually throughout the year. In fact I
started using these techniques in Period 9 right away in Quarter I. I only started
using these methods in both classes, Periods 1 and 9, starting with the 2nd
Quarter. I
found that Period 9 was performing much better on Free­Response­Fridays than
Period 1, so I was quick to incorporate Think­a­lot­Thursdays in both sections as
soon as possible.
Peer Coaching Assessment:
Both sections of Math 4R­11, preCalculus 4 Juniors, are now doing very well.
I really think this success is due to the new teaching strategies described above!
I have found that, over the course of the year, the students have become more
and more proficient in learning new material on their own as they gain ownership
over each new topic. The experience my students’ get from each Think­a­lot­
Thursday not only improved their grades, but also affected classroom work in a
positive way. Now my students tend to be more organized and better focused in
class. These students also tend to take pride in their work and are assets to class
discussions.
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