Mentor Beliefs & Mindsets
This kind of approach focuses on what students and residents have rather than what they lack, and honors their culture, language, and family values.
What is an asset-based approach?
Seeing students as cognitive, social-emotional, cultural, and identity-driven learners reflects a focus on this.
What is the whole child?
Short, targeted comments that leave the resident with clear next steps for student learning gains are an example of this.
What is effective resident feedback?
A mentor who explicitly highlights practices that honor students’ cultures and identities is centering this kind of teaching.
What is culturally responsive teaching?
Using exit tickets or quick checks to adjust instruction in the moment is an example of using this kind of data.
What is formative data?
To serve as a mentor, teachers must hold this type of credential corresponding to that sought by the resident.
What is a clear credential?
A mentor who regularly examines their own assumptions and distinguishes between instructional issues and belief issues is engaging in this ongoing process.
What is self-reflection on bias and mindset?
When mentors help residents feel confident taking full responsibility for leadership in the classroom, they are building this in residents.
What is resident empowerment and efficacy?
When mentors and residents co-analyze observational data and student work to ground conversations, they are engaging in this type of dialogue.
What are coaching conversations and reflection?
The guidance emphasizes grounding instructional methods in pedagogies that are equitable, antiracist, and this, meaning they aim to sustain students’ cultures.
What is culturally sustaining pedagogy?
Carefully analyzing student work to inform instructional next steps is a key practice tied to this phrase in the guidance.
What is data-driven instruction?
Mentors must be recommended by this school site leader as excellent teachers with the capacity to mentor.
Who is the school leader?
This phrase describes a mentor who believes all students can learn and holds them to rigorous, equitable instructional practices.
What is expressing high expectations for all?
Mentors who empower residents to be active members of the school site and community are supporting the resident in becoming this.
What is a community ambassador?
The guidance names three pillars—Sacred Meeting Time, Gradual Release, and Co-Teaching—as structures that support these.
What are coaching moves?
Mentors and residents who frequently reflect together on classroom practices and pedagogy are doing so “in the service of” meeting these needs.
What are the holistic needs of learners?
When residents regularly examine content standards to plan and guide instruction, mentors are helping them develop this analytical habit.
What is analyzing content standards?
The basic mentor requirements specify that mentors should have at least this many years of experience, ideally within their organization.
What are three years?
Mentors who work to dismantle systems that harm student learning and development are described in the guidance as being this.
What is actively anti-racist?
This aspect of the mentor–resident relationship involves building, maintaining, and repairing the relationship over time.
What are rapport and relationships?
When a mentor co-constructs goals with a resident and establishes a clear timeframe for meeting them, they are intentionally planning for this.
What is the gradual release of responsibility?
Helping residents “make thinking visible” around dilemmas such as bias or pedagogical questions is an example of supporting this.
What is reflective problem-solving around practice dilemmas?
Mentors and residents who regularly plan assessments, lessons, and units together are engaging in this collaborative planning structure.
What is co-planning?
Within Alder’s model, this recurring protected time between mentor and resident is one of the three pillars of mentoring.
What is Sacred Meeting Time?
This visible emotional stance is described as “infectious” and involves excitement about working with a specific student population.
What is exhibiting joy in teaching?
Mentors who hold a holistic view of K–12 student success and development, and honor family cultures and languages, are embodying this orientation.
What is an asset-oriented, whole child mindset?
This feedback practice involves mentors regularly asking for input from residents and directors and then changing their practice as a result.
What is soliciting and acting on mentor feedback?
The MG document notes that particularly those students who historically have lacked access to rigorous instruction should be supported to become confident and this kind of learner.
What are self-directed learners?
Using questioning and facilitation to help residents connect observed classroom practice to their graduate coursework supports this form of knowledge.
What is pedagogical content knowledge?
In addition to Sacred Meeting Time and Co-Teaching, this process-oriented pillar describes how responsibility shifts over time.
What is Gradual Release?