7 Ways a Teaching and Learning Center Benefits All Students

Growth is the central tenet of the mission of the Teaching and Learning Center at Tower Hill School. Established in 2016, the Center is a resource for students and teachers who wish to maximize learning processes, address specific academic challenges, engage in best practices, seek support for documented learning differences or challenge themselves to achieve new levels of excellence. The Center is a process-oriented nucleus of the school that fosters dialogue, innovation, flexibility and excellence in individualized teaching and learning in the 21st century. Our learning specialists endeavor to equip students and teachers with tools, strategies and opportunities to learn about learning so they may build repertoires, excel and nurture the mindsets needed for continuing education. This mission statement will be reviewed regularly and revised as teaching and learning needs change. It’s also worth emphasizing that the TLC started in a tiny room with a single learning specialist and is evolving with regard to square footage, location and staff. Tower Hill reconfigured the MS/US Library to create office, one-to-one and group work spaces. Samantha Spruance, formerly a learning specialist in the Lower School, will now serve the Middle School division. 

 

In addition to teaching, advising and providing countless hours of extra help, faculty assume sundry responsibilities beyond the classroom. Undoubtedly there is no shortage of direct and developmental instruction between teachers and students. What the TLC adds is a program for learning strategy instruction. Learning strategy instruction is an effective way to help students with learning differences improve academic performance, and if a strategy can serve a student who learns differently, then it can serve all students. By its very nature, learning strategy instruction is student-centered. The additional layer to our system is the teaching component. Implicit in the center’s name is the value our school places on quality teaching—on new developments, resources and support for faculty as they endeavor to enhance and reflect on their practice. 

 

While parents and teachers are well aware that both are desirable, they often ask me to explain the difference between a skill and a strategy. A skill is automatic, product-oriented and transferable, while a strategy is not often developed automatically, process-oriented and used to sharpen/develop a skill. In short, the skill is the “what” and the strategy is the “how” related to the “what.” Teachers introduce strategies and develop skills every day in classroom settings, but students with learning differences are “wired” to relate differently to skill sets. No strategy is a “one size fits all” and some students may need more rehearsals before a strategy becomes internalized. Too often we unjustly and inaccurately assume that these students just need to try harder, when in fact, they may need to work differently or find a way to compensate. The TLC is a place where students can try different strategies on for size, including the use of assistive technology like text-to-speech computer features, voice-typing programs, electronic graphic organizers, smart pens, and various note-taking applications and web-based programs. 

 

If we believe that learning processes are varied, and we do, and if we believe that improvement is always possible, then it stands to reason that students who may be looking to increase or maintain admirable achievement can utilize strategies from the TLC as well. Of course, we acknowledge that there is a difference between perfection and excellence, so in order to foster the healthiest attitudes toward success, the TLC will always focus on the latter. Academic coaching has the potential to mitigate many obstacles to increased achievement. Any student can utilize walk-in hours to find welcoming, nonjudgmental, constructive support.

 

Existing to uphold the mission and philosophy of the school in all circumstances, the TLC is in a position to recommend reasonable accommodations for students with documented needs but cannot support requests to modify curricula. What’s the difference between an accommodation and a modification, you wonder? Accommodations support the learning process, much in the same way eyeglasses support a vision difficulty. Modifications, on the other hand, change what the student is expected to learn or produce. For example, allowing a student to complete a shorter reading/writing assignment, or holding a student responsible for mastering less content inherently changes an important part of the school’s identity, the challenging academic program. Changes to the standards at Tower Hill will therefore run the risk of compromising the integrity of the school’s philosophy and mission, the very components we all wish to honor and preserve. 

 

Spaces in the TLC will be supplied with furniture, tools and resources that will enable student productivity. A huge limitation to students who have executive difficulties pertains to what I like to call the advice/help conflict. If you know someone with executive dysfunction or if you struggle with productivity yourself, then you know that telling someone what to do starkly differs from showing someone what to do and then immediately giving that person the space and tools to get it done. Sometimes all that is needed is some advice, but other times, another component must be factored into the support infrastructure. The “help” component gets the proverbial engine started and oversees the motoring, leaving students with a sense of accomplishment—or at the very least, progress—by the time they leave the Center. 

 

While learning strategy instruction differs from tutorial services, sometimes tutoring, or direct instruction, is necessary to help a student. We have a tremendous resource in the student body, who bring to bear their talents, optimism and goodwill each day. As of January 2017, the Peer Tutoring Program (PTP) is in the purview of the TLC. If Upper School students wish to enlist the help of a peer tutor, they can log on to Tower Net and select the “Resources” tab. A link to the PTP request form is listed as a resource on both the Faculty and Student Resource Boards. There are times when a peer can explain, teach or reinforce something with a great deal of clarity, thus the TLC recognizes another important pedagogic principle: novices and experts do not think in the same ways. There are times when students can use guidance from fellow novices who are positioned in the trenches as well. Additionally and importantly, higher order thinking occurs when students teach each other, making the exchange in a PTP pairing mutually beneficial. 

 

Flexible, innovative and individualized, the TLC stands hand-in-hand with Tower Hill’s school-wide goals. The mission of the TLC is a complementary addition to an institution that is committed to progress and excellence. In the 21st century, the Four “C’s”—collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity—are more important than ever as we prepare students to contribute to a rapidly changing world. The TLC endeavors to promote flexibility when it comes to meeting learning objectives, offers individualized coaching to help students and teachers alike, and aims to harmonize innovation with the traditions we hold so dear.