Here is the format and a statement of philosophy for the War Room sessions at iFLT and NTPRS:
In the afternoons after lunch at iFLT I plan to show my version of TPRS/CI, mainly how I prefer to go through the three steps of TPRS, as well as lots of other things. I feel that the best use of the time would be for me to demo a lesson/PQA/Story/ROA/L and D/R and D whatever, doing that for about fifteen or twenty minutes and then open up the floor for a volunteer to do the same. I’ll just hand over the marker and that person will work for as long as they feel comfortable with coaching.
We can form a group to coach each other in a closed and trusting environment aptly named the War Room (so named because we are as serious as we can be about getting better at this work, as generals are when in a war). We want to win the battle for control over our classrooms and all the good things that come with that when we use comprehension based instruction.
Personalization is at the soul of this work and although we in the PLC don’t know each other in person we know each other from reading each other’s comments here for a long time now. So attendance in these sessions is limited only to PLC members who “know” each other from reading each others comments, in some cases for years now.
To repeat, personalization and classroom management is what makes this stuff work and so we will work together to master those things in our sessions. Mistrust and fear are the enemies of this work, and that is why our “knowing” each other on the PLC will make the afternoon sessions a better way to spend our time together as opposed to a bunch of people working together with that fear thing going on.