Jonathon Saphier is the Founder and President of Research for Better Teaching, now in its 44th year. He and his colleagues deliver professional development on high-expertise teaching and high expertise leadership in over 100 districts each year. They focus on long-term sustainable plans for improving teaching and leading.
Describe your writing process/routine?
I save notes on key points and put in separate files.
When did you develop your writing routine?
In 1975 for my first published article.
What time of day do you find you write best?
A busy schedule required finding islands of time rather than dedicated days.
How did you improve your academic writing skills?
Many, many drafts, reading over each one like a first-time reader for flow and clarity.
What time of day do you find you write best?
Morning 5-6am – 12pm
What resources helped you become a better writer (books, mentors, writers, etc.)
E.B.White, “The Elements of Style”, favorite authors in educational journals
How do you make time for writing with all the other commitments you have?
It’s difficult…most in patches of time between preparation and delivery of workshops.
What are your strategies for staying productive and for maintaining momentum with your writing? (get specific and concrete)
Keeping up with my reading and writing short place-holder paragraphs with key ideas and putting them in a holding file.
What is the best writing advice you have gotten?
Get colleagues to read, edit and make suggestions.
What writing tools do you suggest? (Apps, books, etc.)
I just use Microsoft Word with spellcheck.
What are some specific practices and rules for writing within your discipline that other researchers and graduate students might not be aware of?
Since my audience is practitioners and policy-makers, I put the main point(s) up front instead of providing context first and building a logical argument to the main points at the end. I am writing predominantly advocacy pieces based on research and case studies, not reporting research.
Who are some writers you particularly admire, and what about their writing seems most admirable to you?
Roland Barth, John Hattie, Linda-Darling-Hammond. Though somewhat different in their topics, they share passion, clarity and graceful turns of phrase.
What advice would you give to fellow writers (Make this concrete. i.e.: Read widely – what does that look like in practice? How does that benefit the process? What should the writer be looking for when reading?)
Stay in contact with schools, classrooms, and school leaders by being present with them in the workplace. Make sure your writing is grounded in what practitioners can translate into practice. Illustrate general and abstract recommendations with scripts and scenarios that make them concrete.
Last Words for the Education Field
I’ve learned that an Adult Professional Culture of openness, deep collaboration and constant learning can be deliberately developed by specific leadership practices. They are described in detail in the “Disrupting…” book mentioned above. It would be a great benefit to the education field if academic researchers would keep an eye on practitioners and how to reach them with ideas for application.
Closing:
Check out Jonathan Saphier’s work: Disrupting the Teacher Opportunity Gap, Corwin 2023. This book summarizes all I’ve learned about how to grow High Expertise Teaching in a school of district. It’s a book for leaders. –The Skillful Teacher, Research for Better Teaching (RBTeach.com) 8th edition coming out in 2024. this book is a practical how-to guide for learning High Expertise Teaching in all its range and complexity –High Expectations Teaching 2017 Research for Better Teaching (RBTeach.com). This book describes the 50 ways a teacher can get a low-performing, low-confidence student to believe in themselves. It is how the growth mindset translate into daily teaching behavior for a teacher who wants all students to succeed. My articles appear mainly in the last two decades in Kappan, Educational Leadership now called EL, and the Learning Professional journal of Learning Forward. I am now seeking to put short pieces in Edutopia, EdWeek and other online publishers to get wider distribution and consideration of ideas.
