Issue 51: Jun 08, 2009 Connections Newsletter

Is Collaborative Planning Worth It? You Decide.

Cindy Riedl
Jun 08, 2009

Determining whether the effort and risks are worth the gains is the first hurdle to overcome when deciding whether to plan independently or to actively participate in collaborative planning with other teachers. I can look at this decision from two different perspectives: as a teacher who had difficulty accepting the 'team approach' and as a LEARNING-FOCUSED coach who observed teachers during collaborative planning sessions. No doubt, there are risks involved, such as exposing your abilities or lack of abilities and skills to others. Will you measure up? On the other hand, what if you are on a grade level team with people who do not carry their part of the responsibility? Will you carry them on your back? Will they drag you down with negativity? What about the different personalities? Can you handle them on a regular basis, the same people you avoid in the lounge? What about the 'know-it-alls'? This is beginning to sound like an antacid moment!

Effective collaborative planning teams do not evolve overnight. The driving force behind successful teaming is the commitment to the implementation of instruction focused on learning that raises achievement for all students. Each teacher enters into this agreement accepting and respecting the skills and idiosyncrasies of each member of the team. Everyone agrees to share materials, resources and ideas, as well as come prepared to the designated block of time for planning each week. This time is held sacred because the team values the results. In a sense, it is the most powerful survival technique teachers can use in the 21st Century. It saves time and provides for advancement in professional growth, as well as creating an environment for improving student performance. Personally, I know how difficult it is going from the 'closed door' policy, where I relied on myself, to one where I had to trust my peers. However, I discovered how powerful and energizing teamwork could be. I did not have to give up my identity or creativity. Although resources and materials are shared, teachers are able to personalize their instruction. What stays consistent is the content indicated on the K-U-D Organizer, Lesson Essential Questions and Assessment Prompts. More often than not, we did use the same Activating Strategies, Graphic Organizers, and Summarizing Strategies - although we all had our own take on them.

Poinciana Elementary School in Osceola County, Florida boasts of effective collaborative planning teams. During my last conferencing sessions with the grade level teams, the Poinciana teachers shared their experiences and benefits of team planning. The kindergarten team meets at 7:30 a.m. one morning a week. Someone brings a breakfast snack and they collaboratively work on developing their lessons utilizing an interactive white board. One teacher is responsible for keyboarding the ideas and responses of the team as each lesson is planned. At the end of the planning session, each teacher receives a copy of the lesson plans. They come prepared with materials and resources to share, which ensures that creating the lesson plans for the week moves quickly. Then, they customize their plans adding more details, modifying and adjusting activities to meet the needs of their students. Differentiation is explored and suggestions are incorporated into the lesson plans to help each teacher address the diverse needs of students during center activities. Pacing is important but not considered a problem. A balance is created over time.

Another team meets after school one night a week, while other teams meet during common planning periods. Barbara Langley, resident LEARNING-FOCUSED ‘specialist', has assisted each team with developing its own sense of identity. Nothing is set in stone. Barbara provides the moral and technical support guiding teachers as they implement new strategies and unfamiliar practices. Yaneth Penaranda, assistant principal at Poinciana Elementary, also plays an important role with Barbara, sharing ideas and strokes, as they observe classroom instruction and conduct walkthroughs with teachers.

In other schools, where there are numerous classes at each grade level, teachers create collaborative pairs within the team. Two teachers plan the math lessons, while two other teachers plan either social studies or science lessons. The whole team meets to share the lessons and create integrated reading and language arts lessons for a larger block of time.

All of the planning teams have discovered that overcoming the typical challenges that are part of teaming has been worth the effort. Individually, each teacher has become more effective with implementing instructional strategies that raise student achievement. As teachers realize success, the team becomes more effective. They collectively experience greater success! In a time when teachers are typically overwhelmed by the daily challenges of this incredibly demanding profession, the collaborative team approach is a way to make the load more manageable, while providing its members emotional and professional support. Learning to work together toward shared goals is more critical for students and teachers now than it has ever been. There is a special sense of belonging that comes when a group of people collectively accomplish a goal or task.

Teams often start small and gradually gain membership as other teachers discover the power of collaboration. Teachers must be willing to stick with conflict or disagreement and work through differences if true collaboration is to occur. For the team to work effectively and efficiently, members need to make a commitment to the team in the spirit of sharing their best professional skills, behaviors, materials and resources. Everyone must contribute. There are no free rides. Often an agreement is the best way to ensure that everyone understands the expectations of the team. It can be referred to during challenging moments of disagreement eliminating the difficulties and assuring team survival.

Teams should consider establishing discussion guidelines and explicit collaborative practices. Examples of discussion guidelines could be:
• The team will start and end on time
• The team will build on each other's ideas

Guidelines need not be rigid but a set of expectations that are clearly stated and agreed upon by all members, eliminating misconceptions and confusion.

LEARNING-FOCUSED encourages and supports collaborative planning in all workshops and instructional materials beginning with the LEARNING-FOCUSED Strategies Model. The challenges teachers experience during training sessions are best addressed in a collaborative atmosphere where teachers work together to learn and implement a comprehensive planning model. Effective Acceleration practices, as experienced in Catching Kids Up can only occur with a collaborative team effort of classroom teachers and resource teachers.

Organizing and Retaining Math Information

Laurian Phillips
Jun 08, 2009

When choosing an appropriate graphic organizer in mathematics, try to keep in mind that it is not about simply having a graphic organizer, but rather having a good graphic organizer that serves the purpose and intent of the lesson. When planning, begin by asking several questions.

• Is this lesson comprehension based, requiring an organizer that would show sequential steps and the progression from concrete to pictorial to abstract thinking? An organizer for such a lesson might look something like this:

Math Matrix 1

• Does this lesson rely heavily on new vocabulary, requiring an organizer to convey that vocabulary in student language? If so, maybe choose a Frayer or one similar to the one below:

Math Matrix 2

• Is this lesson one that will use a technique that will be repeated over and over and will benefit from a mnemonic device or a kinesthetic activity to help students remember?
• Will the graphic organizer be used as a part of the teaching process, or will the organizer be used as a study tool for students?

These questions are used when planning to teach something like graphing quadratics. Go through the whole process with students and tell them what happens when p is greater than or less than 0, and discuss opposite b over 2a, but really, all they hear is "blah, blah, blah...". Let's face it. We are math people, and we love this stuff. They do not. It is a foreign language to most students. The brain is a pattern seeking device. If we put something in a chant, rhyme, or song, students will be more likely to remember it and use it. You can go online and find any number of tunes to the quadratic formula.

Graphing quadratics typically comes just before the quadratic formula, however, so have them sing math words to the chorus of "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah" to find the vertex of the parabola. The chart shows which words replace the original words.

Put this in a foldable and do a few examples, providing much more meaning. The "blah blah blah" part is still in their notes if they need to go back to them, but you use the song to help them find the vertex. Then, they problem solve to find the other parts of the parabola needed in order to graph it, given the equation. The point is to teach them to think about how to approach the parabola from different points of view rather than simply plug numbers into a formula on a page that they do not understand. Later, when you get to the quadratic formula, teach them the rest of the song. The questions simply guide you as you begin to form the graphic organizer for the lesson. Sometimes you will find that the organizer is a combination of more than one type, or that you need more than one organizer to do the job.

One of the biggest errors teachers make is using a Frayer or some type of foldable and simply having students copy all notes that they would normally put in their notebook on the graphic organizer or in the foldable. This is easy to fix with a simple adjustment. You should not think of the graphic organizer as taking the place of where students would normally take notes in math. They can still take notes in their notebooks with all of the math jargon. The organizer is then used to teach them how to take that math jargon and summarize, putting things in their own words so that it makes sense to them. The organizer is something they can remember and re-create. It uses pictures, charts or diagrams, hence the name "Graphic" Organizer. If you don't use the organizer this way, then it is just the same old notes with a box drawn around them, or the same old stuff on a folded piece of pape r with no evidence to suggest that this is effective. The effectiveness comes from making connections with the content, summarizing, generalizing, and putting in their own words content they can retrieve to help them when needed. The effectiveness also comes from showing students how to retrieve and use this information. Time should be taken to show students how to re-create their graphic organizers to help them retrieve the information they need to answer questions, not just to pull them out and copy information from them.

Remember the purpose and intent of your graphic organizers, and they will be much more meaningful for both you and your students.

See the LEARNING-FOCUSED Math Instruction Collection for more ideas.

Test Taking Vocabulary

Carol Brewer
Jun 08, 2009

Learning the "testing" vocabulary is an important test taking strategy. Students need to recognize and understand these words for proficiency. Many teachers create lists of 'test taking' words and display them on "Test Taking" Word Walls. These Word Wall words are usually sorted alphabetically. A stronger sort for these words is by categories. For example, 'recipes', would include all the words associated with recipes; ingredients, utensils, knife, fork, spoon, mixing, fold, blend, etc. This type of sort allows the student to group the words for meaning and connections. It is suggested to start this test taking strategy early in the year instead of right before any benchmark assessments and state tests. If taught correctly with the proper connections, these words should be automatic for the students. Whenever they see the words, they know how to use them in context. A great brainstorming session for your grade level meetings is to think of different ways to implement the understanding and use of these words (activities instead of looking them up in the dictionary). The following matrix is one suggestion:

Refer to the "12 X 12" Test Taking Vocabulary in the Additional Tools section of Connecting Learning to Assessments Book and Flipchart.
This notebook and flipchart provides schools and teachers with a complete program for preparing students to be successful on all assessments!