Teaching Leadership: Standard 8 –
Present professional practice for the review of colleagues
When I think about all the different times I have been able to discuss, exhibit, mentor, and design “professional practice for the review of colleagues”, the one example that had the most impact on how I changed my attitude towards peer interaction was an opportunity I had to work with other English teachers in the district. In the fall of 2014, I worked with a group of teachers that were representative of the different grade levels in the English departments of the three high schools of our district. The reason that this is not a true “Self-Organized Teacher Support Group” is because it was not very self-organized. Although my group of teachers were in the same frustrated mindset as those described in the textbook regarding district run workdays, this collaboration was more self-organized because teachers were able to volunteer to work on the project. The district asked us to form a group from each school to help create the Common Assessment for the English departments at each grade level of the high school.
Together we created an assessment that assesses students’ ability to demonstrate reading comprehension and writing. The goal of the pre-assessment is to assess students’ skill level at the beginning of the term to enable our teachers to create meaningful lessons that will ensure understanding of the essential skills in our discipline.
When we completed the analysis from the assessment, our group met again to align scope and sequence elements that allowed appropriate class time on instruction in literary analysis. Each grade level was able to look ahead and realign instruction to ensure the students had a clear understanding of the requirements for this task.
In order to meet the needs of each student, many aspects of the writing units were organized as writing workshops to enable teachers the time to work with smaller groups of students who need the extra instruction. Another way that this group stays close to the Self-Organized Teacher Support Group model is periodic team meetings that continually readjust scope and sequence dates to match the progression of understanding from the students.
At the end of the 1st semester, many of the teachers who worked together to create the pre-assessment met to finish the post-assessment. The post-assessment is very similar in expectations to the pre-assessment because the aim for the writing portion of the exam is still the same; literary analysis and writing within a time limit. Teachers will give the post assessment at the beginning of the second semester. We chose this date because of the time needed to ensure thorough instruction and to give time towards the end of the year to prepare the students to transfer to the next grade level.
Reflection on the Process:
While working with the different schools I learned that although we have the student learning as a motivation, each learning community sees the process of learning so differently. Each high school and scope & sequence is very different so there were times when we attempted to align our teaching, it seemed impossible. This was not a deterrent in collaborating towards a Common Assessment that meets the needs of our students, it did however push us to ask questions such as “Why is this important to teach during this time?” “Is it important that all schools align specifically throughout each unit?” “What is the ultimate goal in regards to students’ comprehension of literary analysis?” The open dialogue was very important because, as we went back to our individual buildings, we were able to integrate our goals into the type of curriculum and learning environment suited for each school.
In addition, looking at student work was rewarding because we were able to see the scaffolding that was built in our writing framework; what I mean is, when we looked at sophomore work we could see the instruction of our freshman teachers, junior work reflected the instruction of the sophomore teachers, etc. The assessment results also gave us very clear indications on where we should center our instruction. Working with other teacher groups, I knew that analyzing student work can be a very influential teaching tool because the results cannot do anything but lead us towards more powerful instruction.
The Time Between 2014 & Present:
Since this assessment was created, the Humanities Department has been able to voice their opinions and concerns to make sure that what we have is relevant to our students. The assessment is not perfect in any way and there are some teachers who do not see the significance of such an assessment; however, the purpose behind the endeavor was to allow our district to see the strengths and weaknesses within our discipline and address them accordingly. Even though there is not total buy in from the entire department, the stakeholders do understand that implications from recent studies indicate that “collaboration around student data may be useful for raising student achievement” (Ronfeldt, Farmer, McQueen, & Grissom (2015, p. 480). This is something our administration also believes in; this year we have been able to analyze the data that reflects students who are receiving a D or an F in core curriculum classes and how better to meet the needs of this group of our population.
The entire department may not agree with the effectiveness of a common assessment; thankfully, they do agree with the focus and time we put on designing purposeful time for collaboration across disciplines and grade levels. This collaboration includes discussing individual lesson plans, scope and sequences for grade levels, working in each other’s classrooms to provide feedback, and inviting professionals into our classes to help present content. Our department has been able to reap the benefits of collaboration, which is what DeMonte (2013) maintains in her article, “High Quality Professional Development for Teachers”:
One of many challenges facing teachers is the lack of opportunity to learn from colleagues, particularly in a setting where there is a structure and protocol for revealing excellent teaching practices and having a group of professionals discuss and learn from them. Many of the professional-learning designs that show improvements in teaching and learning include some kind of regular collaboration among teachers in a school or across grade levels—sometimes with an instructional leader—to work on better strategies and practices for teaching (p. 7).
Present Day:
Since this opportunity five years ago, I have availed myself many times to the process of colleagues critiquing my work, my ideas, and working together to create common best practices. Each month this past year I met with a group of colleagues from different disciplines, counseling, and administration where I could bring my work and ask for their advice. I am also on a team, which includes fellow colleagues as well as the administration of our school, that plans our staff learning/staff meeting times. This group of people helps me to see the value of peer-instructed sessions on professional development and they also encouraged me to lead a few sessions which gave me the opportunity to bring my classroom work to a broader audience of peers.
I am also part of a Learning Community Group with teachers from math, science, history, one of our school counselors, and an assistant principal. In this group, we meet once a month and discuss – with specific communication protocols – issues with student work, lesson plans/project objectives, parent-educator relationships, difficult co-workers, dilemmas in education, and school issues. It has been an honor to facilitate this group of seven outstanding educators. We are in agreement with Mirel and Golden (2012) in their article from The Atlantic when they assert that “collaboration among teachers is an essential aspect of instruction improvement” (Mirel).
Next Steps:
With this degree, my goal is to coach new teachers and eventually instruct teachers at the collegiate level. To do this, I will be presenting my experiences (successes and failures) to new educators so they can see the different opportunities to collaborate with colleagues outside of their own disciplines, school buildings, and districts.
References
DeMonte, J. (2013, July). High-Quality Professional Development for Teachers. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2013/07/15/69592/high-quality-professional-development-for-teachers/
Jeffrey Mirel, S. G. (2015, June 19). Alone in the Classroom: Why Teachers Are Too Isolated. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/04/alone-in-the-classroom-why-teachers-are-too-isolated/255976/
Ronfeldt, M., Farmer, S. O., Mcqueen, K., & Grissom, J. A. (2015). Teacher Collaboration in Instructional Teams and Student Achievement. American Educational Research Journal,52(3), 475-514. doi:10.3102/0002831215585562
