Improving Instruction
Through Collaboration
by Anne Jolly
We are grateful to NMSA for permission to post this article from the Feburary 2001 issue of Middle Ground. We encourage our visitors who are not members to join NMSA and receive Middle Ground, the Middle School Journal, and other valuable middle grades resources.
Also see the "Guidelines for Study Groups"
I gazed in disbelief at my students and muttered under my breath: "What
are you doing?" Not the kids mind you; they were doing exactly what
I had asked. They were sitting at their desks using the handouts that I
had copied to make some guidebooks. The question was for me. I gave myself
a mental thwack on the head. Not a month had passed since 156 energetic
adolescents, fresh from summer break, began bursting through the doors of
my classroom. Already I was sliding back into a rut with my assignments.
When I started teaching, a set of unwritten rules governed the way we were
supposed to work in schools.
· You are responsible for your students and your subject. Translation: Don't tread on other teachers' territory. You take care of your business, and they will handle theirs.
· Find efficient teaching routines and methods and stick with them. Translation: Find a comfortable way to teach and avoid change.
· Be wary of changes in curriculum and instruction - these too shall pass. Translation: Students and society always will have the same basic needs, so just ignore the newfangled stuff.
These beliefs made sense to me -- until I embarked on a three-year leave
of absence from the classroom. I spent the first year bringing teachers
and business leaders together so they could discuss important education
issues, and the second two years providing training and classroom assistance
for teachers in low-achieving schools. During that time, I glimpsed our
students' futures. Jobs that require limited skills are disappearing and
are being replaced by technology and service positions requiring a higher
level of mastery in science, mathematics, and language arts. Although many
entry-level jobs once required little more than a good work ethic, today
they depend on people who can work well on teams, solve complex problems,
use technology in a variety of settings, and write and speak clearly.
In 1998 I re-entered the classroom with enthusiasm and anticipation. This
time I was not a novice. I was well prepared, armed with a toolkit of fresh
instructional strategies and driven by a Wonder Woman complex. I thought
I could successfully respond to the changing student demographics and escalating
academic standards. I was geared up to prepare young adolescents for the
world. I was charged! Wired! Ready!
Deja Vu All Over Again
So much for good intentions. By the end of the first month, I felt like
the curmudgeonly newscaster trapped in the movie, Groundhog Day. You may
remember the flick - the plot was engagingly simple. Every morning the main
character woke and repeated the day before, over and over. He could wake
up in the present only after he had succeeded in reforming his past life.
Like the protagonist in the movie, I realized that instead of revolutionizing
my teaching practice, I kept repeating patterns from the past. As I walked
among my students, I mentally clicked off the shortcomings of my assignments,
including limited critical thinking skills, problem-solving strategies,
teamwork responsibilities, active investigations, and practical connections.
My students were industriously engaged in work that provided them with few
of the skills they would need in the future. I wasn't getting it right.
This situation was unquestionably perturbing, but it made me curious as
well. Why hadn't I transformed my teaching practice? I felt knowledgeable,
prepared, capable, and feverishly motivated. What was my problem?
Whatever it was, other teachers apparently shared it. Colleagues talked
about the terrific ideas they had learned in workshops, yet their daily
instructional practices rarely reflected those innovations. Mostly we were
all trying to make it through each day - dealing with disruptions, clerical
duties, parent conferences, and other responsibilities that fill in the
brief gaps between instructing and supervising students. At home we graded
papers on family time and tried to plan creatively - and alone.
The isolated classroom scenario wasn't working for me anymore. I wondered
what it would be like to work in an environment that encourages teacher
collaboration, support, and personal growth. My principal suggested that
I try to answer this question through some action research. We decided that
I would design a professional development project involving teacher collaboration,
engage the faculty in this process for a year, evaluate the project's progress
and impact, and carefully document the entire process.
Fortunately, finding time for groups of teachers to meet together presented
no problems. Our middle school was organized into teams of teachers with
common planning times. I wondered if we could use some of that time to collectively
learn how to teach our students better.
I remembered a session I had attended at a National Middle School Association
conference - a presentation by Carlene Murphy on Whole Faculty Study Groups.
As a staff member of the ATLAS Communities, which is a collaboration of
four of the nation's leading reform efforts, Murphy was busily involving
school faculties in collaborative groups organized around a central focus
on student needs. Best of all, she and Dale Lick had written a book about
how to do this! I ordered the book, "Whole-Faculty
Study Groups: A Powerful Way to Change Schools and Enhance Learning"
(Corwin Press, 1998), and studied the process. Here was a real possibility
for establishing a teacher collaboration process that might help us change
our practices and sustain the momentum.
From Ideas to Action
Having a potential solution is one thing. Persuading the faculty that a
problem exists, particularly one that requires teachers to change both their
instructional practices and their ways of working together, is another challenge
entirely. The spunky faculty at Burns Middle School in Mobile, Alabama,
agreed to try, albeit with understandable qualms.
Staff members voted overwhelmingly to form study groups and to focus their
collective efforts on improving student achievement in reading and writing
across content areas. Team members set aside an hour a week to work together
and learn new skills. They researched new strategies and sought information
about best practices. Some teachers led workshop sessions. Teams kept logs
of their discussions and classroom strategies and shared that information
with others.
The results of this difficult journey varied from team to team, but slowly
a process for working together emerged. One team designed a Web page, and
both teachers and students learned how to use it to display students' writing.
Three teams expanded their research to include different ways of motivating
students. Another team researched methods of challenging high-achieving
students to go beyond traditional assignments, and eventually included all
students. Two teams focused on integrating technology to improve students'
reading proficiency. Two teams developed a system for tracking improvements
in student writing through portfolios and rubrics.
The collaborative process generated other exciting spin-offs. Faculty meetings
changed from business sessions to instructional events, with teams taking
turns presenting their ideas. The study groups also established a process
for supporting and assisting new teachers. Hidden talents and expertise
surfaced regularly. However, the real banner headlines for this project
would read: "Teachers Find Way to Sustain Changes in Teaching Practice!"
One teacher summed it up this way: "I would not have tried a lot of
this by myself. We challenge each other."
Obviously I'm reporting the good stuff. We reached some low points, too.
Several teams experienced no notable benefits. All teams felt frustrated
and discouraged at times. To find out more about how the project unfolded,
take a look at the "Writings from a Middle Grades Classroom" at
www.aplusala.org. Be sure to read the "Case Study" entry.
Teachers have one of the nation's most important and toughest jobs - creating
tomorrow's citizens and the workforce of the future. Usually we do this
while working in isolation in schools that desperately need to be reorganized
and restructured around effective teaching and learning practices. We all
need a way to grow professionally.
I am reminded of the story - related in the 1998 book, Professional Learning
Communities at Work - about the young soldier who decided to take a short
walk in camp the night before a major World War II battle. General Dwight
D. Eisenhower quietly walked beside the young man. "What are you thinking
about, son?" asked the general. "I guess I'm afraid," the
young man replied. "Well, so am I," said Eisenhower. "Let
us walk together, and perhaps we will draw strength from each other."
n
Anne Jolly is an education program specialist with SERVE, an educational
research and development laboratory assisting six Southeastern states. A
former Alabama Teacher of the Year, she was an eighth grade science teacher
in Mobile, Alabama, from 1983 through June 2000. During part of that period,
she helped the A-Plus Research Foundation in Alabama expand the Alabama
State Teacher Forum, a group of classroom teachers focusing on leadership
issues.
1 . Meet regularly and faithfully for at least an hour a week. Before
and during the meeting, a dozen crises will predictably erupt to demand
your attention - Do not let them distract you.
2. Stay on track during the meetings. The inevitable temptation to discuss
other things can quickly sabotage the purpose of the meetings. One team
circumvented this tendency by holding a clever, five-minute "gripe
session" at the beginning of each meeting. Afterward, team members
immediately launched into a focused collaborative study and planning session.
3. Agree on some ground rules for working together.
4. Keep a written log of discussion topics and decisions at every meeting.
Make sure that your planned actions and activities are innovative, challenging,
research-based, and possible. Document what works and what doesn't, then
share this information with others.
5. Ask school administrators to provide some incentives for this action-research
approach to professional development. With your team logs providing evidence
of your work, lobby to receive credit toward your school district training
requirements. Ask if you can receive compensatory time for meetings before
or after the regular school day.
Study Groups and Teacher Book
Circles
Critical Friends and Whole Faculty
Study Groups
In this portion of a listserv conversation, Anne
Jolly elaborated on her guidelines.
The Year
I Reinvented Teacher Professional Development: An Action Research Diary
If this title sounds tongue-in-cheek, you're right! Anne Jolly's sense of
humor leavens this detailed account of the year she spent away from her
classroom designing and implementing a site-based, teacher-driven professional
development process for middle school teachers. Anne's willingness to share
both the ups and downs of her experience makes this diary a valuable resource
for anyone else comtemplating a year of living dangerously. (PDF File)
Learning Teams:
When Teachers Work Together Knowledge and Rapport Grow
This story from NSDC's Tools for Schools newsletter features the work of
TLN member Anne Jolly, who helps schools develop professional learning teams.
A great resource for school-based staff developments and school leadership
teams. (PDF, August 2001)
A
Faciliator's Guide to Professional Learning Teams
Coming soon. Check this
link for publication.
Professional Development research suggests that teachers learn best from
and with each other in ongoing, job-embedded activities. A Facilitator's
Guide to Professional Learning Teams provides a way of engaging school
faculties in sustained, onsite professional development that builds capacity
and collegiality, improves teaching quality, and focuses on student achievement.
This practical "how-to" guide will provide facilitators with field-tested
tools and procedures for establishing and maintaining professional learning
teams in schools. (SERVE, 2005)
Professional
Learning Teams - A Resource Page from SERVE
The tools and resources on this page are designed to complement and update
information in A
Facilitator's Guide to Professional Learning Teams: Creating On-the-Job
Opportunities for Teachers to Continually Learn and Grow.