Questions, Dec. 22, 2016
Chapter 6
Questions 1-4:
1 1.) P.
112 – Vignette, Mr. Timothy is concerned about the inconsistency in which ELLs
are assessed and progress is reported to parents. “Some students are graded
with their current language-proficiency abilities in mind while other ELLs
progress is reported using the same criteria as the general-education
students. Mr. Timothy was not heard
because he did not have the same status.
Why is it important that specialists not be
treated as just visiting during
interdisciplinary meetings?
2.) P. 113 – “When special-subject teachers float between
teams, they are perceived as guest participants and not as full members of the
team. Teacher specialists may be marginalized in these collaborative
meetings.” What advice would you give peers who may face this marginalization in their districts?
3.) What are the characteristics of ongoing collaboration? Think of a characteristic that is currently
working well in your school. Please share how it supports ongoing collaboration
for you and your team.
4.) When reading, Facilitating Factors for Scheduling Co-Taught
Classes (p. 126), describe factors you believe are the most important to
consider before scheduling co-taught classes.
1. Why is it important that specialists not be treated as just visiting during interdisciplinary meetings?
ReplyDeleteWhen we meet as a team, we need to be talking about all aspects of our students’ needs and there should be a specific reason for a specialist to be invited. In the example vignette, those teachers were discussing report cards, which may look very different for certain students (ELs, students with IEPs, etc.) and ALL team members’ input should be sought in order to ensure that all students’ needs are taken into account. If we are truly a PLC, everyone who is at a meeting should have a purpose for being there and their opinions should be sought and valued.
2. What advice would you give peers who may face this marginalization in their districts?
I think open communication is the key. Sometimes there is the misconception that specialists are “okay” with not being part of a team. If a teacher feels like they’re not being asked to participate in team meetings, perhaps the first step is communicating with the team to let them know that he/she would like to be a full participant in the team. Ask what they can do to contribute - maybe the team is planning a certain unit and the specialist can volunteer to search for resources or plan a lesson to teach. My advice is to start small and gradually increase the amount of involvement.
3. What are the characteristics of ongoing collaboration? Think of a characteristic that is currently working well in your school. Please share how it supports ongoing collaboration for you and your team.
Ongoing collaboration involves continuous, focused planning opportunities. I think, at my school, we are gradually moving towards more ongoing collaboration. Our planning days have helped us to create a skeleton plan for each quarter. I’d like to continue to develop our collaboration to be more strategic and move beyond basic lesson planning and figuring out who’s teaching what and move toward more differentiation of lessons and activities based on students’ language development. I’m pleased with how we’ve come along so far, because we are doing much more co-teaching, but I would like to take some time to develop and use different models for co-teaching that may better address our students’ needs.
4. When reading, Facilitating Factors for Scheduling Co-Taught Classes (p. 126), describe factors you believe are the most important to consider before scheduling co-taught classes.
I think the first factor in scheduling should be student placement. If students are placed in as few classes as possible, the amount of time we as resource teachers can actually co-teach increases dramatically. Right now, spreading time between 6-7 classes limits the amount of time available for each class as well as for planning with those teachers. I also think that asking for teachers to volunteer is important. Each person has his/her own strengths and interests. There are some teachers who enjoy working with ELs, even when some may perceive this to be an additional challenge. Whenever possible, we should give teachers an opportunity to work in their particular interest area, so if certain teachers have expressed a desire to work with our EL population, we should provide them with that opportunity.
1-Why is it important that specialists not be treated as just visiting during interdisciplinary meetings?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Danielle. Also, many comments/ideas/suggestions we have have to do with the whole child as well. We all have our specialties and come into a room or see a child in a certain lens. For example, my background is language based so I come in with a language lens to offer ideas and support where as a special education teacher may come in with that lens focus. This is the beauty of ALL meeting together, to collaborate and see the whole child to best meet their needs. We need to value and respect all colleagues. What I see in a student in my room with a small group can often be very different than what a classroom teachers sees in a class of 20something. It is important to all collaborate, work together, and have a respect for one another to be successful.
2. What advice would you give peers who may face this marginalization in their districts?
Try to speak up in the meetings and give ideas or offer support to show what you can bring to the team. Also, trying to use “our” students and “we” in conversations to keep bringing back that we are a team and all in this together can help as well. Many strategies I use or offer not only benefit my ELLs but ALL students, so I bring that up as well so that teachers realize that I am here for all teachers/students not just bilingual and ELLs. Sometimes, teachers do not value others or see their value right away so giving examples of what you have done in other rooms or with other kids etc, can help them understand. Teachers do not always know specialists’ roles to the fullest extent.
3. What are the characteristics of ongoing collaboration? Think of a characteristic that is currently working well in your school. Please share how it supports ongoing collaboration for you and your team.
Common plan time is key! In the past it was more of a scramble to find time whenever possible which I felt lead to more push in teaching/aiding than co teaching or not the best co teaching models, but we did the best we could with the situations. This year we had more admin support and were able to get more planning time in which has lead to richer co teaching overall when given longer time to plan as well as more often. So support and time were big changing factors when it came to collaboration.
4. When reading, Facilitating Factors for Scheduling Co-Taught Classes (p. 126), describe factors you believe are the most important to consider before scheduling co-taught classes.
Again, great ideas Danielle. Placement is extremely important! Now that we strategically place groups of students, we are able to focus in on smaller groups or be more flexible with grouping and times etc for our ELL services. Therefore, we work with less teachers making planning, scheduling, etc easier for all and can meet the student needs better. It is also important to create co teaching teams based on similar teaching styles or expertise based on the needs to ensure positive attitudes and willingness to collaborate to benefit the students.
I agree with the teaching styles and expertise being an important factor. It's one that isn't often discussed because no one wants to say anything that may be misconstrued as being "unwilling" or "unable" to work with another person, but co-teaching can be much more effective if teachers have complimentary (not necessarily the same) teaching styles. I've been lucky this year that we've all been able to work together quite well, but it is a factor that should be considered when pairing teachers.
DeleteDuly noted! Great consideration should go into pairing teachers for the highest effectiveness.
DeleteBoth you and Michelle have touched upon planning time being provided.
Let's discuss if most of the planning time has been spent on finite or ongoing collaboration. We all want to hear how you guys have structured collaboration and planning day.
Dear Spartan ESL, It is great that you mentioned strategic placement of students so that resource teachers can provide regular and ongoing support to students. This has been a very effective grouping at two of our elementary schools. Please remember to discuss when we meet.
Deletesorry, that was from me, Michelle Kotwica. Not sure why it pulled our blog name instead of mine... sorry.
ReplyDeleteMichelle, on p. 118, the authors present a team of teachers who met weekly with the expressed purpose of differentiating learning for ELLs. The roles of different teachers is described. Let's discuss this possibility as well for our elementary schools and we can explore ways to structure this type of collaboration.
ReplyDelete1.) Why is it important that specialists not be treated as just visiting during interdisciplinary meetings?
ReplyDeleteSpecialists should be accepted and valued as important members of all professional teams at school. The specialists should be permanent members of grade level teams to build personal relationships, thus enhancing communication. All members should have equal status and their ideas and opinions given equal weight.
2.) P. 113 – What advice would you give peers who may face this marginalization in their districts?
I would advise peers facing marginalization to make sure they are at all of the grade level meetings and not just some, giving information on their specialty knowledge to help solve problems. Also, I would advise them to build personal relationships with the other team members.
3.) What are the characteristics of ongoing collaboration? Think of a characteristic that is currently working well in your school. Please share how it supports ongoing collaboration for you and your team.
The characteristics of effective ongoing collaboration are 1) Identify the participants, 2) Set the purpose, 3)Establish time frame and scheduling logistics, 4) Determine needed resources, as well as time for reflection. Something that is going well for ongoing collaboration is having common planning time both before school and common plan times. I plan with the kindergarten teacher that I co-teach with during a common plan on Fridays, before school with the first grade teacher I co-teach with, and during a common plan time on Mondays with the 2nd grade teacher I co-teach with.
4.) When reading, Facilitating Factors for Scheduling Co-Taught Classes (p. 126), describe factors you believe are the most important to consider before scheduling co-taught classes.
I think the most important factor with scheduling co-teaching is the fit between specialist and general education teacher. I think it's very important for the specialist to exude flexibility, respect, reliability, and valuing the relationship both professionally and personally. Through trial and error, at times, specialists can determine which general education teachers to co-teach with and which it's better to do pull-out with or a combination of the two.
Christy,
ReplyDeleteYour point about all members having equal status and being permanent members of the professional teams at school is completely aligned with our readings. Tks for sharing!
1. When working with a different range of students, teachers should look for any resources that will help with challenges that they may encounter. The number one resource in a district is the staff and their expertise. It would be a disservice to label specialist as “just visiting” during meetings where they can provide teacher with insight and solutions to challenges they are encountering.
ReplyDelete2. First and foremost clear objectives and goals need to be set before these meetings take place to have clear agenda that will drive the meeting. When interdisciplinary meetings are happening it is also important for the team to build trust amongst themselves so that everyone is heard and opinions are taken into account. This will ensure that all members have input into what is needed for these students.
3. I agree with Michelle that a common planning time is key to providing collaboration to take place. This allows for teams to spend more time focusing on the objectives and needs rather than searching for times that all the team can get together. This also allows for consistency of meetings rather than letting time go by and delaying meetings because of individual schedules. Consistency is also key when reflecting on assessments and strategies. When the meetings are taking place all members would want to discuss data and strategies that were currently used, and consistency would help take care of this.
4. I believe the clustering of students into fewer classrooms would be the most important factor in scheduling co-taught classes. By clustering these students, they will be provided with services on a more consistent basis. Services on a more consistent basis could lead to more retention and use of the strategies being serviced.
1.) Specialists should be valued in interdisciplinary teams and be fully included at meetings. This would work the best if the specialist was at every interdisciplinary meeting. Otherwise the other team will not view the specialist as another team member but rather just a visitor. When this happens, the specials cannot form any sort of personal relationship with the team which will contribute to a lack of good communication. They will also miss a lot of crucial decision making and planning time if they are not in attendance on a consistent basis.
ReplyDelete2.)I think it is important for the staff of the building to understand the role of the specialist. I think many times the marginalization happens because of the teachers are not aware of how the specialist supports them and the students. They also do not know what is expected of both the general education teacher and specialist as co-teaching partners. This allows everyone to create their own assumptions without a clear vision and understanding.
3.) Ongoing collaboration is continuous planned meeting time for co-teachers to have the opportunity to discuss instruction and student learning. As a TLC, I am not paired with a particular teacher, grade level, or group of students rather I am available to all staff members in two buildings. This makes it challenging to have ongoing collaboration with more than a few teachers at a time. The positive of not having a set time to collaborate and having a flexible schedule is that I can meet with teachers at their most convenient time. I only wish I had more time to have ongoing collaboration with more teachers.
4.) I believe it is important to cluster the students together into fewer classrooms. This works well with limited specialists because the grouped students can receive more extended support in their general classroom. The specialist and the general education teachers will have more time to co-teach throughout the day. It also allows for ongoing collaboration because the specialist has less teachers to co-plan with.
Piedad (I should say Dr. Kaye!) invited me to visit your blog again. I have to say I'm impressed! Great professional learning (virtual) community you have created. Wonderful questions and dialogue you have going here! I know the ELLs are really lucky to have all of you advocating for them and collaborating with the broader school community. Keep it up, you're terrific! Tim Boals
DeletePiedad (I should say Dr. Kaye!) invited me to visit your blog again. I have to say I'm impressed! Great professional learning (virtual) community you have created. Wonderful questions and dialogue you have going here! I know the ELLs are really lucky to have all of you advocating for them and collaborating with the broader school community. Keep it up, you're terrific! Tim Boals
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