When beginning this school year I knew we needed to focus energy, effort, resources and time in the area of vertical team discussions and vertical team planning. This past year we had 16 classroom sections with eight teachers who were either new to the district, new to the building or new to teaching. We also added a new principal and a new Literacy Facilitator to the building.
With this many new faces in the building it is not just mandatory that we make time to come together to engage in purposeful discussion related to curriculum, instruction and assessment, but that we also come together in times of celebration and camaraderie. We are “All in this Together” and must develop the relationships and culture necessary to create and sustain an effective team environment.
We have begun this journey by accessing resources at AllThingsPLC. The Working in Vertical Teams piece has aided us in our journey to common understanding and a vision of developing the K-6 Curriculum/Instruction/Assessment knowledge needed to increase student learning.
We are using the following document to assist in this process:
By: Rick DuFour
1. How do we know our students have acquired the intended knowledge and skills? What assessments can the two teams create together to monitor student learning as they make the transition from one course or grade level to the next? For example, if the sixth grade team has identified certain math skills as essential for students to master prior to entering sixth grade, then the fifth and sixth grade teams should work together to create assessments that provide evidence of student proficiency. Both teams should examine that evidence and discuss ways to strengthen the results.
2. What evidence can the receiving team gather about student learning that could be helpful to the sending team? Precise and specific feedback is far more effective than generalities. The statement “These kids don’t know how to write” is not helpful. “Forty percent of the students struggle with making transitions between paragraphs” could be very helpful to a team focusing its efforts on ways to benefit students.
What are the Essential Skills? How do we know? (Assessments)
* Group these skills in “like” areas.
Ie – number sense, geometry/measurement,
data probability
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What are our next steps?
How can this help improve student learning and meet our goals?
Original Image Credit: Bodies in Motion by Paul Stevenson
Licensed Creative Commons Attribution on May 1, 2012
Slide by Bill Ferriter
The Tempered Radical
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