Innovative Learning Practice

The New Zealand Education Review Office releases publications that support effective teaching and learning on a regular basis. Their recent release is an interesting look at strategies that schools are using that have led to increased achievement outcomes for learners in Years 5-8.

The report identifies some key aspects of schools where effective approaches and strategies were implemented across the school. These included:

• Committed leadership
• Genuine learning partnerships with whānau
• A rich, integrated curriculum
• Shared language of learning
• Collaborative and supportive professional learning culture
• Engaged Board of Trustees
• Strong teaching as inquiry processes

Of particular interest to me was the information about engagement and motivation:
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"Engagement and motivation were both crucial for supporting the learning and achievement of senior primary school children. Many schools were successfully giving students greater opportunities to work in multilevel groups and to make choices about their learning. Teachers grouped children for the purpose of learning about a particular concept, acquiring a specific skill, or exploring a context that interested them. They no longer grouped children by achievement level or reading age. In some cases, children were able to select which workshop to attend or which context to explore. Children were taught how to work well together, contribute, listen to others, and take responsibility for completing something successfully. Some children who had been working in a bottom group or even independently with a teacher made considerable gains when put into a multilevel group – they no longer felt designated as failures and enjoyed being supported by, and learning from their peers."

Many of the approaches that the report is discussing have gone from strength to strength with the introduction of collaborative teaching. When teachers and students work together, the possibilities for different types of grouping and teachers being able to offer different options to for students to learn material have dramatically increased. 

Some examples I have seen in practice recently include:

• Teachers who offer 3 different class novels in shared reading time. Students opt into a novel of their choice, after the teachers have pitched to the students about why theirs is the best and shared a "taster". 
• Teachers offering reading groups based on a theme or topic - students opt into a group of their choice and their is a range of levels for all to access. Most teachers have found that students will read more difficult texts as they are so engaged.
• Math students with personalised pathways, opting into workshops offered based on their learning needs.

There are some really interesting case studies that are worth reading through. Below is the summary of approaches used. Could be worth taking a look at some solid, evidence based practice if your school is working through any of these strategies.

4 weeks has just flown by! Here we are in the final part of this series - Assessment and Monitoring. Remembering back to Week 1, the big question from a reader was: What are the teachers doing? What are the kids doing? How do you monitor and assess?

As I always say, there isn't any one size fits all solution for any school and the conversations that you have as a collaborative staff are key in making these important decisions. Once again, WHY you are assessing and monitoring comes first, followed by what you will do and how you will do it.

When people first start teaching collaboratively, it does feel different than a single cell class. I found it hard to keep track of all the children in my head. Sometimes I would forget who was in my reading groups and who was in my writing groups. Systems, timetables and lists became more important. After teaching 24 kids for EVERYTHING and knowing them really well, of course it's not going to be the same with 75 kids that you teach for SOME THINGS. To start with I worried that I was losing my connections and relationships with the kids and their families. But you know what? I adjusted to a "new normal". So maybe I needed to check a piece of data for a kid because it wasn't right there in  my head - when I saw the huge increase in student learning, engagement and progress I could cope with that. I still had great relationships with my kids and their families - just now there was more of them and also another adult in the room who also knew them and who could share their insights with me.

Danger zone - Do be careful not to create  unmanageable systems that means you're recording all sorts of information that no-one will ever go back and use! How you do set up your assessment and monitoring systems will also be influenced by the numbers of students and teachers in your team. For example, 2 teachers working together might have more informal systems than 4 teachers working together. 

​Of course, any country is governed by some formal regulations about assessment/ reporting to parents and in New Zealand we are no different. Whether you agree or not there are some things that just have to be done - so what is the best way to do them? ( This is my favourite blog post ever about reporting  - worth a read!)

So here's some ideas featuring systems that I have seen work well in innovative learning environments. I hope there's something here that can work for you or that you can adapt.

Below are some examples of different formats for recording information. Identifying information such as name columns and personal notes have been removed, but hopefully you get the idea!

Thank you so much for reading this series! Would love to hear how your ILP journey is progressing!
Make sure you revisit the Connected Educator resources. SO many cool things!

​Additional Resources:
​VLN Thread - gathering anecdotal evidence.
​Enabling E- Learning Assessment Resources

Tony Grey's (Kowhai School) sabbatical work this year has been fantastic! Start off Week 3 of #CENZ15 with a look at this great video about the benefits of collaborative teaching.

I really like this blog post by Greg Carroll from Core Education, which explains the difference between collaboration, co-operation and connections. 

Collaboration - This is where people are so inextricably linked that they couldn’t function without the others. The effect is much bigger than the sum of the two parts. In MLP this is the thing that makes the difference. Teachers share and organise the programme in ways that mean you couldn’t split the ways of working back into its parts again.

As Greg goes on to say, true collaboration is still quite rare in our schools. Often there are aspects of it, but it is important to recognise real collaboration as opposed to co-operation. Of course, co-operation is required in the classroom all the time - "I'll get the PE gear - you get the kids organised into their teams." "I'll plan the inquiry unit header, you plan the maths unit header." The key difference here is that even though the co-operation makes things better, those teachers could do this on their own if they needed to. 

Wondering: As you reflect on your past practices or current practice, how much is co-operative and how much is truly collaborative?
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This week I'm looking at Collaborative Planning and ideas for getting started with this. As I mentioned last week, often when people begin co-teaching, they might begin just in one curriculum area and gradually expand on this. The same is often true for planning together. You might find when you first start that you just adapt one area of your planning, assessment and evaluating. It may make sense to both have copies of what you are doing, in place with your other planning documents.Then, as you progress, you may end up with everything being shared and worked on in one place. Some teachers still need to print out plans and write all over them. Others are happy to be in a totally digital world. It's important to cater for the teaching styles of everyone and see what suits different people.

Without a doubt though, collaborative digital tools such as Google Docs making working with others to plan, assess and reflect so much easier. Most schools who are doing well with this are using GAFE, Office 365, Evernote or similar to create living documents that are owned by everyone and accessible anywhere, anytime. Some are taking it next level and sharing planning with students and parents.

This diagram from the VLN shows ways in which collaborative planning might happen. What I would add to the diagram, is the powerful conversations that take place while collective planning is going on. It's not just about timetabling, but this is when those incidental teaching as inquiry type conversations happen! "What was that awesome activity your learners were doing in reading last week?" " Does anyone have any good ideas on the best ways to introduce fractions?" " Did you notice that studentx was really struggling with getting going with writing reports?" This is where the power of collaboration comes in.

I found that once in a co-teaching situation, the quality of teaching and learning activities increased hugely. For example, I went from teaching Maths in a single cell class to Stages 3, 4, 5 and 6 groups, to working in a power of 3 teaching 3 groups at Stage 5. Even though there were variances within those groups, my understanding of the concepts at that stage improved. As I taught concepts, I had the chance to reflect and analyse what had worked well, prior to teaching the same concept to my next group. When I compared the amount of work that my Stage 5 groups got through, compared to my single Stage 5 group the year before, I couldn't believe how much more I had taught in the co-teaching situation.

Take a look at these crowd sourced examples of collaborative planning templates and check out this thread of ideas on the Virtual Learning Network.

Recently I was at a workshop discussing a school's journey working collaboratively. One of the key misunderstandings from the participants was they thought collaborative planning meant planning every single thing together. They were thinking that all three teachers would sit and plan for 12 reading groups all together, same for maths etc. While that might work for some, most of us simply wouldn't have enough hours in the day! More often, what would happen is that teachers would discuss their reading programme, identify any barriers to learning, share good ideas and finalise their timetable for the following week.  They might organise workshop opportunities, hot spot activities, motivating lesson starters and target group instruction.Then each teacher would plan their own lessons for the students they are teaching. They would link their planning to the collaborative document so that anyone could access. (Hot Tip - link a folder that you have filed weekly plans into, rather than linking to the weekly plan. This means that you can just duplicate the last plan and the link will remain.) There is definitely still room for individual teacher creativity and teaching to strengths.


Wonderings to Consider:
How will you start planning collaboratively?  With one curriculum area or multiple areas?
How will you adjust your timetable to allow for multiple teaching and learning sessions?
Do you have a MATES agreement in place? ( See #CEM 1 blog post )
What are the best systems for your teaching team to use to plan, assess and evaluate?
How can you share your planning with students and whanau? What is appropriate to share?
How can you include student voice in your own planning? Can students be taking on teaching roles?
Are you working collaboratively or co-operatively?

I hope this post helps you with your journey. Stay tuned next week for Assessment and Monitoring and my final installment for #CENZ15. Feel free to tweet/ facebook/ email with any questions or comments or requests for future posts!


Additional Resources:
What is collaborative teaching? Blog post by Chris Bradbeer.
A typical day in a collaborative environment. Kathleen Morris
Part Two of Collaborative Teaching Advantages Tony Grey

Kia ora koutou and welcome to Connected Educator Month! I hope you have been making the most of the amazing opportunities on offer! This month I decided to add some posts to my blog, hoping to address the question that I am most often asked when discussing collaborative teaching with educators. Here is an excerpt from a recent email that I received from a blog reader:

I feel like I have more of an understanding of how the environment and thinking should be/look/feel but what I am struggling to understand is how a typical maths session would look? or reading? or writing? What are the kids doing, what are the teachers doing? How do we monitor and assess?!

The number one question that I was asked by tour groups coming through my school and now when I am working with teachers as a facilitator is: "But what does it "look like?" What is actually happening with the teaching and learning?" I don't know if I am going to be able to answer this question with words rather than visuals, but over the next few weeks, I will have a go!

So here's the set up:
                                     Week 1 - Getting your house in order, Forming Collaborative          Teaching relationships.
                                     Week 2 - Ideas for getting started, What could teaching and learning look like?.
                                     Week 3 - Collaborative Planning
​                                     Week 4 - Assessment and Monitoring.

Getting your house in order.
So, your school wants to begin collaborative teaching! Before you embark on this courageous journey, there are many things you need to be sure you do. It would take more than a single blog post to cover this, but I want you to be sure that you know WHY your school wants to teach collaboratively. This is a journey that you will have been on with your whole school, principal, board and community. It will probably have been part of your first steps, as you align your school vision, values and curriculum and re-think how learning and teaching is changing and evolving at your school.

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The CORE Ed MLE Matrix is a great resource to see how your school is tracking with being clear about their purpose. Definitely worth checking in and seeing if you are able to answer the questions on the matrix. If you feel confident that you understand the "why", then read on!

So, how might you go about forming a co-teacher(s) relationship? Often these relationships evolve based on friendships, location or year level, but planning strategically for effective co-teaching models is becoming more prevalent. Many schools include discussion about co-teaching as part of appraisal meetings, end of year principal meetings or send out surveys to gather teacher or student voice.

I'm always interested how schools are forming their collaborative teaching partnerships. Neill O'Reilly (Waitikiri School) is currently conducting some research as part of his CPPA study award. His emerging findings show:

• 100% of teachers had input into their 'team' for the next year
• Leaders looked at a range of variables including, student needs, the skills of teachers, the experience of teachers, the team work attributes they bring (many use HBDI or Belbin), relationships between teachers and the need to challenge or support teachers
• 98% of teachers agreed that while they should have a say (and 100% of management agreed with this) that ultimately management / leadership should decide as they have the 'bigger picture'.
• Most schools do not want a whole lot of 'alikes' in a space as it is not in the best interests of the children (one of the many reasons for collaborative teaching is to give students multiple perspectives of the curriculum and for students to have access to a range of strengths, interests, passions, personalities and abilities)

Once in teams relationship, through quality communication and a shared understanding of the vision, values and beliefs of the school (especially in relation to collaborative teaching, student centred learning, use of digital tools to enable teaching and learning, use of space, shared responsibility for all learners...) are the most important things to consider as the team develops.
(Retrieved from VLN MLE group discussion thread, Tue 29 Sept, 2015)

One cannot underestimate the power of effective communication. Many co-teachers develop "MATES" agreements - Mutually Agreed Team Essentials. This will cover aspects such as vision and values, common goals, methods of communication, meeting times and expectations, admin roles, parent involvement, process for giving feedback to each other and any other areas the team decides to include. It is a great idea to regularly refer to this document, to check that it is still relevant. Does anything need adding or changing? It can also provide support for courageous conversations that might need to take place.

Another question I am often asked is what is the optimal number of teachers working together? I too have wondered about this. I have mostly taught in a "power of 2" co-teaching partnership which I loved. As I was in a large school, we often taught collaboratively in other ways - sometimes in groups of 3, even up to groups of 6.  I have asked many other teachers about this and these are some of the answers:

"2, definitely a 2 - so much easier to organise meetings and to talk together."
"3, definitely a 3 - way more ideas contributed than just in a 2 and more options for different ways of teaching and learning."
"Any number would be fine - you would just develop systems to make it work"
"It depends on your environment - some environments are more conducive to certain co-teaching arrangements."

Not really helpful if you are looking to be told an answer! I definitely agree though, that your environment needs to be carefully taken into consideration when making this decision. For example, when I was teaching at Clearview Primary, we had some spaces that worked really well for 2 teachers and some that worked well for 3 teachers. Each school needs to make this decision based on their student's needs, the spaces they have available and their staff.

Have a look at these suggestions for developing as a collaborative teacher:

​Five Tips to Becoming a Strong Co-Teacher

1. Say this mantra: "All students are our students."
2. Come to planning meetings prepared (with an agenda) to maximize co-planning time.
3. If you feel something, say something! Open communication is the key to a successful partnership.
4. Realize that the success of your class depends on the strength of your co-teaching relationship.
5. Use a variety of co-teaching models to help maintain equality.

Retrieved from Edutopia.com, September 29, 2015. Read the whole article here.

Cheryl Doig's work on mindsets for collaboration and nested layers of collaboration is inspiring and definitely worth looking at.

Retrieved from www.thinkbeyond.co.nz, September 30, 2015

To conclude, the video below is just lovely and reminds us of how we all bring our own unique skills, talents, abilities and ideas to the collaborative classroom. Share it at your next staff meeting!

I'd love to hear any ideas,comments or questions that you have about establishing your teaching partnerships. Feel free to comment/ tweet/ facebook or email! Next time: Getting Going - Where do I start?

Further resources:

Collaborative Teaching Advantages, Collective Teacher Efficacy - videos from Tony Grey._

A Year Of Collaborative Teaching - Blog post. December 2014

Podcasts - collaborative environments.

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