Summer Book Study 2017
Teachers Continue Learning Over the Summer
During Summer 2017 my teachers and I are engaging in a book study. This is not something new - teachers typically spend several days or at least hours reading and studying about education related matters to increase their expertise for the following school year. When people say that teachers have it so easy when they get three months off in the summer, I have to correct them every chance I get. First of all, the days of summer being three months in duration is long gone. US schools generally are not out until at least the first week of June. Teachers have work days after school is out to wrap up everything from the previous year. Then, school starts back in mid-August. That means that teachers will be officially on duty around the first or second week of August. Training opportunities for teachers are provided all summer long, and most of my teachers voluntarily take classes or conduct their own research on topics that are of interest to them or would be a pathway to meet a professional growth goal.
I have spoken in previous blogs that I really liked the school calendar in Australia. We had four terms beginning the last week of January. Each term had either 10 or 11 weeks followed by a two week holiday. School was out the 16th of December, so there were about 5-6 weeks of summer vacation. In Australia I did not see the effects of what we refer to as "summer slide." When children are out of school for more than 6 weeks their skills will slip unless they are diligent in keeping up with their reading, writing, and mathematics thinking. To help solve this problem, we offer summer tutoring programs, a summer library program, and we send home suggested summer activities with families. We do not want to diminish the value of outdoor physical activities like swimming, hiking, camping, water sports, bike riding, etc, because these activities are what everyone looks forward to for summer. We do, however, do our best to help families know that the academic skills can SLIDE if they are neglected for so long. As a matter of fact, we have conducted some research over the years, and if a child does no reading over the summer, it typically takes about 6 weeks of school in August and September to get the child back to where he/she ended the previous school year in their grade level reading skills. Most of our families are supportive of helping their child keep the "brain engaged" over the summer, and for that we are very appreciative.
Speaking of keeping brains engaged, our teachers do a great job of keeping theirs engaged, as well. Now, I am sure that many of them have summer reading lists that include romance novels, historical fiction, mysteries, suspense thrillers, and just good old fashioned beach reads, but we decided as a staff to spend a few hours this summer considering the topic of "collaborative common assessments." You would have to be an educator to find this topic worth your while, but I am sure that some of my educator colleagues in the US and in Australia are simply salivating in your desire to join us in studying this initiative.
I have spoken in previous blogs about the work of Dr. John Hattie who is an educational researcher from the University of Melbourne. Dr. Hattie has spent years compiling an exhaustive list of educational strategies and then ranking them in order of effectiveness. His list changes somewhat over time as new research emerges, but at the moment the top two factors in predicting student achievement include:
1. Teacher Estimates of Achievement (1.62 effect size with .4 being average)
This factor includes the notion that teachers' expectations of student achievement have a huge impact on the actual performance of their students.
According to Tara Garcia Mathewson from the Education Dive Newsletter, "the growth mindset has evolved as a way for teachers to focus on student potential, rather than their deficits. To embrace the growth mindset, teachers must acknowledge their biases and learn to put them aside in the classroom."
Just FYI readers, a post about Growth Mindset is definitely coming. It is currently a fascinating area of research!
2. Collective Teacher Efficacy (1.57 effect size - about 4 times the average)
According to Shaun Killian from the Australian Society for Evidence Based Teaching, "This is a factor that can be manipulated at a whole school level. It involves helping all teachers on the staff to understand that the way they go about their work has a significant impact on student results – for better or worse. Simultaneously, it involves stopping them from using other factors (e.g. home life, socio-economic status, motivation) as an excuse for poor progress. Yes, these factors hinder learning, but a great teacher will always try to make a difference despite this, and they often succeed."
With these concepts in mind, our staff has really focused upon our collaborative planning efforts over the past year. We have been a part of the Jeffco district-wide initiative of Professional Learning Communities. The whole idea behind this initiative is that teachers can learn from each other, and in that process students benefit due to the increase efficacy of the teachers. It is really a simple concept, but not that easy to implement due to time constraints, scheduling difficulties, varying levels of conceptual and practical knowledge, and even a bit of fear about possible judgment from our peers. We have had several opportunities to engage in conversations about trust and professional norms. I can honestly say that my teachers ALL have the desire to learn and grow with each other. They are very self-reflective and always eager to strengthen their professional skills so that our students will receive the highest quality educational program that is possible.
Can you tell that I am proud of my teachers?
Our book study this summer goes right along with where we are in the PLC implementation process - it is called Collaborative Common Assessments: Teamwork, Instruction, Results by Cassandra Erken Solution Tree PRess, 2016
This easy to understand book emphasizes that the process of designing assessments in a collaborative manner can significantly improve learning for both teachers and students. The idea is that teachers work together to gain a very clear understanding of what the students need to be able know, understand, and be able to demonstrate to show proficiency on our state standards. It involves "unpacking the standards" to ensure deep understanding from the teacher's perspective first, and then provides a road map that will be extremely clear to the students.
I have completed four chapters to this point and have come up with the following key points, questions and concerns that resonate the most with me:
- In the forward by the late Richard DuFour: "the most promising strategy for sustained and substantive school improvement is to develop the capacity of educators to function as members of high-performing professional learning communities (PLC's). Yea - we are already on that road!
- Educators already express concerns about being data wealthy, but information bankrupt. What do our teachers think about continual ongoing assessing?
- Assessment practices must change if they are to reignite the passion and energy they bring to inform and guide teaching and learning.
- "Schools where the work of collaborative common assessments makes the greatest difference house conversations that are instructionally enlightening and teams that are collaboratively dependent.
- Teachers decide on the most important learning goals for their classes. Then, they decide on what types of assessments and write them together. They review them quickly and use results to make instructional decisions.
- I found the four phases of the collaborative common assessment process interesting - I think this is just where we are in our PLC process.
- To be successful with CCA's teachers need to build a strong foundation. Before they even start designing the assessments, they need to follow these steps in the Preparation phase:
- Establish team norms for collaboration - we have spent a lot of time on this over the past year.
- Prioritize the standards - we have professional development time earmarked for this on August 11th.
- Develop shared knowledge of the priority standards - this will come in our deliberations as PLC's
- Examine school data and establish SMART Goals - we will look at 16-17 CMAS and MAP results and then look at Beginning of the Year data after our students return.
- Create Assessment Maps - this is a shared plan for a unit of study that shows how each teacher will assess the learning goals. It helps to make sure everyone on the team is assessing the same learning goals at the same level of difficulty.
So - teachers are you ready for this work together?
OK - maybe you need a bit more rest this summer, but I am eager to engage in this work with you this fall!
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