K12 Vertical Teaming

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K-12 Vertical Teaming

• Pathways to Literacy

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Newman and Wehlage

• If schools were to enhance their organizational
  capacity to boost student learning, they should
  work on building a professional community that is
  characterized by shared purpose, collaborative
  activity, and collective responsibility among
  staff.

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Parker Palmer

• The growth of any craft depends on shared
  practice and honest dialogue among the people who
  do it. We grow by private trial and error, to be
  sure but our willingness to try, and fall, as
  individuals is severely limited when we are not
  supported by a community that encourages such
  risks.

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More Parker Palmer

• the privatization of teaching not only keeps
  individuals from growing in their craft but
  fosters institutional incompetence as well.

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The Problem

• Isolation!
• Teachers working alone
• Schools working independently
• Assumptions
• If only they would have taught students to
• Confusion
• Students learning new terms, encountering
  disjointed practices, and uneven expectations

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What is vertical teaming?

• Educators from different grades, different
  schools (perhaps), different subjects (perhaps)
  working collaboratively on a shared project
• Teams of educators working systemically
• The work of the vertical team is joint work

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Collaboration Joint work

• Deepens collaboration
• Leads to stronger interdependence
• Nurtures shared responsibility and collective
  commitment
• We support those activities that we help to
  create. Margaret Wheatley

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Types of Vertical Teams

• Study groups
• Professional Learning Communities
• Critical Friends Groups
• Equity teams
• Curriculum teams
• Leadership Teams
• And.

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Marjories Story Central Boulder Valley
Vertical Team Project
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Background

• Feeder System 1 high school 2 middle schools 4
  elementary schools
• Inequity in enrollment patterns and graduate
  rates at high school level for different student
  populations
• District Goal develop relationships and
  consistently effective instruction K-12 for all
  students

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The Plan

• Representatives from Math and Language Arts met
  regularly
• Purpose What happens to students when they get
  to high school that leads to a widening gap?
• Activities Common readings, classroom
  observations, structured discussions, data
  analysis

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Challenges

• Develop community where it is safe enough to
  disagree, take risks, listen.
• Scheduling
• Administrative and teacher support at high school

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Results

• Shared articulation of essential elements for
  student learning in math and in science
• Shared view of instructional implications
• Plan for targeted K-12 professional development
  based on data
• Baseline data for enrollment patterns, graduate
  rates, attendance to track progress when plan is
  implemented with more teachers involved.

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Stevis story La Junta School District

• 4 schools primary, intermediate, middle, high
• District goal Writing workshop as a means to
  grow writers
• Blame throughout the system

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Courageous ConversationsA Day of Writing Inquiry

• Representatives from grades K-12 met to inquire
  about writing throughout the system
• If your child started school in kindergarten and
  graduated from high school here, what would her
  writing experience be like?
• Sample papers, assignments, and rubrics at each
  grade level

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Following the day of inquiry

• A desire to bring clarity to vocabulary, rubrics,
  and units of study
• SMART goals for each school
• Awareness of a need to unpack writers workshop

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Next Steps (for Tuning)

• Prior to the meeting
• Each school identify strong writers workshop
  classrooms
• Interview that teacher(s) and take photos or
  video of students at work
• At the meeting
• 30 minutes/school to share
• After presentations, identify commonalities/diffe
  rences
• Discussion of next steps
• Professional development at school level
• Professional development at distict level
• Etc.

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Prerequisites for Vertical Teaming

• Being clear of purpose and goals
• Setting norms
• Building collegiality
• Determining processes for looking at work,
  discussing tough issues, and/or learning together
• Being willing to be disturbed and to work in
  the risk zone
• Someone to facilitate and to debrief
• Agreeing to focus on students and learning

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• Building collaborative cultures involves a long
  developmental journey. There are no easy short
  cuts.
• --- Hargreaves and Fullan