INTRO TO ELA: Flipping the Script & Building a Culture of Collaboration, Part 2 Welcome! Yay! December! Final session!

Follow up from NOVEMBER 5 min. share Frame: This month we’re following up our initial discussion about flipping the script. We’re seeing SO MANY 1st YEAR ENGLISH TEACHERS courageously taking steps to increase the amount of productive discussion and collaboration happening in classes, but you all requested to problem-solve even more about the nuances about what is hard about building this collaborative culture, so that is what we’re going to do today. Before we problem-solve, however, let’s first celebrate what’s going well! CMs engage in check-in celebration in partners. With one other person at your table share successes: T-actions: How did you try to flip the script after November Pro Sat? S-actions: How have your students reading, writing, discussions improved thanks to the steps you took to flip the script? What was difficult?

Welcome! 2 min agenda + objectives.   FRAME: Based on the feedback we got from you all within exit tickets at the end of the last course, we decided to CONTINUE TO spend our time talking about how to create a culture of safety and collaboration. This month, we’ll work with partners who have DIFFERENT gaps than ours to problem-solve & we’ll consider what has been working in other classes around the greater Delta– since SO MUCH IS REALLY WORKING in our classes! Share agenda & objectives. Our Goals: Reflect on what is hard about flipping the script & student-collaboration? Problem-solve with another ELA teacher who has a different gap. Commit to flipping the script with specific next steps Time 10 min. Celebrate Progress Reflection & Self-Diagnosis 40 min. Partner Discussion: Causes & Culture Solutions Email to MTLD or accountability partner 5 min. Closing & Exit Ticket

Diagnose your own culture of collaboration & discussion: When your students work in partners or groups, how clear are they about WHAT they should be doing and HOW they should do it? What is your student-evidence of this? 2. When your students work in partners or groups, to what extent is purposeful discussion happening? What student-evidence/ student-work are you thinking about? 8-10 min. Before we transition into partner work time, we’re going to narrow our focus about precisely what we want to change for our students by reflecting honestly now. Diagnose Your Own Classroom: CMs answer the questions on the PPT & in their handouts. 3. How clear do you think your students are about WHY they should strive to own more of the reading, writing, & talking? About WHY they should strive to peacefully & effectively communicate with each other? What student-evidence are you considering? 4. What has been difficult about flipping the script? Where have you and your students struggled? What is the biggest habit holding your studnets back right now?

Handout 2: Which Problems & Causes Sound Most Like Your Problems? Prevalent ELA-Delta Culture Gaps: Students aren’t completing the ACTUAL READING of the text effectively in partners or groups because they aren’t crystal clear on the expectations or because they aren’t invested in reading in partners/ groups. Students aren’t completing the ACTUAL TALKING about the text effectively in partners or groups because they aren’t crystal clear on the expectations or because they aren’t invested in becoming better communicators. Some groups work better than others once students are working. Different groups work at different rates during group/ partner reading & discussion, such that you really aren’t sure who knows what by the end of class. Students don’t know their progress as communicators, so they are starting to revert back to old habits of less constructive-discussion. 5 min. Now that you’ve diagnosed what’s most holding your own students back, flip to handout 2. We’ve catalogued the top 5 student gaps that we’ve noticed happening in classes right now around the Delta here. Go ahead and take a couple minutes to read through the student gaps on handout 3. Once you know which gap you want to solve, find a partner who wants to solve a DIFFERENT gap. Last time, you all suggested that it would be more helpful to problem-solve with someone who is solving a different problem. We agree! 

Appendices A-E: Researching & Discussing Solutions Considering Causes & Discussing Solutions = 3-5 min. FRAME + 40 min. WORK TIME! (We’ve protected much more partner-problem-solving this time, so you can really dig into the proposed solutions and deeply understand what’s happening in each others’ classes.) Now that you’re with people who want to solve a DIFFERENT problem, we recommend that you take the following steps in order to create a solution & have another person who deeply understands the outcomes in your class. Go through the steps on the PPT, but focus on the outcomes: that CMs have specific next steps that they are committed to take to change the gaps in collaboration that are happening. I’m going to cut off our discussions & problem-solving 8 minutes before the end of this course in order for you to email your MTLD your problem-solving AND in order to solicit your thinking about what we should discuss in our final month together. Go! Open up an email to your MTLD or to an accountability person in this room (me or Franzen or an ELA friend). Jot down your thoughts from handout 5 & send! Group celebration: Take a couple minutes in your group to reflect on ONE concrete way that each person in the group made the work more enjoyable & moved the group forward. Key point to illuminate with this reflection: We are a community of learners & planning MATTERS. Continue finding more people to plan with in and outside of Pro Sat. We’ll all have many more wins for our students the more we collaborate! Final Reflection ET: How has this discussion shifted what you want for your students in a single lesson shifted, if at all? How has this discussion shifted your approach for what you want for your students longer term, if at all? How are you going to operate differently, if at all? We’ll likely offer another required 1st year ELA course next year. What should we keep from this course? What should we scrap? As a 1st year ELA teacher, what else would you have liked to learn & collaborate over in a course like this? 20 minutes per partner 1st: Explain what’s happening with your students 2nd: Read the proposed solutions in the appendices. 3rd: Consider whether these proposed solutions will help you solve your problems! 4th: Set next steps! Goal = Determine a specific aligned to your problem & have one person to help hold you accountable for next steps. Soft copy of HANDOUTS with RESOURCE LINKS: http://tinyurl.com/FlipTheScript2

What will be different about your students in January? Email to accountability buddy + ET = 10 min. Final Reflection ET: How has this discussion shifted what you want for your students in a single lesson shifted, if at all? How has this discussion shifted your approach for what you want for your students longer term, if at all? How are you going to operate differently, if at all? We’ll likely offer another required 1st year ELA course next year. What should we keep from this course? What should we scrap? As a 1st year ELA teacher, what else would you have liked to learn & collaborate over in a course like this? Flip the script graphic What will be different about your students in January?