Effective Teamwork Reflection

“Before”-Individual Reflection Individually and silently respond to the prompts below on the provided paper: 1.What shared ways of working together made this group particularly effective? 2.What did your content peer partners/thinking partners do to support your learning? 3.What are the commonalities in your work? 4.What can you infer about the common knowledge and skill base that you have drawn from your triad?

The Purpose of Peer Partnering with your Thinking Partner   To build a community of teachers who continuously engage in the study of their craft   To develop the shared language and set of common understandings necessary for the collegial study of new knowledge and skills   To provide a structure for the follow up to training that is essential for acquiring new teaching skills and strategies Teachers Coaching Teachers Beverly Showers (This article originally appeared in Educational Leadership, April, 1985)

Agenda  “Before”-Individual Reflection  “During”-Affinity Mapping  “During”-Gallery Walk  “Formative Assessment”-Fist to Five  “After-Formative Assessment” 3-2-1

Keys to Effective Team Functioning  “Triads/Duos” believe strongly in one another’s capacity to develop practical solutions to teaching and learning problems.  Faculty and staff believe that regardless of school’s social or economic circumstances, improvement can and will occur.  “Triads/Duos” arrive at each meeting with a sense that informed trial and error will lead to better teaching and thus to high levels of learning. Schmoker, M. Results, p. 20.

“During”-Peer Partnering with your Thinking Partners: Reflecting on the Observation and Affinity Mapping What?Generating evidence of learning from your thinking partners. Why?To surface our collective thinking about learning from your thinking partners. HowIndividually reflect, record individual ideas on sticky notes, one per sticky note, (first for a Praise, and then for a Polish,) and use of affinity mapping to categorize group members’ ideas.

Preparing for Affinity Mapping I. Working individually and silently, record each discrete piece of evidence related to a Praise (be specific) on a yellow sticky note— only one piece of evidence per sticky note. I. Working individually and silently, record each discrete piece of evidence related to a Praise (be specific) on a yellow sticky note— only one piece of evidence per sticky note. II. Now, move to the generation of evidence regarding a Polish (preferably formed as a question). Record each of these behaviors on a pink sticky note. ** Generate as many ideas as you can within three minutes. Please feel free to use your notes from the Praise- Question-Polish tool and/or any reflection of the post conference.

Affinity Mapping  Silently, affix your post-its to your team’s chart paper that is marked “Praise.”  Work with others at your table to create a graphic organizer that depicts your collective vision of The Praises for our PLC. Do this by creating categories of like ideas.  When directed, name your categories.

Affinity Mapping, cont’d.  Silently, affix your post-its to your team’s chart paper that is labeled “Polish.”  Work with others at your table to create a graphic organizer that depicts your collective vision of The Polishes for our PLC. Do this by creating categories of like ideas.  When directed, name your categories.

“During”-Gallery Walk “During”-Gallery Walk 1. Hang your team’s chart papers on the wall. Spread these out around this area of the media center so that no two sets of charts are to close together. 2. Now, travel with your team (moving to the right when looking at your group’s chart paper) to view the other groups compiled evidence. Stopping for 2-3 minutes. Then continue until your team has moved all the way through the Gallery Walk.

Benefits of Effective Teamwork  Substantial gains in student achievement  Higher-quality solutions to problems  Increased confidence among all  Teacher’s ability to support one another  Ability to examine and test new ideas, methods, & materials  More systematic assistance to beginning teachers  Expanded pool of ideas, materials, and methods Schmoker, Results, p. 12.

“Formative Assessment”-Fist to Five, with “Fist” being very easy and “5” being very difficult. Teachers believe in one another. Teachers believe in one another. Teachers believe that all students, regardless of socioeconomic status or ethnicity, can achieve at high levels. Teachers believe that all students, regardless of socioeconomic status or ethnicity, can achieve at high levels. Teachers are willing to experiment with new strategies and techniques. Teachers are willing to experiment with new strategies and techniques.

“After-Formative Assessment” Reflect on Peer Partnering with your Thinking Partners: 3 Benefits 3 Benefits 2 Take Aways 2 Take Aways 1 Concern or Need 1 Concern or Need **Give me your on the way out. Thank you and be safe in your travels!