This blog provides an update on WVU Benedum Collaborative activities. We hope that the blog helps all of us remain informed about the work we share. We are engaged in exciting work!
(Adapted from Teaching and Learning from the Inside and Out: By Judy F. Carr, Janice R. Fauske, Stephen Rushton, pp. 59-62)
While the very basic human need for belonging to a participating in a group is met by partnerships that are congenial, truly collaborative partnerships move from being congenial to being collegial (Barth, 1990). Consider the congenial partnership:
The principal, teachers, and university faculty members are friendly and laid back, often moving in and out of the school visiting for a variety of meetings. They are all well liked and get along. Partners readily congregate in the lounge before and after school and frequently meet off school grounds to socialize. Partners enjoy the latitude that they have in lesson plans and testing in their own areas. The halls are filled with discussions of football games, homecoming, and other extracurricular activities. Partners here meet in departments about once per month to coordinate issues assigned to side of the partnership. Overall, the partnership is a happy and a pleasant place to work and study.
Collegiality, on the other hand, requires the presence of four specific behaviors. The adults in collegial partnerships:
1. Talk about practice in conversations that are frequent, continuous, concrete, and precise; 2. Observe each other engaged in the practice of teaching and administration; 3. Engage together in work on curriculum by planning, designing, researching, and evaluating curriculum; and 4. Teacher each other what they know about teaching, learning, and leading (Little, 1981, as cited in Barth, 1990, p. 31).
Now consider a collegial partnership.
The partners all sit in meetings working together. Partners work side by side one another in many ways. They observe each other and offer training when required in the areas that they have been trained as trainers. Together, they are planning professional development activities for the rest of the year building on both their unique and shared expertise Energy is high.
Congeniality can depict a situation where people cooperate and are respectful and cordial to each other. Pleasantness and lack of conflict prevail. People are accommodating to others’ beliefs, and they allow for each other’s individuality and freedom of expression. All of these factors are important to maintaining a comfortable workplace and positive outlook. However, our work is not always comfortable nor should it be. In fact, discomfort or disequilibrium is exactly what produces learning (Piaget, 1991). It is only when we experience disequilibrium that we make adjustments or accommodations our thinking in response to assimilating new information. In this sense, conflicting approaches, ideologies, and values can precipitate learning under the right circumstances. Lack of disequilibrium, in fact, can cause people as well as whole organizations to become stale and stagnate. The congenial partnership, while a pleasant place to work, can promote mediocrity by consistently failing to push the partners to think reflectively about their work and to disagree or decide among tough choices. Conversely, a collegial partnership encourages collective reflection on practice and open discussion of choices—a setting where examining one’s work is expected routinely, new ideas and risk taking are encouraged, and there is a focus on shared purposes. This process includes deeper, “inner” learning and shared, “outer” learning (Fullan, 1993) that can reshape a school and redirect its resources and energy through true collegiality as a school learning community.
As a result of Dean Hopkin’s new initiative, during the 2008-2009 school year, a variety of WVU faculty provided support to schools and counties focused on special initiatives designed to enhance teaching and learning. These initiatives included:
Dr. Judy Abbott- In Preston County, Judy Abbott is leading a major literacy initiative at the county level. This is a multi-year collaborative partnership targeted at improving reading and writing instruction through the use of professional learning communities. Her research related to this effort will focus on writing professional development, especially focused on teacher professional development across levels--elementary, middle, and secondary.
Dr. Johnna Boylard- At Mason Dixon Elementary, Johnna works one afternoon per week with first grade students. She typically works with groups of students selected by the teacher who needed extra small-group instruction on mathematics concepts. Other times, Johnna works with a group of students on mathematics enrichment activities and assists with mathematics stations within the classroom during regular instructional time. At Mylan Park, Johnna has worked with the school coach, LuAnn Baker, on their RTI mathematics efforts. Her research related to this effort focuses on working with elementary teachers to design and measure effective interventions for students struggling with mathematics.
Dr. Meadow Graham- Meadow is working on Woodburn Elementary’s Site Steering Committee. Next year she will be present at Woodburn one day a week. She will work with the reading specialists as they implement RtI intervention groups and also have a group of students to work with on her own. Additionally, she will be involved with action research/professional development opportunities with the Woodburn teachers/prospective teachers. Her research related to this effort will focus on students’ understandings of literacy as well as their identity development. Furthermore, research focused on teacher development during literacy instruction, especially in areas such as multimodal literacy and critical literacy, may be considered.
Dr. Sharon Hayes- At Valley Elementary in Preston County, Sharon works with the leadership team to implement a writing program based on the writer's workshop and authoring cycle. We'll also be working on developing a shared understanding of mentoring and working toward mentoring practices that could be defined as educative. My work will also encourage some of the teachers to engage in their own inquiry projects. Additionally, Sharon works collaboratively with the Valley team to identify which of the NCATE PDS standards they wish to target for the 09-10 school year. Currently, Sharon’s research interests focus on the mentoring of prospective and practicing teachers, the development of teachers’ identities, and the development and evolution of collaborative partnerships in professional development schools.
Dr. David Hoppey- David's work throughout the Benedum Collaborative has focused on helping schools and districts wrestle with the demands and challenges of implementing the Response to Intervention (RTI) initiative. For example, he is collaborating with RESA VII to provide targeted technical assistance to districts (e.g. Preston and Taylor Counties), and multiple schools (e.g., University High School, Taylor County Middle School, Bridgeport Middle School, Rivesville Elementary, Mountanview Elementary). Topics include: building consensus about the RTI Model at the school level, making instructional decisions using student data, developing curriculum and instruction using scientifically evidence best practices, differentiated instruction and co-teaching, clarifying Teachers Roles and Responsibilities and providing flexible schedules in order to provide necessary interventions. His research focuses on improving student achievement using professional learning communities to assist teachers to differentiate instruction and use data driven decision making to meet the needs of all students.
Dr. Ugur Kale- Ugur is working with the teachers at Clay-Battelle Middle/High School in Blacksville, WV on their effort to incorporate project-based learning (PBL) in teaching. He has been participating in the book study groups. His research related to this effort will have two foci. First, it is to understand the factors that affect teachers’ willingness and plan to implement project based learning that involves the use of information communication technologies (ICT). Second, it is to develop and disseminate video cases of teachers’ lessons that exemplify ICT enhanced PBL approach in both middle and high school classrooms.
Dr. Aimee Morewood- Aimee is currently a member of the Mason-Dixon’s writing cadre which consists of a group of teachers, principal, Title, and Aimee. This group is working on writing curriculum for the school. Additionally, Aimee works with individual teachers and/or small groups of teachers around the topic of writing instruction. By collaborating, AImee can work with teachers through afterschool professional development and/or working with teachers in their classrooms. Aimee believes that this experience strengthening her teaching of writing instruction for our elementary education majors because she is now able to discuss the process and provide explicit examples for our WVU students. Her research related to this effort will focus on effective professional development for in-service teachers and pre-service teacher learning in the area of literacy instruction.
Dr. Ted Price- Ted is working on the strategic plan and process for establishing the Collaborative Faculty in Residence group. He is also working with Mon County in several capacities----looking at PDS work in terms of assessing the status of PDS's old, renewed, and newly begun as well as where to target resources and energy as a result of our assessment. He is also working with leadership development and school improvement, and finally, serving as a resource to the county for their alternative schools program and for research projects, such as evaluating the appropriateness of an all year school year at one of the elementary schools (working currently with the principal).
Dr. Pamela Whitehouse- Pamela is working with the teachers at North Marion High School to develop workshops on what it means to build a professional learning community, and to join in discussions about how to implement a professional learning community in Fall 2009 with entire faculty. Her research related to this effort will focus on theories of distributed cognition, how teachers learn, and digital literacies for professional educators in the context on online professional development.
Dr. Adriane Williams- Adriane is working with Taylor County through the district's counselors to reduce the dropout rate. She spent the semester visiting the schools in the county and talking with counselors and principals about their perceptions of the causes. She conducted a preliminary examination of the practices currently in place and presented preliminary findings in May. She has now been charged to work with the middle and high school to focus on attendance issues, as attendance is fundamental to school completion. Her research related to this effort will focus on the leadership decision to empower counselors to address a major district challenge, which demonstrates a respect for professional knowledge that is atypical in education/school policies and interventions.
Dr. Diane Yendol-Hoppey- Diane served as a member of the literacy team where the school focused on improving their Response to Intervention (RtI) effort. This work consisted of monthly planning meetings as well as summer professional development. Additionally, Diane has worked to link university special education resources, state initiatives, and Benedum Collaborative resources to strengthen Taylor Middle School’s efforts. Her research related to this effort will focus on understanding how teacher leadership develops within a PDS and how that work supports the implementation of RtI and PLCs.
Duties and Responsibilities Benedum Collaborative Director
Leadership- Will provide the leadership to this national recognized partnership. Employ a collaborative approach that encourages the involvement of all stakeholders both from public education and West Virginia University. Provide the vision to explore new efforts around teacher preparation, professional development and partnership research and dissemination.
Partnership- Provide the leadership to a complex governance structure that includes stakeholders from public schools, higher education, and policy environments.
Teacher Preparation- Work closely with the Benedum Collaborative Five-Year Teacher Education Coordinator to develop and encourage curriculum improvements, recruitment, and retention efforts.
Professional Development- In collaboration with the Director of Clinical Experiences and Professional Development, actively participate in the professional development and school renewal efforts.
Research and Dissemination- Provide leadership and support to the research and dissemination efforts of the Professional Development School faculty related to the Benedum Collaborative and the Five Year Teacher Education Program.
The Preston FRESH START Summer Academy, through collaboration between Dr. David Hoppey from the Department of Special Education and Kathy George the Director of Special Education, will be an offering of various opportunities to support continuous learning for the growth of our teachers by providing quality professional development in areas teachers have identified as needs. By partnering with six West Virginia University Faculty through our partnership with Preston Counthy, the Academy will offer participants a selection of different topics. WVU Faculty included:
(1) David Hoppey (2) Meadow Graham (3) Ginevra Courtade (4) Eric Landers
All topics are designed to include a combination of current theory with a blend of 21st Century Skills.
Participants will attend sessions presented in half day blocks from 8:00 – 11:00 am and 12:00 to 3:00 pm. The sessions will be held at Preston High School from June 22 to June 25, 2009. There will be a stipend of $50 per each half day session provided for participants. ($100.00 per day for full day participation)
Session Descriptions
Session 1 Phonemic Awareness in the RtI Model – Session particularly presented for elementary teachers and speech therapists where the focus will be on the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words and reading acquisition. How we teach phonemic awareness and what priority should phonemic awareness be given in the RtI process will be the emphasis of this session. (Elementary Teachers)
Session 2 Developing Three-tier Intervention The 3-Tier Reading Model holds promise for reducing overall reading problems by providing intensive early intervention for the students most at risk for reading difficulty. It consists of three tiers, or levels, of reading instruction: primary, secondary, and tertiary. This session will explore what good teaching looks like at each of the three tiers and how to make this process work for diverse learners. (Elementary Teachers)
Session 3 Writing in the Primary Grades will share the philosophy of the writing process, what experts say about writing, setting up the environment, writing with lower primary grades, writing with upper primary grades, topic choice, invented spellings, conferences, editing and revising, new directions, publishing, writing across the curriculum, and problems. (Elementary Teachers)
Session 4 – Four Square Writing - Four-square writing is a method of teaching basic writing skills that is applicable across grade levels and curriculum areas. It can be applied for the narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive forms of writing. Prewriting and organizational skills are taught through the use of a graphic organizer. This visual and kinesthetic aid is employed to focus writing, to provide detail and to enhance word choice. It is an excellent aid in preparing students for the demand/prompt draft writing assessments... (Elementary Teachers)
Session #5 - Positive Behavior Support and School Climate - School-wide Positive Behavior Support (SW-PBS) is a set of strategies and systems to increase the capacity of schools to reduce school disruption and educate all students, including those with problem behaviors. This review of PBS and how it may affect school climate will be explored in this session. How might PBS improve your classroom? Come and find out.
Session # 6 - Using Functional Behavior Assessment - Functional behavioral assessment is generally considered to be a problem-solving process for addressing student problem behavior. It relies on a variety of techniques and strategies to identify the purposes of specific behavior and to help IEP teams select interventions to directly address the problem behavior. Functional behavioral assessment should be integrated, as appropriate, throughout the process of developing, reviewing, and, if necessary, revising a student’s IEP.
Session #7 - Behavior Management for the Adolescent – Direct instruction; reinforcement techniques, including social praise, material reinforcers and tokens; punishment-oriented techniques, including verbal reprimand, response cost, and time-out – So you think you have tried it all? What might work for you in managing behavior in the adolescent classroom? (Middle and High School Teachers)
Session 8 - Positive Behavior Support for Pre-K - There’s growing emphasis on social skills-building and teacher training as behavior issues rise in Pre-K. Coping successfully requires a quality program, sound practices, and a multi-layered approach. (Pre-K and K Teachers)
Session 9 - Teaching Reading & Writing with Moderate & Severe Population (Elementary, Middle and High School Teachers)
Session 10 - Behavior Management with Moderate/Severe Populations (Elementary, Middle and High School Teachers)
Session 11 - Working towards Transition with Moderate/Severe Populations (Elementary, Middle and High School Teachers)
Session 12 - Adapting General Ed Curriculum for Moderate to Severe Population (Elementary, Middle and High School Teachers)
Session 13 – An introduction of RtI (Response to Intervention) for Middle and High school teachers
Session 14 – The role of Differentiated Instruction in Tier I instruction for Middle and High School Teachers - or - What does good core teaching look like?
Session 15 - Co-teaching - Even with a clear understanding of co-teaching, roadblocks to implementation are still plentiful. One significant challenge is its complexity. The outcomes for co-teaching may be different than you imagine. Come to this session to find out just who will benefit from a well implemented Co-teaching environment. (Middle and High School General and Special Education Teachers)
Session 16 - Assessment to Inform Instruction – So what is all the fuss about benchmarking and using assessment to tell me what to teach? This session will help middle and high school teachers better understand what tools are available to benchmark or assess student progress to help assure mastery of content.
Session17 – Plato Straight Curve Math – This day long session is for Elementary teachers who are interested in integrating the Straight Curve Math program into their math instruction in the classroom. Excellent resource for all math instruction. Talk to your Plato Building Contact for an overview.
Session 18 - Plato Straight Curve Math – This day long session is for Middle and High School teachers who are interested in integrating the Straight Curve Math program into their math instruction in the classroom. Excellent resource for all math instruction. Talk to your Plato building contact for an overview.
Session 19 – How to integrate Plato lessons into classroom instruction or help your students to use the Plato platform for individualized lesson planning and support. (Elementary teachers only)
Session 20 - How to integrate Plato lessons into classroom instruction or help your students to use the Plato platform for individualized lesson planning and support. (Middle and High school teachers only)
Session 21 – ACUITY and Tech Steps Training - Learn how to implement the state benchmarking program ACUITY and develop your own testing using this website. Tech Steps will help you integrate technology into your daily lessons as well as prepare you for the mandatory Tech Steps implementation.
Session 22 – Presentation Stations – How do I use the white board, projector, computer and other new technology for presentations in my classroom?
Session 23 - ACUITY and Tech Steps Training- Learn how to implement the state benchmarking program ACUITY and develop your own testing using this website. Tech Steps will help you integrate technology into your daily lessons as well as prepare you for the mandatory Tech Steps implementation.
Session 24 - Presentation Stations - How do I use the white board, projector, computer and other new technology for presentations in my classroom?
Session 25 and Session 26 – Crisis Prevention Intervention – This two day session will present training focused on prevention and offers proven strategies for resolving situations when confronted by anxious, hostile, or violent behavior. During the sessions, participants learn how to de-escalate potentially dangerous behavior and how to most safely intervene should physical restraint techniques become necessary. These sessions take two full days.
Monica McCartney Traci Minney Suncrest Middle School
Terence C. Ahern West Virginia University Terence.ahern@mail.wvu.edu
Abstract: Improving student writing is an issue facing many educators today. Many school systems have begun looking to writing across the curriculum as a means of incorporating writing within the content areas. The problem is twofold. Typically, instructors comment on students’ papers in same the way their professors commented on theirs. Sommers notes, “commenting on student writing is the most widely used method for responding to student writing, it is the least understood” (cited in Sprinkle, 2004, p. 273). Secondly, providing feedback can be very time consuming. The study involves using an Internet-based application in both a math and social studies classroom. What we are investigating is the effectiveness of the technology in reducing the overhead associated with providing feedback. Secondly, we are interested in the impact of multiple drafts on student writing performance as well as the usability of the software for student assignments.
Serendipity is collaboration between the College of Education at WVU, Suncrest Middle School and the National Energy Technology Lab (NETL) in Morgantown. Funding is provided by NETL for Serendipity, which helps teachers look at the complexity of problems, which are usually difficult to solve. Consider for example swamps. a hundred years ago they were considered a source of disease. The solution was simply to drain them. However, we now know that swamps were an essential element in an ecosystem from filtering runoff to protecting from storm surges. The goal of Serendipity is to get teachers building dynamic system models and integrate them in their classrooms.
To make this practical we use the computer to create scenarios that the teachers can use in their classrooms. In a summer workshop participants learn to use StarLogo, a computer programming application developed by the MIT Teacher Education Program. StarLogo is designed for teachers to develop data driven computer models. These models are complex systems that are highly interconnected, have behaviors that are sensitive to initial conditions, and have outcomes that are hard to predict. Some examples of complex systems are cells, brains, ecologies, economies, and societies. StarLogo allows you to design your own problem-based model for your classroom. A major goal of the workshop is for teachers to develop a detailed integration plan for their classroom.
Last summer we had teachers from the STEM disciplines of math and science as well as social studies. Each of the teachers was able to build working models that included FoodWeb, BandWagon and Debit or Credit.
Additionally besides programming the model using StarLogo each teacher was to develop and to integrate a model into his or her core discipline. By the end of the summer the teachers had developed working models: The key to creating these models was the importance of cognitive scaffolding. For the teachers to be able to really use StarLogo they had to get a feel for how they could use the software to teach important concepts in the core discipline. Angie used her model very effectively in teaching her 8th grade science class a lesson in ecology. She was able to engage her students by using the features that she built into the model. By using the interface control elements such as buttons and sliders the students were able to ask “what if” questions and then run the software to see what happens.
Remarks made by: Jane Neapolitan from Towson State University
FIPSE is a database developed for the National Consortium of Professional Development Schools (PDS) to Document PDS Effectiveness. Jane Neapolitan offers these purposes as to why we should be authentically engaged in using the database to drive our work. My first wish would be more participation. Institutions should be encouraged to participate so that they can avail themselves of the PDS Impact Framework for self-study and accountability. They can work on just one section at a time, but at least it’s a guide or roadmap to self-improvement.
Another wish (based on the above) would be to do some research based on the data in the system. It would be great to determine profiles of PDSs from different types of institutions or different regions, etc. That was the original intention of the project but it never materialized.
Finally, I have found that the PDS Impact Framework can also serve as a great tool for external evaluation/peer review. I have helped universities use it to study their PDSs. They filled out the framework for their schools and then I did a review of their self-ratings and artifacts to see if they were aligned. The feedback on the process was very positive and they could use my recommendations to leverage changes they needed to make.
The staff of PDSs (Professional Development Schools) provided evaluations focused around 4 questions which help us understand some of what the Benedum Collaborative is doing well and some areas where we can do better. Here is an overview of how the teachers perceived the Action Research Conference, what they learned, how this may impact students learning, and what the Benedum Collaborative needs to do to improve with similar events.
The overall tone of the feedback from the conference was positive, with the majority of comments reflecting a positive feeling about the PDS-WVU connection and/or what they learned about action research. Fourteen teachers discussed the value being a PDS adds to their school. The teachers overwhelmingly commented the conference was valuable to them in some way, even if they did not learn about Action Research, they felt the conference overall was informative, and felt it was important for PDSs and WVU to continue to strengthen their relationships because it strengthens their school and their service of their students.
Fifteen teachers cited activities or ideas they learned at the conference which they planned to use in their classrooms. Thirteen teachers discussed embarking on Action Research of their own, and six others mentioned implementing elements of Action Research in their regular teaching practice. The overall attitude toward Action Research was positive, with teachers stating they had learned more about what Action Research is and most feeling it is a valuable and viable practice for their classrooms and schools with real possibilities to improve the learning of their students. Some of the most consistently cited areas where the teachers felt they had gained understanding included RTL (Response To Intervention), improving their understanding of and ability to use various classroom technologies, and a better understanding of what Action Research is and gaining the tools they need to be effective researchers in their own classrooms. One teacher said:
Research-based decision-making is a vital tool in developing programs to meet the needs of our 21st century learners. It was nice to participate in this reciprocal activity- AR presenting from both sides of the table- I realize not all schools presented data, but all presented a need.
It is important to note the teachers who were most excited about using Action Research in their classrooms, also discussed a desire for continued opportunities to learn more, be more connected or more supported by WVU.
The most salient ways the students in the PDSs will be impacted by Action Research will be by the empowerment of their teachers to begin to do action research on their own and by teachers changing their teaching to reflect what they have learned from the Action Research presented by WVU student interns. The changes in teaching will largely be carried out by individual teachers to reflect the specific needs of their classrooms. Nevertheless, many teachers are very interested in becoming more involved in action research but they feel the need for greater support from WVU, their school’s principals and their Central Office in order to do so. These teachers state a strong belief becoming more involved researchers will benefit their students, but feeling the need for support in order to do so, with one participant saying:
I continue to gain a greater understanding of the action research process and that it’s not to be “feared.” We need the participation and support of our central office staffs. Some principals are very involved with Benedum, but others are not. I’d like to see ours “get on board”. This event helped to foster that involvement.
This desire for support from their school and local administrators as well as from WVU staff was echoed through the evaluations as a necessary element for teachers to have what they need in order to most effectively affect their student’s learning.
Finally, the evaluations helped clarify ways in which the teachers at the PDSs need support, some of which have already been discussed. In addition to wanting more involvement from principals, central staff and the university, teachers also asked for more chances to connect with other teachers and other PDSs as well as more opportunities for education on Action Research such as this conference. An example of a comment that would sum up this desire came from a teacher who said, “It was a wonderful experience. It is the bridge we’ve been trying to build between public schools and WVU for many years. We are setting the stage for 21st century learning.” This comment also fits well with the stated need for more connection with the university, particularly those asking WVU to continue using or implement school liaisons to foster these connections.
In the evaluations, there were also technical issues about the conference addressed that WVU can improve. The most common concerns with the conference itself were the related to the size of the space for the conference; most felt although it was much more inviting then a university space, it was too small. In addition, there were difficulties with the public address system and technology during some presentations which distracted from the content of the conference and should be addressed for the next event. Lastly, there were concerns with the amount of information given in the short time, and specifically with the difficulty of trying to attend during a working lunch.
Hats off to Jeanne Taylor for her recent publication!!!!
RESEARCH IN THE SCHOOLS 2008, Vol. 15, No. 2, 20-35
Carol S. Parke Duquesne University
Jeanne K. Taylor Suncrest Middle School
Abstract: This paper describes the process and results of teacher-research conducted at Parkside Middle School, a Professional Development School in an Appalachian state. Working together as a team, teachers and a university faculty liaison examined students’ perceptions regarding academic and social climate issues. A questionnaire containing Likert-type and open-ended items was designed and administered annually to all 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students (n = 360) for 3 years. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed by the team and served as a source of evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of the school’s reform efforts and initiatives. Teacher involvement in all aspects of conducting longitudinal research, from designing questionnaires to determining the meaning of results, enabled them to take ownership of the data, stimulated productive and professional dialogue among faculty, and strengthened the collaborative partnership between the school and university.
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