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"If teachers are to successfully teach all students to high standards, virtually everyone who affects student learning must be learning virtually all the time."(Sparks, 2000) This means that teacher learning is not confined to the workshop training experience. Key to teacher learning, The Open Book Initiative providCollaboration, professional learning communities, collegiality, and sharing are topics of increasing focus and are increasingly included in school improvement efforts (DuFour, 1998; Schmoker, 1999; Darling-Hammond, 1997; Fullan, 2001). Effective teamwork through collaboration is viewed as critical to purposeful change in schools. The Open Book Initiative promotes a sustained collaboration staff development structure that focuses teachers on discussion, study, problem solving, and practice as they share responsibility for high levels of student learning (Guskey, 2000).
The Open Book Initiative schools establish a regular collaborative, data driven, and agenda-guided meeting format for teachers. These meetings focus on literacy issues specific to early intervention in grades K through 3 and implementation of instructional practices in reading and content areas for grades 4 through 8. The collaborative meetings serve as a means by which professional staff development content is reviewed, revisited, and strengthened. The model serves to provide collegial support as schools strive to improve reading skills of all students.
Goals:
The following broad goals guide the formation of the collaboration groups and their function:
- All teachers will participate, contribute, and share their expertise during structured collaborative meetings
- All teachers will revisit their professional development plans and collaborate with colleagues to evaluate implementation of those plans
- Teachers will understand that collaboration provides the opportunity for increasing knowledge and improving teaching skills
Structure
- Teachers meet regularly and utilize an efficient data driven collaborative format
- Instructional and assessment decisions lead the development of an action plan to guide instruction
- Professional development plans (developed during PSD) are revisited and reinforced to insure implementation of defined instructional strategies
To increase effectiveness of the agenda driven meetings, teachers are encouraged to observe other teachers utilizing the instructional strategies presented in their training. Reading Fellows observe and model best practices for teachers. The Fellows provide feedback on what is observed to be beneficial as well as what could improve the teaching and learning.
Reading Fellows and principals receive instruction on setting up Collaborative Teams. They facilitate the implementation of these teams in their schools a minimum of two times per month to begin the process. Time is set aside, protected, and the expectation is established that all teachers will participate in the collaborative meetings. All teachers are made aware of the collaboration meeting goals and that collaborative meetings are an extension of their professional development training.
Assessment/ Evaluation
- Fellows will establish communication with teacher teams via email and Quick Place. Agendas from the collaborative meetings will provide evaluation of the collaborative process.
- Fellows and principals will attend collaborative meetings, observe, and record behaviors, participation, and attitudes.
- Surveys will be used to assess usefulness and implementation.
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