I ended up with mixed feelings about our collaborative unit. Jeff was the first teacher that I had talked to about working with me on this assignment. When I tentatively asked him about creating a collaborative unit with me for my grad class and before I had even explained much of anything to him, he was all excited about working with me on this. He even had a unit that he wanted to “tweak” a bit where he felt the SLMS would be of great help to him. Since it was the last couple weeks of our regular school year, we concentrated on getting through that first. I think that was my first mistake.
I should have sat down with Jeff right away and gone over the details that I had about this assignment so he could have seen what all was involved. By the end of our first meeting (which was two hours long), I discovered that he was pretty happy with the Romeo and Juliet unit he was teaching (which he has perfected over the last 8-10 years). What he was not happy with was past students’ performance in the quality of expository writing based on their research. What he specifically wanted of me was to teach about plagiarism, correct citations, and bibliography preparation because he was not too sure of himself in those areas. He was not interested in “collaboration” in the true sense of the word, and frankly told me that since it was summer vacation, he was not willing to spend a whole lot more time on it nor to spend his hours typing and preparing. He felt that since this unit was for my class and my grade that those should be my responsibilities. He provided me with all of the materials for the unit such as curriculum, student expectations, a sample activity, etc. He was willing to meet occasionally (which we did) and even consult over the telephone (which we did). Needless to say, I was disappointed. I had been thinking more along the lines of “co-planning” and “co-teaching.” I was also disappointed in him because he never seemed to get his username and password to work for the wiki itself. We ended up going over it together when I had everything in there, and he helped me correct a few things. Normally, he is a whiz at computers, so I really don’t understand what happened there.
I must admit that I did consider seeing if another teacher might want to collaborate in a more in-depth manner, but I changed my mind for three reasons. One, I felt like I had already made a commitment to Jeff and since this is a unit that we truly would teach this next school year, I did not feel right about dropping him and switching to somebody else. That just is not professional in my opinion. Yes, we could have picked it back up and done more planning for it in the fall when school was back in session, but it just did not sit right with me. The second reason was one he had already stated…it was summer vacation and most of the teachers already had plans (summer classes, camping, vacations, etc.). And three, did I really want to start all over again? No.
This type of collaboration, though not what I had dreamed of for this particular unit, is still collaboration but on the lowest level. (As Dr. Kumasi pointed out to me, “Welcome to the real world.”) It was what the teacher wanted, though, and I must say that he is very pleased with it. He confessed to me that he wished that he had been taught specific lessons about plagiarism and creating correct citations and bibliographies before he had gone to college.
On a positive note, though, it was very exciting for me to get to see in more detail what a high school language arts class experiences in a typical four-week period in our school. It made me wish that I could be in the class! Jeff’s ideas are fantastic and make learning more fun and exciting for the students. I have been able to see him at work in the classroom with his students, and they are always engaged and seem to be enjoying whatever they are doing at the time. There is mutual respect, as well, and it shows. He has a heart for his students and tries his best to meet the needs of every student in his class. He has approached me before on ways to help reach his lower readers. All of these were reasons that I was very pleased to be able to work with him.
I also enjoyed putting together the lessons that I will specifically be teaching for his students. I designed them in such a way, though, that they should be easily adapted depending on the grade level and experiences of the students. I am very excited to put my lessons to the test this fall. I plan on expanding from Jeff’s class to many more, for most of our students (and teachers) need this information. I believe that there are other teachers in the school who would be willing to collaborate. I think that if I approach it as a way to help improve expository writing and decrease plagiarism, they too will be excited about it.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Assessment
As stated in an earlier post, my collaborating teacher, Jeff, is teaching this Romeo and Juliet unit and has requested that I fill the role of a resource person and teach a couple of specific lessons dealing with proper citation and creating a reference page. He will assess and evaluate the students on all aspects of this 4-5 week unit, but has asked me to evaluate their reference page which will be an extra page attached to the end of their Elizabethan newspaper (the culminating project). The newspaper is intended to help the students research the time period of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare, the Elizabethan theatre, etc. and to express what they have learned in creative “news” features of the times including interesting tidbits about science, inventions, historical happenings, and important people from around the world. I would be responsible for assessing how well the students are meeting the learning goals of the lessons which I teach, make adjustments, and reteach as necessary. I plan to begin with a survey to see how much they remember about creating proper citations and references. According to Jeff, they need these lessons to be re-taught as they have not transfered the skills to their written creations!
Jeff plans to send copies of the student’s newspapers home with them with a comment page for parents. It is his hope that they will read their child’s paper, write comments about it on the comment page, and send it back to him. It is his goal to increase communication between his high school classroom and the parents/guardians of his students, and he sees this as an exciting step towards that goal.
The students’ newspapers will be featured in our Second Annual “Celebration of the Arts” in which K-12 original student work is showcased for parents, grandparents, and the community at large to view. The first night kicks off with an “open house” which includes a “grand opening” of the display areas and live performance presentations (Talent Show and Odyssey of the Mind), and refreshments provided and served by the PTO. The displays include art work of all mediums, creative writing, technology presentations, classroom projects, etc. The physical displays remain open for a couple of weeks to allow ample opportunity for browsing. If Jeff decides to have the students expand their newspaper projects into “news” program style video presentations (which we have talked about and he is considering), then they too will be incorporated into the Celebration of the Arts displays, possibly via the large-screen kiosk in the main hall outside of the media center.
Jeff plans to send copies of the student’s newspapers home with them with a comment page for parents. It is his hope that they will read their child’s paper, write comments about it on the comment page, and send it back to him. It is his goal to increase communication between his high school classroom and the parents/guardians of his students, and he sees this as an exciting step towards that goal.
The students’ newspapers will be featured in our Second Annual “Celebration of the Arts” in which K-12 original student work is showcased for parents, grandparents, and the community at large to view. The first night kicks off with an “open house” which includes a “grand opening” of the display areas and live performance presentations (Talent Show and Odyssey of the Mind), and refreshments provided and served by the PTO. The displays include art work of all mediums, creative writing, technology presentations, classroom projects, etc. The physical displays remain open for a couple of weeks to allow ample opportunity for browsing. If Jeff decides to have the students expand their newspaper projects into “news” program style video presentations (which we have talked about and he is considering), then they too will be incorporated into the Celebration of the Arts displays, possibly via the large-screen kiosk in the main hall outside of the media center.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Mid-Planning
Essential Questions – I had taken along a “TLC (Teacher and Librarian Collaboration) Worksheet” with me to my first meeting with Jeff, my collaborative teacher partner on this unit, which helped us in our conversation and planning. After wonderful conversations concerning the Romeo and Juliet unit and some of the things that Jeff does as part of this unit (see “pre-planning” post), we started going through the worksheet. The essential questions for the Romeo and Juliet unit are:
· How do my relationships within and across groups affect others?
· How may personal decisions affect my family or neighborhood?
· Can decisions based on violence or anger have a peaceful resolution?
· How do we understand material that is difficult to read?
It was shortly after this that I asked Jeff what he saw as my role in this collaborative unit. He told me that frankly he had the lessons all ready for what he wanted to teach, he just wanted me to focus on plagiarism, proper citation, and bibliographic entries in MLA style in whatever manner I would like to do that. In other words, I am mainly filling the role of a resource person in this unit. He is happy with the unit, he just wants to tweak these areas a bit and felt that the school media specialist would be a good person to teach these areas that this particular class is weak in. I have since added the following essential questions:
· How do we properly cite material without plagiarism?
· How do we create a bibliography in MLA style?
Task Division - Since my role in this collaborative project is mainly that of a resource person, there are not many tasks to “divide.” Jeff will teach the Romeo and Juliet unit within his English 9 class using the applicable academic content standards, and I will make sure that some of the information literacy standards are met. Since this project is for my grad school class for my grade, I will have to design and write everything that I feel should be in the unit plan according to the requirements. I am free to contact him if I have questions of any kind, though. As I said in the previous post, this is our summer vacation from the regular school year and Jeff wants to enjoy it, his family, and the evening classes that he is taking. Our biggest hindrance is the timing of creating this unit because it falls over the summer vacation.
Assessment – During our latest meeting, which took place over the telephone, we specifically discussed assessment. Since I am teaching the plagiarism, citation, and bibliography lessons, I offered to be responsible for these areas. Jeff was thrilled and said that he would incorporate into their grade for the unit whatever grade I gave them (ex.: “References” page).
Ethnolinguistic Minority Learning Needs and Abilities – Ours is a very small school which has been declining in enrollment over the last five years due to the economy and loss of jobs in the area. Jeff taught this in-coming 9th grade class as 8th graders last year. There are only 18 students in this particular class, 100% White/Caucasian, 3 males and 15 females, one special education student, and two students who would qualify for Title help if we still had it in the upper grades. One of the “Title” students may be moving out of the area this summer. Most of these students have been together since Kindergarten, with the “newest” member of the class joining over two years ago. Most of the students in this class are readers who love to “book talk” and they all get along pretty well together. In order to meet the needs of all learners as well as add variety and fun, a lot of different methods are employed including small group brainstorming sessions where groups rotate to a different focus station every few minutes, use of video segments, class discussions, Reader’s Theater style script readings, acting out certain scenes, and various writing activities. Accommodations are made for the special needs students (ex: more time for writing activities).
· How do my relationships within and across groups affect others?
· How may personal decisions affect my family or neighborhood?
· Can decisions based on violence or anger have a peaceful resolution?
· How do we understand material that is difficult to read?
It was shortly after this that I asked Jeff what he saw as my role in this collaborative unit. He told me that frankly he had the lessons all ready for what he wanted to teach, he just wanted me to focus on plagiarism, proper citation, and bibliographic entries in MLA style in whatever manner I would like to do that. In other words, I am mainly filling the role of a resource person in this unit. He is happy with the unit, he just wants to tweak these areas a bit and felt that the school media specialist would be a good person to teach these areas that this particular class is weak in. I have since added the following essential questions:
· How do we properly cite material without plagiarism?
· How do we create a bibliography in MLA style?
Task Division - Since my role in this collaborative project is mainly that of a resource person, there are not many tasks to “divide.” Jeff will teach the Romeo and Juliet unit within his English 9 class using the applicable academic content standards, and I will make sure that some of the information literacy standards are met. Since this project is for my grad school class for my grade, I will have to design and write everything that I feel should be in the unit plan according to the requirements. I am free to contact him if I have questions of any kind, though. As I said in the previous post, this is our summer vacation from the regular school year and Jeff wants to enjoy it, his family, and the evening classes that he is taking. Our biggest hindrance is the timing of creating this unit because it falls over the summer vacation.
Assessment – During our latest meeting, which took place over the telephone, we specifically discussed assessment. Since I am teaching the plagiarism, citation, and bibliography lessons, I offered to be responsible for these areas. Jeff was thrilled and said that he would incorporate into their grade for the unit whatever grade I gave them (ex.: “References” page).
Ethnolinguistic Minority Learning Needs and Abilities – Ours is a very small school which has been declining in enrollment over the last five years due to the economy and loss of jobs in the area. Jeff taught this in-coming 9th grade class as 8th graders last year. There are only 18 students in this particular class, 100% White/Caucasian, 3 males and 15 females, one special education student, and two students who would qualify for Title help if we still had it in the upper grades. One of the “Title” students may be moving out of the area this summer. Most of these students have been together since Kindergarten, with the “newest” member of the class joining over two years ago. Most of the students in this class are readers who love to “book talk” and they all get along pretty well together. In order to meet the needs of all learners as well as add variety and fun, a lot of different methods are employed including small group brainstorming sessions where groups rotate to a different focus station every few minutes, use of video segments, class discussions, Reader’s Theater style script readings, acting out certain scenes, and various writing activities. Accommodations are made for the special needs students (ex: more time for writing activities).
Friday, June 19, 2009
Early Planning
My collaborative partner, Jeff, and I met in the local public library where we were kindly granted use of a beautiful conference room with wireless, electricity, a large table and comfy chairs. We had already come to consensus on the Romeo and Juliet unit for 9th grade which Jeff already teaches but would like to “tweak” in certain areas. This particular unit would take 4-5 weeks to teach, and he likes to do it during the 2nd trimester of the year so one particular section falls around Valentine’s Day. We spent a lot of time looking at the daily lesson plans and Jeff described many other activities which he pulls in to enhance them. I was very impressed with his ideas and suggestions and feel that it would be very appealing to this year’s incoming 9th grade class.
I found out that this unit is part of an educational package of copyrighted material which was purchased by our school. Jeff uses the main outline of it, but does not follow it by the letter. We will not be able to post any of this material because of copyright. An hour and a half into the session, we finally got around to what he expects of me only to discover that he wants my role to be that of a resource person rather than a collaborative instructional partner. He is not willing to put much more time or effort into this as it is his summer vacation (a feeling which many teachers share, and understandable so). This was totally unexpected to me, though, and I must admit that I was surprised. After thinking about it for a few days, I cannot help but agree with Dr. Kumasi’s statement, “Welcome to the real world of school librarianship!” Although I was expecting this to be a full in-depth collaborative unit, the teacher was not planning it that way. I will just have to be content that a small step was taken on the road to improved collaboration and that I am helping a teacher teach.
The culminating project will be a newspaper created by each student in “Elizabethan Era” style containing various articles about the life and times of William Shakespeare, the theater, Romeo and Juliet and their families, and articles which would be of interest considering the time period. Jeff would like me to do specific lessons with the 9th graders about plagiarism, citations, and references (which he wants added as an extra sheet to the end of their newspaper). He would also like me to coordinate use of the media center for a few days during the unit to allow for some special group activities which work better in a larger space. At this point, it sounds like my functions in this collaborative endeavor would be coordination and cooperation (according to Montiel-Overall’s “Teacher and Librarian Collaboration Model”).
In looking specifically at what Jeff has asked me to teach, I think that the following 21st Century Learning Standards would fit best with lessons on plagiarism, giving credit to others’ works through proper citations, and creating a reference page:
Skills 3.1.6 - Use information and technology ethically and responsibly.
Actions 2.2.4 - Create a simple research plan with a specific deadline.
Responsibilities 1.3.1 – Respect copyright/intellectual property rights of creators and producers.
Self-Assessment 1.4.4 – Seek appropriate help when it is needed.
My initial thoughts on assessment are that I will probably assess the lessons that I am doing (which probably will not be in the form of a letter grade), and Jeff will assess everything for his English class.
Jeff and I get along very well and enjoy “book talking” back and forth. We talked easily about this unit and probably would have gone on longer if the library wasn’t closing for the evening. I must admit that I came into this project with different expectations than what he had, though. I think our main roadblock is the time period in which this collaborative effort falls, since he indicated that he would be willing to do more if it was during the regular school year instead of summer vacation.
I found out that this unit is part of an educational package of copyrighted material which was purchased by our school. Jeff uses the main outline of it, but does not follow it by the letter. We will not be able to post any of this material because of copyright. An hour and a half into the session, we finally got around to what he expects of me only to discover that he wants my role to be that of a resource person rather than a collaborative instructional partner. He is not willing to put much more time or effort into this as it is his summer vacation (a feeling which many teachers share, and understandable so). This was totally unexpected to me, though, and I must admit that I was surprised. After thinking about it for a few days, I cannot help but agree with Dr. Kumasi’s statement, “Welcome to the real world of school librarianship!” Although I was expecting this to be a full in-depth collaborative unit, the teacher was not planning it that way. I will just have to be content that a small step was taken on the road to improved collaboration and that I am helping a teacher teach.
The culminating project will be a newspaper created by each student in “Elizabethan Era” style containing various articles about the life and times of William Shakespeare, the theater, Romeo and Juliet and their families, and articles which would be of interest considering the time period. Jeff would like me to do specific lessons with the 9th graders about plagiarism, citations, and references (which he wants added as an extra sheet to the end of their newspaper). He would also like me to coordinate use of the media center for a few days during the unit to allow for some special group activities which work better in a larger space. At this point, it sounds like my functions in this collaborative endeavor would be coordination and cooperation (according to Montiel-Overall’s “Teacher and Librarian Collaboration Model”).
In looking specifically at what Jeff has asked me to teach, I think that the following 21st Century Learning Standards would fit best with lessons on plagiarism, giving credit to others’ works through proper citations, and creating a reference page:
Skills 3.1.6 - Use information and technology ethically and responsibly.
Actions 2.2.4 - Create a simple research plan with a specific deadline.
Responsibilities 1.3.1 – Respect copyright/intellectual property rights of creators and producers.
Self-Assessment 1.4.4 – Seek appropriate help when it is needed.
My initial thoughts on assessment are that I will probably assess the lessons that I am doing (which probably will not be in the form of a letter grade), and Jeff will assess everything for his English class.
Jeff and I get along very well and enjoy “book talking” back and forth. We talked easily about this unit and probably would have gone on longer if the library wasn’t closing for the evening. I must admit that I came into this project with different expectations than what he had, though. I think our main roadblock is the time period in which this collaborative effort falls, since he indicated that he would be willing to do more if it was during the regular school year instead of summer vacation.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Preplanning
The Teacher
I am excited about working with Jeff Garver, the high school language arts teacher in our small K-12 public school. Jeff is an experienced teacher of over 16 years, and is very knowledgeable about the 8th-12th grade language arts benchmarks and standards, and the language arts area of our School Improvement Plan. He and I talk easily and share ideas back and forth, but this will be the first in-depth collaboration we will have done in a formal way.
The School Library Media Specialist
I have been a K-12 school librarian for 24 years, except for one year in a self-contained third grade classroom. My position is not really full-time librarian as I have always taught one or two other classes a day as well, such as elementary or middle school language arts, and elementary and/or middle school computer classes (as specials). I wear several other hats as well...RIF Coordinator, Secretary for the Technology Committee, and have served on the Child Study Team. I received my BS in Education from CMU in Dec. 1982 with a Major in Library Science (K-12) and a Minor in Reading (K-9). I am currently taking class six and seven towards a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science at Wayne State University.
Reflections
I will admit up front that I have mixed feelings about the upcoming collaborative unit plan assignment. I feel excited about it, but at the same time a bit intimidated as this will be the biggest collaboration unit that I would have attempted, especially when it is a large percentage of my grade for a grad school class. I want to do a good job, not only for a grade, but for Jeff and for our students.
One thing that I admire about Jeff is that he is willing to try new things. For example, when I first approached him about doing this collaborative unit with me, he astonished me when he immediately said that he would, even though I could not give him any details at that time. He said that he was impressed with some other things that I had done and knew that whatever we worked on would be something great that he could use with his students. So now, I live in fear of letting him down!
Another thing that I am concerned about it is the time factor. Today (June 5) was the last day of school for our district, so you would think that it wouldn't be such a problem. But he has two children that he will need to take care of during summer vacation, plus he is starting a college class in the evenings beginning on Monday. I am taking two grad classes as well, plus serving as the church secretary, and volunteering in my school library. We are both busy. Maybe that will help us to stay focused and on task, though, since neither of us will have time to waste! One of my strengths is organization, so I will make sure that we have the paperwork (forms, etc.) that we may need in order to smooth the planning.
Jeff is very comfortable with technology and so am I, but in bouncing ideas off each other we discovered that neither of us is very familiar with video production, which we may like to try in this unit. We will have to see what comes of this idea, but I like knowing that we will both be growing and learning new skills as teachers right along with our students.
In a very informal preliminary brainstorming session at the tale-end of lunch the other day, we tentatively decided that we will probably do our unit with the 9th grade class in mind and it will probably be the Romeo and Juliet theme. He is not satisfied with this unit in his curriculum and would like to revamp it. The hope is to create this collaborative unit to be used this next school year, so that is exciting as well. It is wonderful to know that the time and energy that we put into it will create a product that we can actually use this next school year, instead of it just being an assignment. He said something about teaching the collaborative unit around Valentine's Day, which I think is pretty fitting considering the theme! It will be a long time to wait, though, to be able to truly assess the value of what we come up with.
It is my hope that this collaboration project with Jeff will encourage other teachers to try some collaboration projects as well. I have collaborated with a few other teachers, but this project is on a larger scale. The collaboration experiences that I have had as the SLMS have all been positive, so I am looking forward to this project and the challenge. Here's to a unit that will excite and challenge our students as well!
I am excited about working with Jeff Garver, the high school language arts teacher in our small K-12 public school. Jeff is an experienced teacher of over 16 years, and is very knowledgeable about the 8th-12th grade language arts benchmarks and standards, and the language arts area of our School Improvement Plan. He and I talk easily and share ideas back and forth, but this will be the first in-depth collaboration we will have done in a formal way.
The School Library Media Specialist
I have been a K-12 school librarian for 24 years, except for one year in a self-contained third grade classroom. My position is not really full-time librarian as I have always taught one or two other classes a day as well, such as elementary or middle school language arts, and elementary and/or middle school computer classes (as specials). I wear several other hats as well...RIF Coordinator, Secretary for the Technology Committee, and have served on the Child Study Team. I received my BS in Education from CMU in Dec. 1982 with a Major in Library Science (K-12) and a Minor in Reading (K-9). I am currently taking class six and seven towards a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science at Wayne State University.
Reflections
I will admit up front that I have mixed feelings about the upcoming collaborative unit plan assignment. I feel excited about it, but at the same time a bit intimidated as this will be the biggest collaboration unit that I would have attempted, especially when it is a large percentage of my grade for a grad school class. I want to do a good job, not only for a grade, but for Jeff and for our students.
One thing that I admire about Jeff is that he is willing to try new things. For example, when I first approached him about doing this collaborative unit with me, he astonished me when he immediately said that he would, even though I could not give him any details at that time. He said that he was impressed with some other things that I had done and knew that whatever we worked on would be something great that he could use with his students. So now, I live in fear of letting him down!
Another thing that I am concerned about it is the time factor. Today (June 5) was the last day of school for our district, so you would think that it wouldn't be such a problem. But he has two children that he will need to take care of during summer vacation, plus he is starting a college class in the evenings beginning on Monday. I am taking two grad classes as well, plus serving as the church secretary, and volunteering in my school library. We are both busy. Maybe that will help us to stay focused and on task, though, since neither of us will have time to waste! One of my strengths is organization, so I will make sure that we have the paperwork (forms, etc.) that we may need in order to smooth the planning.
Jeff is very comfortable with technology and so am I, but in bouncing ideas off each other we discovered that neither of us is very familiar with video production, which we may like to try in this unit. We will have to see what comes of this idea, but I like knowing that we will both be growing and learning new skills as teachers right along with our students.
In a very informal preliminary brainstorming session at the tale-end of lunch the other day, we tentatively decided that we will probably do our unit with the 9th grade class in mind and it will probably be the Romeo and Juliet theme. He is not satisfied with this unit in his curriculum and would like to revamp it. The hope is to create this collaborative unit to be used this next school year, so that is exciting as well. It is wonderful to know that the time and energy that we put into it will create a product that we can actually use this next school year, instead of it just being an assignment. He said something about teaching the collaborative unit around Valentine's Day, which I think is pretty fitting considering the theme! It will be a long time to wait, though, to be able to truly assess the value of what we come up with.
It is my hope that this collaboration project with Jeff will encourage other teachers to try some collaboration projects as well. I have collaborated with a few other teachers, but this project is on a larger scale. The collaboration experiences that I have had as the SLMS have all been positive, so I am looking forward to this project and the challenge. Here's to a unit that will excite and challenge our students as well!
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