Summary of "Remodeling Literacy Learning"

Cross Posted on my work Blog here: http://wgsdsciss.blogspot.com/

Find the original PDF here:  http://www.literacyinlearningexchange.org/remodeling-together


The report started with a survey:
The "NCLE conducted a national survey of educators of all roles, grade levels, and subject areas to find out where we stand as a nation in the following areas:
• What kinds of opportunities have educators had to learn about the new literacy standards?
• What kinds of professional learning are most powerful in supporting teachers as they implement changes in their classrooms?
• How are schools and districts approaching the transition to the new standards, and how involved are teachers in planning and implementing that transition?
• Are teachers working on the change individually or collectively, and how does that impact how well the change is going?
• What role is teacher expertise playing in translating the broad goals of the standards into specific learning experiences for students?"

Page 4 FINDINGS:

PAGE 8 FINDINGS:

pg. 9 "Data from NCLE’s 2013–14 survey demonstrate the potential of the teacher-driven, capacity- based model of educational change. Put simply, the transition to the new standards seems to be going best when teachers are highly engaged in the process and have time to work together to use their professional expertise to bring all students to higher levels of literacy."

pg. 11 "In our 2012 national survey on teacher learning, we asked educators to identify their single most powerful professional learning experience of the past 12 months. The number-one choice by a large margin was “co-planning with colleagues,” cited by 22% of respondents. Coming in second, chosen by 13% of respondents as their single most powerful professional learning experience, was “meeting regularly with a collaborative inquiry group.”"

pg. 11 "Respondents could choose up to three reasons, and the top three all speak to the power of professional collaboration to impact classroom practice:
• Helped me create new lessons, materials, or instructional strategies for immediate use (selected by 59% of respondents as one of the top three reasons the learning was powerful)
• Provided opportunities for active learning, discussion, and reflection on my practice (34%)
• Provided opportunities to collaborate with colleagues/to create a support network (32%)"

pg. 11 "This result is consistent with extensive research showing that educators find professional learning most powerful when it affords them the opportunity to actively exchange ideas with colleagues and test them in their practice immediately."

pg.11 Working with colleagues is GOOD!

p.12 "This year’s data show that over the last year teachers have become even more isolated from each other’s professional expertise, even as they are being asked to undertake the large, complicated task of CCSS implementation."

pg.12 DATA!

pg.12 "Good teaching requires deep understanding of the goals we are trying to help students reach, analysis of their current level of understanding, and careful design of learning experiences, all of which are tasks that require professional time outside of the classroom and are best accomplished with the support of colleagues."

pg. 13 "Beyond being given little time to work through the shifts called for by the standards, most teachers reported having little voice in how their school is making the transition."

pg. 13 GRAPHIC

pg. 15 "Compared to teachers who are working in isolation, teachers who had participated in collaborative work with colleagues around the standards were twice as likely to rate themselves as well prepared to help their students meet the standards and also much more likely to report having already made moderate or significant changes in the content of what they teach and methods of how they teach it in response to CCSS goals."

pg. 16 "Research has consistently demonstrated the value of teacher collaboration in improving student learning,"

p.16 Keys to effective collaboration
"(1) Deprivatizing practice: Teachers open their doors and their briefcases to share lessons, actual teaching, and student work with each other, so they can learn from each other’s successes and, perhaps even more important, failures.
(2) Enacting shared agreements: Colleagues agree at a concrete, specific level on the student outcomes they are working toward and how to assess them.
(3) Creating collaborative culture: Teachers demonstrate accountability to each other by following through on trying new instructional practices between meetings and reporting back on results, and they trust each other enough to engage in hard conversations about what works.
(4) Maintaining an inquiry stance: Experimentation is grounded in evidence and focused on clear student outcomes.
(5) Using evidence effectively: Teachers decide whether a lesson or practice worked and how it could be improved by analyzing evidence from students, from test scores to samples of student work.
(6) Supporting collaboration systemically: Teachers’ shared work receives formal support including protected time, relevant and timely data, and leadership involvement."

pg.18 Teachers need more time

pg. 18 "Looking at practices like lesson study in Japan and periodic curriculum reviews in Finland points to some answers: these are structured, purposeful tasks which immerse teachers deeply in the substance of what they are teaching, the best methods to get concepts across to students, and how best to assess student mastery. Most of all, these structures provide a lab-like setting, an ongoing cycle in which ideas are developed, tested, and refined, tapping the collective insight and practical experience of multiple teachers to strengthen learning for all students."

pg.19 "We then looked at whether teachers who frequently engage in specific collaborative tasks report being better prepared to teach the standards."

pg.19 What works when teachers work together

pg.21 "Professional learning that is embedded in the real work of instruction is far more likely to lead to desired changes. Such tasks let teachers pool their insights and experiences and adjust their practice in real time"

pg. 22 "When asked specifically how big of an impact standards are having so far on classroom practice in terms of both what is taught and how it is taught, solid majorities of teachers across subject areas reported a moderate or significant impact on HOW material is taught. There was more variance in the reported impact on WHAT is taught."

pg. 23 "The most consistent shift reported by teachers in our survey is in spending more time having students defend arguments with evidence, which more than three-fourths of teachers in all subject areas report doing more of this year in response to the CCSS."

pg. 23 "The bottom line is that these standards ask students to work collaboratively and analyze evidence coming from multiple kinds of texts that cross disciplinary lines. This is going to be difficult to pull off if teachers of different subjects remain isolated from each other and so many have minimal to no time to work together."

Recommendations

pg.28 "Recommendation #1: Provide educators with more shared time for planning and professional learning about elevating literacy learning for all students."

pg.29 "Recommendation #2: Encourage and support educators to take initiative in designing and using innovative literacy teaching resources that are appropriate for their students, and not rely on prepackaged programs or solutions."

pg.29 "Recommendation #3: Draw upon the insights, skills, and experience of everyone with a stake in improving literacy learning to help students achieve more."

Pg 29-30 HOW TO:

"Principals and School Leaders Can . . .

• Allocate and protect time for teachers to work together in developing literacy instructional practices and in analyzing student work.

• Provide training, support, and structures that make teacher collaboration time purposeful and effective.

• Build trust among staff by participating in groups not solely as an instructional leader, but also as a collaborative colleague.

• Respect the expertise of teachers in building-level decisions about literacy teaching materials and curriculum and in the application of formative and summative assessment data to instruction.

• Monitor and understand emerging research about literacy learning and educator collaboration, making this a focus for their own professional growth.

• Make literacy learning in every subject a school-wide priority and establish a structure for staff-wide participation in planning and monitoring progress toward the attainment of student literacy growth goals."

"Teachers and Other Educators Can . . .

• Engage in focused, purposeful collaboration with colleagues (both in person and online) about instructional shifts that can be made to deepen student literacy learning in every class.

• Open doors and share practice so that others can learn from both successes and failures.

• Commit to continuous, collaborative assessment and analysis of student work and agree to

shift their strategies as they learn more about students’ progress as literacy learners.

• Demonstrate accountability to each other and to students by developing and documenting

shared plans for deepening student literacy learning across a school year.

• Build professional capacity by choosing literacy teaching strategies and materials based on

learning from collaborative activities with other teachers.

• Tap the literacy expertise that resides in all subject areas and job roles (including coaches,

librarians, and administrators) to build a coherent school-wide literacy experience for students."