I have demonstrated proficiency in working with teachers and other members of the school community to develop engaging lessons using instructional strategies that address students' various approaches to learning as well as their interests, abilities, and needs by working collaboratively with Carson Haycox for an eighth grade ELA curriculum based on a unit of study about research to inform argument writing.
Description
This artifact is a collaborative unit for an eighth grade ELA class using the Lucy Calkins Units of Study curriculum. The whole unit, Essential Research Skills, involved three sub-units and culminated in students presenting their arguments through speeches at the end of eight weeks of instruction. My co-teacher, Carson Haycox, and I chose to focus our collaboration on the middle sub-unit on ethical research practices and internet literacy. This sub-unit was also when students conducted research on their chosen topics. At the end of this collaborative instruction, students selected the focus issue of their research and determined the position they would take for their argument speech at the end of the unit. The areas within the unit that we identified for the school librarian to provide instruction and support were investigating authorship of resources and the non-neutrality of search engines.
Analysis
As a special education resource teacher, I know that true collaboration and shared responsibility for student learning outcomes can be difficult to achieve with busy schedules and no mutual planning time. Much of the collaboration for this unit occurred through email and shared Google documents with quick check-in conversations at impromptu moments. Ms. Haycox and I miscommunicated on one point of expectation which resulted in my needing to adjust my time frame for completion. In this particular school, Ms. Haycox also worked within a team of other eighth grade ELA teachers who were not interested in participating in our collaboration. As the school expectation was for grade-level classes to be in sync with each other, we were limited in the decisions we could make related to content and timing. Since there was much content and instruction to fit into our collaborative week, we decided to provide some of my instruction asynchronously in a flipped classroom model as homework with recorded videos, a pathfinder, and reflections. We found that students did not fully engage in these flipped assignments which required us to reteach critical topics and let other ones go for some students. We saw the evidence of these gaps in the sources that students chose to conduct their research.
Reflection
This experience demonstrated to me that collaboration between teachers can be more effective than teaching alone. I contributed resources and perspective that would not otherwise have been offered to students. I also learned a great deal about the structure and implementation of the ELA curriculum by engaging in the planning process and seeing the instruction in action. A crucial piece of collaboration is planning; Ms. Haycox and I planned this unit as the first sub-unit was already underway. We decided to go ahead with our collaboration because the second sub-unit had ideal topics for a librarian to cover. In retrospect, we needed to plan before the unit began in order for me to have time to connect appropriate resources and activities to her students. There will be times when a teacher’s point of need requires an immediate resource or support. Remembering that there can be varying levels of support and collaboration is key to successful partnerships.