Western Albemarle High School
Collaborative Consensus Document DRAFT
April 18, 2011
Groundwork Committees
General Education: Peggy Anderson, Dan Bledsoe, Adam Mulcahy, Shanna Hogberg, Beth White
Special Education: Suzanne Fladd, Rick Roderick, John Ratcliffe, Cindy Frazer, Robyn Crusselle Evans, Jason Collier, Pete Keyser, Sandy Keyser, Phil Gahring, Kip Chatterson, Ed Pierce, Jake Desch
Building Administration: Dave Francis, Greg Domecq, Bobbi Hughes, Tim Driver
Central Office: Kevin Kirst
Guidance: Amy Wright, Heather Lindsay, Shelby Poole, Bob Jahrsdoerfer, Erin Rittenhouse
Steering Committee
General Education: Beth White
Special Education: Rick Roderick, Suzanne Fladd
Building Admin: Greg Domecq
Central Office: Kevin Kirst
Guidance: Amy Wright
1) What should the goal of collaboration in our school be?
The goal of collaboration should be to afford all students the opportunity to understand the curriculum pursuant to their needs. Instruction should account for the reading levels of the students with the purpose of improving the literacy for all students in all subject areas while they can also enjoy having fun with a play area with the right play area paint as well.
2) What should our model look like?
a) Overall
i) Small classes
ii) Teachers experienced in content and learning strategies
iii) Teachers who want to work with struggling students and who want to work in a collaborative classroom
iv) Common planning for teachers
b) Before school starts
i) Planning time during pre-service week
ii) A collaboration plan that addresses the strengths and weaknesses of each teacher and seeks to balance the responsibilities of teaching and assessing the students
iii) Timely access to literacy and achievement information
iv) Access to professional development in the area of collaboration and literacy
v) Equal access to school records and electronic gradebooks
c) During the school year
i) Teachers
(1) Use of common planning for lesson planning, grading, parent contact, administrative tasks
(2) Use of collaboration mentors and administration to mediate difficulties that arise in the collaboration relationship
(3) At least one observation (45 min) during each of the first three nine weeks of other collaborative classrooms to help build the repertoire of strategies that may work with our own students. This observation should be documented in the Collaborative Journal listing one instructional note that may be added to the observing teacher’s lesson
(4) PLC’s comprised of collaborative teachers who teach the same students
ii) Instruction
(1) Varied classroom activities that include a “change in state” every 15-20 minutes
(2) Differentiation
(3) Instruction at the students’ instructional or independent reading levels
(4) Observance of students’ IEP accommodations
(5) Use of the Marilyn Friend strategies:
(i) Whole class instruction
(ii) Station teaching
(iii) Parallel teaching
(iv) Alternative teaching
(v) One teach-one assist/teaming/tag team teaching
3) What classes should be collaborated? (Priorities)
Level I English 9, 10, 11, 12; Skills (Pre-Alg); Algebra I; AFDA; Geometry
Level II Earth Science, Biology, World History I, US History, Animal Science
Level III Algebra II, Government, World History II, Ecology
Level IV Chemistry
4) What should the “make-up” of our classes be?
a) Maximum of 24 students per class
b) Maximum of 8 designated Collaboration Mandated Special Education students per class.
c) Maximum of 17 students in classes that are not collaborated with a Special Education teacher. These classes should be assisted with an aide
5) What should administration and central office do to support the program?
a) Seek input from teachers regarding collaboration pairings
b) Provide common planning
c) Include both teachers’ names on student schedules and report cards
d) Ensure that both teachers have equal access to records
e) Ensure that both teachers get a substitute when absent, whenever possible.
f) Provide time for collaborative work:
i) Pay collaborative teams for summer planning (8 hours per teacher). Must have prior administrative approval
ii) Give collaborative teams large blocks of time during pre-school week to prepare
iii) Pay for one day per nine weeks for planning if collaborative teams do not have common planning
iv) Support PLC’s comprised of collaborative teams
v) The awarding of professional development points for after-hours planning is possible with prior administrative approval
(g) Encourage “looping” as often as possible, especially at the 9th and 10th grade level.
(h) Special Education teachers should reserve one care period per week to provide some
time to work with their caseload
6) What should collaborative professional development look like?
a) Mentoring by lead collaborative teams
b) Pre-service workshop on collaboration
c) End-of-year reflections and suggestions
d) Opportunities for Special Education teachers to become highly qualified in specific subject areas
e) Observations of other collaborative teams
f) Professional conferences (i.e. Reading First Academy)
g) PLC’s focused on collaboration
7) How should the program be evaluated?
a) Surveys from students, parents, and teachers
b) Assessments that reflect growth in literacy (DRP, DSA, Oral Fluency)
c) Report card grades
d) Literacy profile data and anecdotal evidence used to monitor literacy progress
e) Growth in literacy indicated by an increase in SOL scores (not just pass rates) for standard level students
f) Discussions between teacher and administrator during Teacher Performance Appraisals and other evaluations
g) Journal entries from each of the first three grading periods will be submitted to the administrator overseeing the program. These weekly entries should address what is going well, what needs attention, and what teachers plan to do next
h) Continuation of the collaboration review process every spring
