Steps to Improve Collaborative Skills

Connie Guerrero & June QuituguaGuam CEDDERS

July 15, 2010

Nine DotsWithout lifting your pen or pencil, draw four (4) straight lines to connect all the dots.

Nine DotsWithout lifting your pen or pencil, draw four (4) straight lines to connect all the dots.

Without lifting your pen or pencil, draw four (4) straight lines to connect all the dots.

Nine Dots

Without lifting your pen or pencil, draw four (4) straight lines to connect all the dots.

Nine Dots

Without lifting your pen or pencil, draw four (4) straight lines to connect all the dots.

Nine Dots

PurposeThe Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) requires access to the general curriculum for all students with disabilities. Through collaboration between special education and general education teachers, even students with significant cognitive disabilities can participate in the general curriculum. This workshop will provide strategies to improve your collaboration skills for meeting the needs of diverse learners.

Outcomes1. Have a greater understanding of the

importance of students with disabilities accessing the general curriculum.

2. Strategies for building collaborative relationship with special education and general education colleagues to meet the needs of ALL students.

What is Collaboration?• Define collaboration• Give examples of collaboration in the

schools

Collaboration

• The personal and professional interplay of ideas generated in regularly scheduled, collaborative planning times (Pugach & Johnson, 2002).

• To work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor: (2) to cooperate with or willingly assist an enemy of one's country and especially an occupying force (Webster’s Dictionary, 2009)

Accessing the General Curriculum

Curriculum, Instruction, AssessmentTRIANGLE

Curriculum

Instruction Assessment

Content and Achievement

Standards

STANDARDS

LESSON PLANS

SKILLS

ASSESSMENT CURRICULUM

Gen

era

l Ed

uca

tion

Teach

ers

Sp

ecia

l Ed

uca

tion

Teach

ers

ACTIVITY(IES) INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Inclusive Large Scale Standards and Assessment/HDI/UKY

Reasons for Collaboration • Determine what the curriculum is in the content areas

for specific grade levels.

• Determine the learning outcomes for specific units of study or lessons

• Determine what supports are necessary for individual students– to receive information, – work within the grade level curriculum requirements (including the

materials and activities used to teach those requirements),– express what they know or show what they can do,– maintain engagement throughout the learning process.

Collaborative Teaming

5 Components: (Snell,M & Janney,R. (2000). Collaborative Teaming. MD: Brookes)

Building Team Structure

Learning Teamwork Skills

Taking Team Action

Teaching Collaboratively

Improving Communication & Handling Conflict

Building Team Structure

Set school policy on teaming.

Define team purpose and focus.

Establish team membership.

Create and protect time and space.

Support teams and teamwork.

A collaborative team is a group of people who 1) coordinate their work to achieve at least one

common goal, 2) hold a belief system that all members of a

team have unique and needed expertise, 3) demonstrate parity by alternatively engaging in

the dual roles of teacher and learner,4) Distribute leadership functions, and 5) and employ a collaborative teaming process

(Thousand & Villa, 2000).

Learning Teamwork Skills

Listen and interact well.

Develop shared values.

Define team roles and responsibilities.

Establish team meeting process and schedule.

Prepare for and conduct meetings.

Given and receive information.

Make decisions by consensus.

Team effectively “on the fly”.

Reflect on the team process.

Establish a shared vision of the expected outcomes for students. This is the end to which all collaborative actions should be focused.

Taking Team Action

Problem-solve team concerns.

Collaborate to design programs.

Deliver coordinated programs.

Assess student progress.

Review and revise team action plans.

Ensure that the collaborative work is visionary, takes risks, and facilitates change rather than directs it.

Teaching Collaboratively

Understand collaborative teaching.

Plan at the school level.

Understand tested organizational models and instructional strategies.

Consider collaborative teaching strategies suited to grade level.

Plan between collaborative teachers.

Evaluate outcomes.

A one-size-fits-all-model does not allow for differing team “personalities” nor does it readily adjust to different situations, concerns, issues.

Improving Communication & Handling Conflict

Know and trust each other.

Communicate accurately and unambiguously.

Be sensitive to diverse cultures.

Foster staff-family interaction.

Take time to process group skills.

Resolve conflicts and problems.

• Mutual trust• Mutual respect• Professional interplay of ideas

Roles of Teachers

General Education Teacher– Provide information in reference to the standards,

unit/lessons, materials/ activities, instructional delivery using principles of UDL

Special Education Teacher– Information regarding the individual student(s)– Supports necessary

Collaborative Events

General Education• Overview of activity• Learning outcomes and

instructional activities

Special Education• Clarification of activity• Supports

• Brainstorm together

• Ensure content • Pre/follow-up instruction

• Evaluate and celebrate

Collaborative Models• Yearly check in• Semester check in• Monthly check in• Passing in the hallway• Email exchange• Lesson plan exchange • Mutual planning time• Co-teaching

“Because”In Teams of 3

The 1st player describes an event.The 2nd player gives a reason of the

occurrence of the event, and

The 3rd player must give a probable effect of that event.

ResourcesCollaboration (July 2009). M. Burdge & J. Clayton. Presentation at PAC6 Institute, Tumon, Guam.

The Inclusion Facilitator’s Guide. (2006) C. Jorgensen, M. Schuh & J. Nisbet. Brookes Publishing; Baltimore, MD.

Because We Can Change the World. (1999). Mara Sapon-Shevin. Allyn & Bacon; Needham Heights, MA.

Collaborative Teaming (2000). Snell,M & Janney,R. Brookes Publishing; Baltimore, MD.