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Toward a Culture of Collaboration, Not Competition

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The following is the text of an article that I recently wrote for SmartBlogs on Education.

As I read education blogs, news editorials, and twitter, I am struck by the “us vs. them” mentality I see between veteran and newer teachers. The purpose of this article is not to demonize or laud either one of these groups, but rather to promote the idea that teachers should support one another instead of tearing each other down. We all got into this profession for the same reason and I suspect we will find that we are more alike than we realize. What’s more, both veteran (which I am using to describe those in the profession for 10 years or more) and newer (those with 5 or fewer years’ experience) teachers have valuable, unique skills and perspectives and could learn a lot from each other. In the end, we all want to do the right thing for our students.

Veteran teachers can offer wisdom and assistance based on their years of experience. They have already developed curricular materials for their subject area and should be willing to share these with teachers entering the profession. The first couple years are tough enough without having to reinvent the wheel. Those who have been in the classroom for a long time also have the benefit of knowing how best to deal with the nuances of parental communication which can be one of the most difficult parts of the job. Another area of concern for many rookie teachers is classroom management and this is generally an area where an experienced teacher can provide valuable tips. Finally, veteran teachers can share the “need-to-knows” with those new to the district. They know who to contact about special classroom needs, the building climate and norms, the political history, and who makes the best coffee. Newer teachers will appreciate this kindness and it will go a long way in easing their stress.

Newer teachers offer enthusiasm, energy, and ideas. Because they have recently been in school, they tend to have read the most current professional development materials and are aware of innovative teaching methods. Teachers fresh from college can be more familiar with the seemingly endless variety of technology applications and how they can supplement more traditional lessons. Finally, they have the benefit of their idealism because they have not been demoralized by the media who seem content to place the blame for school “failure” squarely on the shoulders on the veterans.

None of this is to say that veteran teachers cannot be well-versed in technology or that rookie teachers are unable to control classroom behavior. I am speaking in generalizations and know this is not the case. Rather, this is a call for us not to be threatened by, but to reflect on our own best practices and collaborate with one another. We will all be stronger teachers for it and our students will reap the rewards.

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Collaborative Constructivism in Language Arts Class

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At several professional development sessions I attended this year, the speaker reminded us, “The person doing the talking is the one doing the learning.” This hits home for me because I am a constructivist at heart. It is one of my core beliefs that adolescents need social interaction in order to engage with the material and discovery to cement the learning. To that end, one of the instructional techniques I use nearly daily is that of Gradual Release of Responsibility (“I do, We do, You do” process), but I usually begin with the step: “You do together.” I find that the students are very motivated by the challenge of “figuring things out” and end up retaining the material better.

An example of how I use collaborative inquiry is with grammar, usage, and mechanics (G.U.M.) instruction. We are studying the characteristics of a personal narrative so today’s lesson was on dialogue punctuation rules. Rather than going through a book, worksheet, or power point, I had the students open up their choice reading books to a page with dialogue. Working as a group, they determined the rules of how to use commas, quotation marks, capital letters, paragraph breaks, and dialogue tags and wrote their responses in a chart. After they finished, we shared and they all added any missing information to their chart. Finally, I gave them the actual rules for punctuating dialogue and they determined which ones they had gotten correct (resulting in lots of cheering) and which ones they had overlooked. The culminating practice assignment was to write a properly punctuated conversation between themselves and another person (real or fantasy/positive or negative) with each person speaking at least three times. The feedback from the students was that the assignment was great fun and all were fully engaged in writing their conversations.

This same process works well with other topics such as capital letter or comma use, but I also use this technique for lessons beyond G.U.M.. For example, last week, I distributed a stack of eight brief memoir mentor texts to each group. Working together, they each read a couple and then attempted to determine the commonalities between the texts. I was pleasantly surprised at their rich discussion and the resulting list of qualities and characteristics of personal narratives they compiled. They hit the nail on the head and I didn’t have to lecture once. I am excited to read what they write as a result.