As many members of Radical Nation already know, my newest book is titled The Big Book of Tools for Collaborative Teams. It is filled with tools and templates that are designed to provide structure to the regular work of learning teams in professional learning communities.
The book has been incredibly popular because it helps teams to figure out exactly WHAT it is that they should be doing with one another — and provides a framework for HOW to get that work done.
A colleague of mine who is a full time professional developer reached out a few weeks back and asked me to highlight for him 3-5 “go to tools” from the book — resources that no one should overlook and that he could point school leaders to when trying to coach individual learning teams in their buildings.
Thought you might be interested in my response.
Hey Pal,
The tricky part for school leaders — whether they are principals charged with supporting teams or teacher leaders trying to move their individual teams forward — to find “go-to” tools that work for everyone in a building simply because collaborative teams are like students: They are all in different spots developmentally at different times.
That makes the handout titled Matrix: Identifying Resources Worth Exploring (p.8) super valuable. Readers can look at the individual stages of collaborative team development, identify where their team currently stands, and find tool recommendations that are perfect for their current needs — or for the needs of the teams that they are charged with supporting.
Another nice thing about the structure of the book is that all the resources in each chapter are broken into two groups: “The Five Fundamentals” and “Additional Resources for Extending Your Work.”
For beginning teams, the essential resources are all listed in the “Five Fundamentals” section of each chapter. Those are tools that I don’t think teams can live without. The resources under “Additional Resources,” though, are perfect for challenging teams that are ready to move beyond the basics. Understanding those two categories of resources is another key to using the book well.
Here are five tools, though — one from each chapter — that I think are pretty terrific:
Chapter 1 – Strengthening the Collegial Practices of Teams.
Resource: Checklist – Tasks Teams Can Tackle During Collaborative Meetings (p. 30)
One of the challenges that many teams have regardless of how experienced they are is understanding just what “collaboration” looks like in action. This handout is designed to provide some clarity in that area by listing actual tasks that teams can complete that are aligned to the four critical questions of learning.
Users are asked to identify practices they have already mastered, practices that they are ready to master and practices that are beyond their current level of developmental readiness.
Chapter 2 – What Do We Want Students to Learn?
Resource: Tool – Unpacking Essential Standards (p.56)
One of the processes that I see as a stumbling point for many teams is unpacking standards. That practice is often presented to teachers as an incredibly detailed process that can take months to get through.
Because it has become more cumbersome, many districts have pulled that responsibility away from teams, instead asking curriculum departments or special committees to do the unpacking for everyone. While that may safe time and frustration, it steals a learning opportunity away from teachers. Those conversations about just what we want students to know and be able to do are essential.
That’s why I like this tool. It is a simplified unpacking process that can be completed quickly — which will leave teams and teachers encouraged to do it again!
Chapter 3 – How Will We Know Students are Learning?
Resource: Tool – Building a Common Formative Assessment (p. 102)
Obviously, using common formative assessment data to inform both our instructional practices and our efforts to intervene or extend on behalf of individual students is what makes the Professional Learning Community at Work model different. We rely on evidence to make decisions — not just our gut instincts.
But for many teams, “common formative assessments” are 25 question unit tests that cover multiple standards.
Those assessments are hard to write, they take forever to grade, and they result in more data than teams can realistically act on.
That’s why I like this resource so much. It encourages teams to write short — 3-5 questions around one standard — CFAs. That’s a habit every team should get into if they REALLY want to use evidence of learning to drive action.
Chapter 4 – How Will We Respond When Some Students Don’t Learn?
Resource: Tool – Team Based Intervention Plan for Struggling Students (p. 151)
This entire chapter is built around the idea that “struggling students” struggle for a variety of reasons. Some are missing prerequisite knowledge. Others need opportunities to demonstrate mastery in different ways. Some need help with academic work habits and behaviors.
For teams who are planning interventions, that means we need to think deliberately about the reasons each individual student is struggling and the kind of intervention necessary to move those learners forward.
This tool is designed to push teams in that direction, asking them to develop a unique intervention plan for different types of student needs.
Chapter 5 – How Will We Extend Learning When Students Are Already Proficient?
Resource: Tool – Weekly Extension Planning Template (p. 197)
For many teams, thinking about extension is an afterthought. We plan extension after we plan interventions. We plan extensions when we have some extra time on an early release day.
What’s more, for many teams, “extensions” become “giving kids extra work to do when they finish their work before their peers.”
This simple template is designed to address both of those realities. I ask teams to use it weekly — and that’s a reasonable request because it isn’t a complicated document. By using it weekly, my hope is that teams will become more deliberate about planning for extension.
What is also useful is that the tool lists four different types of extensions that teams can design. That builds teacher knowledge about what extension can/should be.
Hope this helps somehow!
Bill
Now, I can’t give you access to ALL of these files — otherwise, there would be no reason to buy my book.
But if you want to get a sense for how I format documents to explicitly structure the work that collaborative teams do, here is a “sneak peak” at two of the documents listed above:
Tool – Tasks Teams Tackle Checklist
Tool – Unpacking Essential Standards
In the end, The Big Book of Tools for Collaborative Teams is designed to help every learning team – regardless of their current stage of development – to be more productive during their time together.
If you are interested in picking up a copy, you can find it here on Amazon and here on Solution Tree’s website.
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